Tesla owner’s video went viral which was showing that he couldn’t charge his Model S out in the cold. The owner is Domenick Nati, who is a radio host in Virginia. Ahead of his holiday travel, Nati was trying to charge his Tesla vehicle on Friday. Later calling Tesla for help, and left him without any response till Saturday.
According to the statements, it was 19°F – or -7°C – at the time. Nati claims to have first tried to charge at home without success, and then he tried at a local Supercharger station where he posted this video on TikTok that went viral. When plugged into the Supercharger, the car showed a message saying that it was warming up the battery pack in preparation for charging, but it never actually started to charge, even an hour later.
@domnatishow Tesla S will not charge in the cold. Stranded on Christmas Eve! #tesla #ev #cold #winter #winterweather #storm #christmas #christmaseve #coldweather #weather #blizzard #wow #car #cars #elonmusk #help #stranded #how #electric #electriccar #teslas #teslamodel3 #charge #mad #fail #merrychristmas #twitter #truck #trucks #storm
While the charging issue in cold temperatures for electric vehicles is well known. The main concern could be how Tesla doesn’t reach out to customers through phones. When someone actually goes to the service center for help, there is a response. However, the services phone are hard to get, despite being an emergency. Various Tesla owners commented that their vehicle does get charging in cold temperatures, stating it to be a vehicle-specific problem and not applicable to all Tesla vehicles. However other comments dropped in stated Tesla vehicles have their own defects, but people still buy them.
EV charging in cold weather
It’s true that electric vehicle charging is affected by colder temperatures, but this is not normal. It takes time for the battery pack to warm up enough to accept higher charge rates. That’s why Tesla built in a feature that enables the battery pack to condition itself for charging ahead of time if you enter a charge point in the navigation system.
The best-performing battery is a warm battery; cold weather makes the batteries work harder and drains more power in the process. According to AAA, in freezing temperatures of 20°F and below, there is a 41% decline in long-range mileage ability if the heater is running. A 41% performance decline is the difference between being able to drive 100 miles in warm weather versus 59 miles in cold. So it is essential for EV owners to not let their vehicle get a below 20% charge to be able to charge the vehicle effectively in cold weather. There is a necessity to have a backup plan during winter so as to not face tough situations.
