Range Anxiety

As many of you know that I have a plug-in Prius hybrid and I learned a lot about battery life, from what I learned it has turned me off of a pure EV.

When I was looking for a new car I looked at a Tesla and the published range back then equaled the distance to either my brother and sister-in-law place in southern Maine or to my niece’s place in New Jersey. So I was concerned that I might have to charge someplace on the way to their homes.

But I knew from my previous Prius Plug-in that the range drops in the winter. !!!!!

A brother and sister had to stop 6 times in 1 day to charge their rented Tesla in cold weather because the battery drained so quickly

• A brother and sister rented a Tesla and found they had to stop six times in one day to charge it. 
• Xaviar Steavenson and his sister Alice drove from Orlando, Florida to Wichita, Kansas.
• They said other customers with rented Teslas had called Hertz with similar charging problems.

Business Insider
By Sam Tabahriti
January 1, 2023

Xaviar and Alice Steavenson wanted to find out what it's like to drive a Tesla, so they rented one from Hertz for a road trip from Orlando, Florida to Wichita, Kansas.

They knew that the electric car would need charging en route, but what the siblings did not expect was just how often they'd need to plug it in.

They realized it would take longer to charge the car after the weather turned so cold in late December.

However, it got to the point that the "battery would drain faster than it would charge," Xavier told Insider. 

When they set off they could drive for at least two and a half hours before needing to charge the Tesla. "We ended up having to stop every one to one and a half hours to charge for an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours," he said.

With my plug-in on a charge I can get around 36 miles on a charge in the summer and 21 miles on a charge. Now that range is from the car’s dashboard, when I first start the car.

From my cottage on the Cape it is 16.8 miles to the Stop & Shop so round trip is within the range displayed on the dash and it turns out a good way to check the battery range because there is only a few stop lights not like driving to Hartford.

In the spring without the need for AC or heat I made it back with only a couple of miles from the cottage.

In the summer with the AC on I could only get to Truro  - Wellfleet town line before the gas engine kicked in about 25 miles.

But in early December with the heat on the engine I only get around 20 – 22 miles on a charge.

Now I have a gas engine, a Tesla doesn’t. If I drain my battery I don’t care, but in a Tesla I would have range anxiety when the charge level got low.

The Steavensons were not alone in experiencing Tesla charging problem in very cold weather. A 44-year-old radio presenter, from Lynchburg in eastern Virginia, told Insider it was 19 degrees (minus 7 C) when he was left stranded just before Christmas because his Model S wouldn't charge.

Yeah, it turns out that you can’t charge a cold battery in a Tesla, the car has to heat up the battery first. So if you are at say a ski area up north and you are coming home from a weekend of skiing you have to sit around the charging station for a couple of hours (There is a YouTube video that tests charging in sub-zero weather).

In the winter, the roads might be covered with slush increasing the drag on the tire, you need the headlights on more, you might need your wipers, and you will definitely need the heat! All of those are mileage eaters. InsideEV reported that,

The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus has an EPA-estimated 263 miles of range…

[…]

We hate to give out spoilers since we want you to check out the video and all the details. However, we will say that at the end of the drive, the Model 3 has traveled just 175.8 km (109.2 miles) before stopping with 3% battery remaining. Check out the video to learn exactly how it all played out.

The British "The Telegraph" wrote about EVs...

Most people charge their cars at home, which industry watchers have said has helped ease pressure on the public network.

Mr Nelmes added: “If you're able to charge up overnight on your driveway, then even if you've got a car with quite a small battery size, then you can do a significant number of miles every day.”

Ah, but... but that is not when "Range Anxiety" kicks in. It is when you have to travel in cold weather that I wonder about and I doubt very much that England gets down to 9^oF.

While EV Solutions says,

Bundle up

Saving battery power is easier when you rely less on your EV’s air conditioning system. Rather than turning up the heater to its highest setting, keep it on low and simply wear warmer clothes while driving. Bringing along a thermos filled with hot coffee or tea will help warm up your body as well.

That really doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling!

Cars.com wrote...

Estimates vary, but according to a study from AAA, EVs can lose about 40% of their range when the temperature drops from 75 degrees to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The range dip is attributed to a couple of things, such as natural battery capacity loss in colder temperatures as well as the increased energy needed for heating the cabin. Using other climate features, such as the heated seats and heated steering wheel, also requires energy and cuts into a car’s range.

For example, an EV with a rated range of 250 miles would have only 150 miles of range when it’s 20 degrees outside. And that’s for a new EV — used models will see less range since all rechargeable batteries naturally lose capacity with use and time. According to Geotab, a Las Vegas-based company that tracks battery health in many EVs, average battery degradation is around 2.3% per year.

So between the cold weather loss of range and Elon Musk transphoblia, thumbs down on Tesla and other EVs. I will stick to my plug-in, with 73,000 miles I'm averaging 84 mpg.