I am all in favor of Teslas. I am all in favor of EVs.
I just don’t think the government should be forcing them nor subsidizing them etc…
The free market is a much better arbiter of such things.
Politicians trading Tesla votes for bridge-building votes,
or politicians trying to attract donations,
is a very bad way to decide which technology we should adopt and how quickly. Hell, even a central monarch like King George would make more rational decisions than the vote-trading model (but neither is as good as buyers and sellers freely making free decisions.)
Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold: ‘A bunch of dead robots out here’
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Desperate Tesla owners in and around Chicago were seen trying to charge their vehicles with no luck amid frigid temperatures that have gripped the Midwest.
Charging stations have essentially turned into car graveyards in recent days as temperatures have dropped to the negative double digits, Fox Chicago reported. . . .
“We got a bunch of dead robots out here,” one man said.
Kevin Sumrak told the Fox station that he landed Sunday night at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and found his Tesla dead and unable to start. . . .
. . . “It’s not plug and go. You have to precondition the battery, meaning that you have to get the battery up to the optimal temperature to accept a fast charge,” said Mark Bilek of the Chicago Auto Trade Association. . . .
A big reason I’ve never considered an EV is that I live in northern Wisconsin. (7 degrees here right now.) Cold weather is an issue they’ll have to fix before I buy.
Seems like lots of user error. This is going to be a “Warning Coffee is hot” moment for Tesla. They will come up with some way to be very very clear around driving Teslas in extreme cold.
Wait, everyone should have EVs! Isn’t that the goal? Even those living in apartments in frigid climates with no garages? I thought EVs were perfect and heal the climate if everyone would just submit and do as they’re told?
We had one of those on our diesel tractor growing up for just that sort of situation. Since diesels are really hard to start in below 20 degree weather.
It was weird being told by granddad “we are getting really cold weather this week. Go plug up the tractor.”
I did have a customer come in yesterday with a busted coolant overflow tank. He was running straight water and it got about 10 degrees yesterday so the inevitable happened.
Nice 200 dollar sale for me. Save some money and run the right antifreeze mixture in your cars or you’ll be in the same boat. He’s lucky the water in the block didn’t completely freeze.