It's most likely that this is not intentional. The cord has a strong bend still in it from where it had to turn 90 degrees to plug into the car, so when you try to hang it up in the holder, it isn't resting down on the tiny tab right, and a second or two after you hang it up, it falls out. You hang it up again, and it falls out again. Then you try to "unbend" the curve it has in it to get it stay straight to try to force it to hang in there right, so it will rest on the tab and stay there, etc. When it's cold, the wire is extra stiff and those bends just won't straighten out, so getting them to not fall out of the holders is a challenge.
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Chicago area superchargers failing in cold
- Thread starter DBeckwith
- Start date
Perhaps Tesla could try the old school method: shovel the snow from around the chargers. If there's no snow, there's nothing to foul the connector.
Failing that, there's the high tech method of running some heating elements around the base of the dispensers to keep the snow/ice melted. It's not like they have a shortage of power available for the task.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
This guy did a good demonstration of what probably happened to the guys in Chicago, sadly too long a vid, probably trying to monetize it
And of course Kyle with the controlled experiment and thus not just having panicked reactions (also super long as usual):
And of course Kyle with the controlled experiment and thus not just having panicked reactions (also super long as usual):
gtae07
Member
If the navigation left reasonable margins to the next stop (10% or less is not reasonable)... and if one could guarantee the presence of charging at one's final destination... and if that couldn't be so easily tricked by adding fake stops...
I always try to ensure a 20% margin to my next charging stop or a destination where I know I will have sufficient charging available. If not, I'll charge a lot higher on the last stop, like going to the in-laws because all they have is a 5-15 and that's not enough if we're using the car at all while we're visiting.
buddhafree
2022 MYP
Interesting demonstration.
a. Few of Tesla charges didn't work. Tesla should investigate what happened.
b. Tesla should display a large message for the end user to wait. Something like "Please wait. Tesla is warming up the battery and preparing to charge."
Though the Fox bit was sloppy at best, hopefully many will learn how to better manage an EV in extreme cold, and charge station operators can make some improvements as well? I already knew not to let my battery get too low, that the battery can lose quite a bit of charge sitting for many days/weeks (especially with sentry mode on), and that EV range suffers at extremely high and especially extremely low temperatures. But I didn’t realize how much range an EV loses in extreme cold like 0F and below, 40% or more! Fortunately I’ll never see those conditions where I live…
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Oh, perhaps you didn't watch it. He later reported that HE was at fault, it wasn't that the chargers were not working it's that when you plug in with a frozen battery (as seen in the Kyle Conner vid) the car will only pull a few kWs from the Supercharger instead of hundreds. This caused the driver to panic and move to a different charger so he missed the message from the car about Battery Warming.
And finally he drove to a destination charger where he was able to get the same rate, but it didn't look wrong as wall chargers are MUCH slower than Superchargers also he was out of charge and had to charge there. Eventually when is battery was warm he drove BACK to the SpC and finished charging successfully there.
He explained that if he had just turned on the HVAC 1/2 an hour before going to the charger his batt wouldn't have been frozen, or even if he had navigated there is more of a chance it would have worked right away.
buddhafree
2022 MYP
You missed my point. It doesn't matter if he eventually realizes this or not.
It was clear that some charges worked but few Supercharges didn't go "green". These few charges had an issue.
Tesla wants to sell cars to many millions of people. Many of them are not tech savvy . Tesla needs to improve communication so it's very clear even for people who have no idea how batteries work to understand what the car is doing and what they suppose to do. He was not the only one who was confused and thought the car wasn't charging, so the solution is to improve communication with the end user.
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Krugerrand
Meow
Now there’s a blast from the past word. I’d thought we’d all educated ourselves by now.
What I want to know is where is the outrage when your ICE vehicles failed to start in the past because it was so cold the oil got like molasses, or the battery was dead, or you’d gotten some bad gas with a little too much water in it?
Yeah, that’s not directed at you specifically, but at all the people I’ve been seeing using this one off event to proclaim EVs are not ready for prime time because you can’t use them and charge them in cold weather.
After 100+ years of ICE technology, the OEMs still haven’t figured out this cold weather issue. Indeed, I’ve pulled into gas stations in this kind of cold weather and pumps have failed to work. Heck, gas pumps are out of order all the time. I ask again, where’s the outrage?
