So I have a Tesla and my roommate has a Nissan leaf. Both of us were somewhat affected by this. The real issue is EVs charge very slowly when the battery is cold and the public charging network is just large enough to support the current number of EV owners. Generally my car uses 200wh per mile with no climate control, 250 with AC running, and 300-350 with the heater running. Temperature here has been highs of -15C with lows hitting -25C. The past few days I've been averaging 500-600wh per mile. This alone almost triples demand for public charging stations, mostly from people who live in apartments and don't have home charging

To compound this, trips that normally don't require public charging are now out of range. I drove about 150 miles to ski over the weekend. Normally this is totally fine on a single charge but with the excessive power use I decided to top up on the way home. Normally I super charge for about 3-5 minutes for an extra 30-40 miles of range and plug in when I get home. I sat at a supercharger for 15 minutes before it was warm enough to accept the charge, then took an additional 20+ minutes to get 30 miles of extra charge. It builds up like a domino effect. Cars waiting to charge delay other cars that get there after.

My roommates Leaf had a similar experience at a CCS charging station. This is all in a city that prioritizes EVs. Chicago is a much larger city with a less robust charging network and had even colder temperatures.

Honestly I'm not super surprised they had charging issues during this freeze.

Edit: To clarify, if I had set the car to heat up 45 minutes before going to charge it would have charged at nearly full rate. It just takes a long time to get the battery up to temp from -20C. When it's over 5C outside everything performs normally, -5 to 5C I have reduced regenerative braking but everything is mostly normal. Acceleration is reduced once it hits -15C. Still better than my old Honda Accord but noticeably reduced.

[–] ToxicWaste@lemm.ee 20 points 10 months ago

Thanks for providing some actual numbers and context.

Sometimes I am really surprised by the absolute laziness of 'journalists'. Your comment contains more information than the so called article.

[–] Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait, Nissan Leaf is CHAdeMO not CSS no?

OT: Don't you guys have loads of slow chargers at shopping centers and offices? Only rapi charging available publicly?

[–] CallOfTheWild@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah you're right it's chademo. I almost never use his car so I wasn't thinking.

Slow charging is publicly available and pretty common but it's usually more expensive or less convenient than charging at home. Charge+ is everywhere but they want triple what I usually pay.

Free public charging is slowly going away. Usually an apartment complex or office is for residents/employees only, e.g. in a private parking garage or at an office parking lot miles from anything fun. Or they just have a sign saying "Residents only. You will be towed.

[–] Eccitaze@yiffit.net 1 points 10 months ago

You'd be surprised how many new charging stations have at least one chademo port. It's nowhere near as ubiquitous as NACS or CCS, but it's enough that I'm generally okay charging my leaf.