this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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Tesla charging stations become ‘car graveyards’ as batteries die in subzero temperatures, abandoned cars left in the lot after cars wouldn’t charge::undefined

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[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

I was initially confused but after remembering how Americans cannot science and 0F =~ -18C this made a bit more sense.

My Tesla worked fine through several days of -35C though, but the battery efficiency was a bit shit. I think I spent something like 6-8% just to get the cabin warm, but starting the car or driving generally speaking was never a problem.

[–] lovesickoyster@lemmy.world 37 points 10 months ago (5 children)

from what I understand from the article the problem is that people are queuing and because of long waiting times batteries die.

I honestly don't understand why people are buying EVs if they don't have the option of home charging.

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ooh, ok. That makes quite a lot of sense. Especially if one uses the miles/km number to show battery state, people are gonna get screwed by the cold. I changed that thing to percentages pretty soon after I got the car.

I honestly don’t understand why people are buying EVs if they don’t have the option of home charging.

Yeah, that doesn't make much sense.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

From what I've seen/heard, people think they're trying to beat the system by using which ever free network was included when they bought the car. Thus, never charging at home for the 2 free years.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Sigh that sounds awful. Like the biggest perk of evs is no more gas stations

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Elektrek did some articles about this. The superchargers are overwhelmed because the grid cannot provide enough power. In the well known tropical paradise of Norway, no such problems occur.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah I live in an area with winter weather. I still want an ev (and a subcompact one at that) but I live in an apartment without home charging so not yet. The wife and I have been discussing a plug in hybrid though basically as a “we need an internal combustion engine now and want an EV later, but don’t want it to be a car commitment away”

[–] tmjaea@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are long waiting times really a thing? Here in Germany even the charging areas next to the autobahn have a maximum of 1-2 waiting cars if at all

[–] MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

The story I heard was that charging is taking far longer than usual because of cold batteries, and people are having to change much more frequently for the same reason, and between the two the demand for chargers has shot up

[–] SuperIce@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why are people buying gas cars if they don't have at home fueling?

[–] lovesickoyster@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

gas cars generaly, from what I've been told, don't use said gas while beeing shut off to keep the car in operational condition. But maybe yours is different.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

While the post above yours is a bit of a hot take, the better answer is because it only takes 5 or 10 minutes to refuel your car. Which is why it would be a lot more difficult to use an EV if you couldn't charge it at home.

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

after remembering how Americans cannot science and 0F =~ -18C

Just because Americans grew up with and are largely stuck with the Fahrenheit system doesn’t mean they can’t science. Come on. It’s an inferior system of measurement, sure, but no one even in America uses Fahrenheit for science anyway.

(Don’t get me wrong, I wish we’d all switch to Celsius over here. I did. It’s so much better. But it took a WHILE to reach the point where it felt natural, and during that time involved a lot more math than the average human is willing to do. Converting systems of measurement that are ingrained in your culture is HARD.)

[–] Zedd00@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fahrenheit is a shit system for science. It is a great system for humans. It's basically the percent of heat humans can maintain. 0% or below is too fucking cold. 100% or above is too fucking hot. 72% hot is about room temperature. Fahrenheit degrees are about the smallest change humans can detect.

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Fahrenheit is a shit system for science. It is a great system for humans. It's basically the percent of heat humans can maintain. 0% or below is too fucking cold. 100% or above is too fucking hot. 72% hot is about room temperature. Fahrenheit degrees are about the smallest change humans can detect.

I understand this argument. I used to make it myself! It is a good argument. I learned Celsius to test it.

The argument isn’t wrong, since really the best unit to use is the one that is understood. But my friend, having previously argued the merits of Fahrenheit for the weather, I have thoroughly changed my mind.

Degrees Celsius being larger means they have more significance. If you want the kind of resolution that Fahrenheit gives, you can always use half degrees. But I find I don’t actually need that granularity. Instead, a difference of a degree in Celsius matters enough to be worth paying attention to, or at least moreso than a degree Fahrenheit.

More importantly, though, switching to Celsius has finally given me a better understanding of sub-freezing temperatures.

23°F doesn’t really mean much to me, it just means “cold.” But -5°C means “as far below freezing as 5°C (41°F) is above freezing.” This makes it FAR easier to comprehend how many layers and what variety of layers I should wear. With Fahrenheit it was always a bit of guesswork for me.

I would HIGHLY recommend trying to learn Celsius just for the hell of it. I really enjoyed the process. The math is pretty easy, and even easier if you use this heuristic I came up with:

Start by memorizing the 10s in Celsius. If you forget you can find them again, 18°F for every 10°C. I started in the early summer, so the two I most needed were 20°C = 68°F and 30°C = 86°F. Easy to remember because the digits are reversed. Also learn 10°C = 50°F, etc. When finding the Fahrenheit value, which you’ll need to do for a while until you start to get the hang of the Celsius, start at the nearest 10 and add or remove 2°F per 1°C. So 16°C, start at 68°F and drop 8, leaving you at 60°F.

For more accuracy (and faster calculation) add in the 5s. So in the above example, you’d start at 15°C = 59°F, and add 2. Getting you to 61°F.

16°C is actually 60.8°F, so either of these is sufficiently accurate, but starting from 15 is MORE accurate.

It took me a while to really internalize it, but it was an interesting challenge and I feel like I truly benefitted from it. I recommend it to anyone who thinks they’re up for it and has the kind of brain that will embrace stuff like this.

[–] wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The obsession with dick measuring over which ruler you use will always be funny

Do you really have nothing of genuine merit to be proud of? All you have is your thermostat?

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Do you really have nothing of genuine merit to be proud of? All you have is your thermostat?

No, that's it. That's my whole identity and existence. Spring is coming, send help.

[–] wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 10 months ago

Pretty sad bud