The Detroit News: An electric car in Michigan winter requires vigilance

[tonybelding]

The article. . . An electric car in Michigan winter requires vigilance

I don't know if this is a deliberate smear against electric cars, or if the author is truly ignorant of how they work. Does he own the car he was driving? Has he studied this at all? That he could write such a damning piece and then try to spin it with a positive tone.... It seems to me like he was just trying to be snarky.

 

[roblab]

The article. . . An electric car in Michigan winter requires vigilance

I don't know if this is a deliberate smear against electric cars, or if the author is truly ignorant of how they work. Does he own the car he was driving? Has he studied this at all? That he could write such a damning piece and then try to spin it with a positive tone.... It seems to me like he was just trying to be snarky.

Or trying to be funny. Seemed like he was just getting used to driving his eGolf. Learning to be green, only overdoing it.

 

[wws]

I think the article was meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But he does point out that there are exactly three DCFC stations in the entire state of Michigan (2 CHAdeMOs and one Tesla SC). And of course his e-Golf wants CCS. Pathetic.

 

[mknox]

I actually thought the article was fairly well balanced considering it was coming from an EV "newbie". Contrast that to the Broder NYT article a year ago where he deliberately tried to foil the car. At least this guy was doing things (some of which were a bit silly) to extend his range. I do know a couple of Nissan Leaf owners, and they will tell you outright that cold winter driving is indeed a challenge. We might be a bit "spoiled" with our Teslas. It was - 15 F when I left my house this morning and I didn't give it a second thought.

 

[arijaycomet]

You have to remember as posted by others in reply in this thread, the Tesla has a HUGE battery compared to many of the cars out there. We have 20,000 miles on my wife's 2012 Nissan Leaf here in Cleveland, Ohio. And yeah, winter driving downright sucks in that car. We can get 65-75 miles in the summer easily-- but winter we've had full charges go as few as 35 miles. Granted the colder the weather the more you have to blast your heat too (HVAC)-- but just in general, it is horrid. My average winter driving even in the S85 we have now is 450+ wh/mi .... so keep that in mind.

TESLARATI recently had a wonderful article on the subject:
Tesla Battery Range in Sub-Zero and Snowy Conditions - TESLARATI.com

People who buy an EV and aren't fully aware of these shortcomings often get upset-- there is post after post in the Nissan Leaf forums about Midwest or other cold climate owners not realizing just how bad it would be... but 35-50% loss of range is not uncommon. We have lows coming up this weekend in the negatives, and Sunday's high is only 1 or 2 degrees F.... weather like that will just kill the range. But when you are starting with 85kWh of battery versus 23kWh battery, the difference matters a lot less to us Tesla folk. MY wife's car, it'll just stay in the garage LOL