Just another example of people suck.
Relax everyone. Tesla will investigate, figure out what happened in this one off event, and address it. Some of us humanoids don’t actually have to have our hands held and have everything explained to us right this very second. Some of us have a teeny, tiny bit of patience to wait for an investigation and details to come out later or not. So much hand wringing. How do some of you get through the day?
You guys do realize that you are discussing a three year old video?
When the traction batteries are cold soaked where they can't accept a charge, the Supercharger is basically a L2 charger. The Cybertruck club could give them enough L2 energy to warm the battery enough so when plugged into a Supercharger miles would be added after a shorter period of time. Raising the battery temp from around 45F (about where L2 charging begins) to the temp required for DC fast charging should take much less time than if you started with -10F cold soaked battery.
@alexgr: On this note, Google for walmart buying vizio. There sure has been a lot of buzz about this in various media outlets in the past 2 or 3 days.
It looks like some of the more recent software updates are including some additional features specifically related to this incident.
- The screen is going to display a message with a timer telling the driver their battery isn't warm enough to charge and charging will begin in X time
-The car is going to warm the charge port inlet when navigating to a supercharger in cold weather
www.notateslaapp.com
- The screen is going to display a message with a timer telling the driver their battery isn't warm enough to charge and charging will begin in X time
-The car is going to warm the charge port inlet when navigating to a supercharger in cold weather
2024.2.7 Official Tesla Release Notes - Software Updates
Tesla software update 2024.2.7 (FSD Beta 11.4.9) includes Time Until Charging Starts, Estimated Battery Range Update, Supercharging in Cold Weather, Ultra-Wideband Phone Key, Reminder to Plug In at Home , Improved Ride and Handling, Over-the-Air Recall: Telltale Text Size , Adaptive High Beams...
www.notateslaapp.com
Oh, that one is helpful and overdue. It seems some of the owners from this incident freaked out because of plugging in and seeing that nothing was happening and thought it was broken and not working. The car does need to show that it is just currently not charging YET because it is heating, but inform people that everything is still at least properly functioning.
Yeah it is difficult to do a complete post-mortem on the Chicago incident in the absense of Tesla revealing more information. However, these updates are pretty telling that it seems like this was a significant factor (maybe the most significant). I can also see how it could cascade too. You are in a line waiting to charge, you see the car in front of you pull in and not sit there very long and immediately leave... The logical assumption for even most experienced owners would be there is something wrong with that pedestal.
I'm sure Tesla has more information internally, but the number of people confused about why they weren't getting a charge, compounded by the number of people arriving at superchargers with really low SOCs for the conditions, a few stalls potentially being literally iced over, and the fact it was a holiday weekend, etc. all seem like major contributing factors.
Sure wish Tesla would show the temperature of the traction battery onscreen like they show the cabin and outdoor ambient temp. The service menu shows the battery temp but this is only accessible when parked. Always liked a temp gauge in an ICE vehicle instead of or in addition to the engine coolant idiot light.It looks like some of the more recent software updates are including some additional features specifically related to this incident.
- The screen is going to display a message with a timer telling the driver their battery isn't warm enough to charge and charging will begin in X time
-The car is going to warm the charge port inlet when navigating to a supercharger in cold weather
2024.2.7 Official Tesla Release Notes - Software Updates
Tesla software update 2024.2.7 (FSD Beta 11.4.9) includes Time Until Charging Starts, Estimated Battery Range Update, Supercharging in Cold Weather, Ultra-Wideband Phone Key, Reminder to Plug In at Home , Improved Ride and Handling, Over-the-Air Recall: Telltale Text Size , Adaptive High Beams...
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Bikeman
Member
There’s an app for that. Scan My Tesla is one of them. But agree that info would be best on the car’s screen.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Let's start a list of all the things not displayed that should be:
I want the day of the week in front of the time for us retired drivers, and as mentioned above perhaps a graph showing the temps and power moving across the car while pre-conditioning or charging, and an indication of grade and altitude of the car on the map
And wasn't there a rumor that TrackMode data was coming to non-performance cars?
I want the day of the week in front of the time for us retired drivers, and as mentioned above perhaps a graph showing the temps and power moving across the car while pre-conditioning or charging, and an indication of grade and altitude of the car on the map
And wasn't there a rumor that TrackMode data was coming to non-performance cars?
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