(Chicago) In Chicago, where a cold snap hit in January, charging stations were not a happy place: dead batteries, drivers on edge, long lines in the street.
“When it’s this cold, cars malfunction, chargers malfunction and people malfunction too,” Uber driver Javed Spencer said with a sigh. For three days in January, he didn’t do much except charge and recharge his Chevrolet Bolt and worry about running out of juice, again.
Mr Spencer, 27, said he headed to a charging station with 40km of range remaining. Within minutes the battery was dead. He had to have his car towed to the station. “When I finally plugged it in, it wouldn’t charge. Charging took five hours. It’s usually an hour. »
This winter’s cold spells have caused problems for owners of electric cars, of which there have never been so many: the extreme cold discharges the batteries and reduces the range.
Mid-January was freezing in Chicago and various parts of the United States and Canada. On January 14 and 15, it was -23 oC in the Chicago area. And it snowed.
“I don’t really want a Tesla”
It takes more energy to heat the battery and the cabin in cold weather, so it’s normal that the range drops, Tesla points out on its website, which advises keeping the charge level above 20%. to reduce the impact of the cold. Tesla also recommends recording the start of a trip in advance with the “scheduled start” function, so that the vehicle begins charging and preconditioning at the optimal time. This allows optimal operation from the start.
On January 16, in a freezing parking lot in Chicago, drivers waited to recharge their Tesla.
PHOTO CARLOS OSORIO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A motorist prepares to plug in her Tesla.
That morning, when arriving at his Tesla, engineer Nick Sethi, 35, ran into frozen doors. He had spent an hour fighting with the locks, at -20 oC before finally managing to activate the tailgate handle. He climbed in and drove his Model Y Long Range SUV 5 miles to the nearest charging station. He joined a long queue.
The 12 terminals were occupied, the drivers slowing down the process a bit by remaining in their vehicles with the heating on full blast.
Having a Tesla in the cold is “a roller coaster,” said Mr. Sethi, who left the heat of Texas for Chicago last spring. “I’m going to spend the winter, then I’ll decide if I keep her. »
A few charging stations away, Joshalin Rivera was also wondering about her decision to buy an electric car. She sat in her 2023 Model 3, the heater on high, while the battery charged.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Tesla supercharging terminals in Magog
“If you’re standing in this queue and you only have 50 miles left [80 km] autonomy on the dashboard, you will not succeed,” assured Mme Rivera, pointing to the line of vehicles stretching along Elston Street. She added that she saw a Tesla run out of battery shortly after a driver tried to cut in line.
Under normal conditions, Joshalin Rivera’s car can travel about 400 km on a 30-minute charge. This week, Mme Rivera said that in the morning, a third of the battery was drained by the cold of the night. She spent hours every morning waiting in line and recharging the battery.
“So it’s kind of like…I don’t really want a Tesla,” she said.
Why does cold discharge batteries?
Unlike traditional cars, an all-electric has two batteries: one low voltage (12 volts) and one high voltage. In very cold weather, the 12-volt battery can discharge, like that of traditional vehicles.
In this case, the electric car cannot recharge with a fast charger until the 12-volt battery has been boosted, explains Albert Gore, a former Tesla employee who is now director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association. , which represents automakers (and has published a tip sheet on using electric vehicles in cold weather).
The extreme cold slows down the chemical reactions on both sides of the battery, the anode and the cathode. This affects both the charging and discharging of the battery, says Jack Brouwer, director of the Clean Energy Institute and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine: “It’s very difficult to operate battery-powered vehicles in extreme cold. You can’t charge or discharge a battery as quickly if it’s cold. There is no physical way around the problem. »
An interview request to Tesla went unanswered.
These problems do not arise in Norway.
Among those taking stock of what happened in Chicago, some believe that the charging infrastructure was simply overwhelmed by the extreme cold.
PHOTO ARCHIVES REUTERS
Electric cars charging in Gulsvik, Norway. In winter, batteries take longer to charge, but many Norwegians praise the positive aspects of winter driving, including the instantaneous traction.
“Large-scale use of electric cars is just beginning,” says Mr. Gore. This is not an insurmountable problem, solutions have been found elsewhere. »
Some countries where electric cars are very widespread are very cold.
In Norway, where nearly one in four vehicles is electric, motorists have learned tricks (like preheating the car before a trip) to increase efficiency in cold weather, says Lars Godbolt of the Norwegian Vehicle Association electric, which represents more than 120,000 electric car owners.
During the winter, queues are longer at charging stations because charging is slower in cold weather, but this problem is easing as the government adds public charging stations, Mr. Godbolt says. citing a survey of its members. Additionally, the majority of Norwegians live in houses, not apartments: almost 90% of electric vehicle owners have their own charging station at home.
Worldwide, 14% of new cars sold in 2022 were electric, compared to 9% in 2021 and less than 5% in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. In Europe, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Denmark are the countries where electric cars have had the largest market shares according to 2022 registrations, according to the European Agency for Energy. environment.
With technical progress, cold should become less and less of an issue. Already, in recent years, manufacturers have improved the cold weather efficiency of new models. “These new challenges are emerging and the industry is innovating to solve, at least in part, many of these problems,” says Godbolt.
All vehicles, even traditional ones, are less efficient in cold weather, underlines James Boley, spokesperson for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which brings together more than 800 automobile companies in England. According to him, the problem is not so much the efficiency of electric vehicles in cold weather as the insufficient number of charging stations.
Driving a traditional car, a motorist is sure to find a gas station; it doesn’t matter if the cold reduces the efficiency of the vehicle. But for those who drive electric, “if the electric charging infrastructure is insufficient, it can be more worrying”.
Uber driver Javed Spencer has doubts about the economic viability of driving electric during Chicago’s winters. Uber has announced charging discounts to its drivers, but Mr Spencer is not convinced.
“The income is the same, but the cost for drivers, with all these additional charges, is much higher,” he stressed.
This article was published in the New York Times.
Read this article in its original version (in English; subscription required).