This video (below) is worth a watch. To summarize: the new Electrify America (EA) chargers are not working in this extreme cold that most of the US has seen in the last 2 days. We’re finding out that the new BTC/EA charging hardware was apparently not tested to these kinds of sustained extreme temps. It’s worth noting that the Tesla superchargers DO seem to be working as normal. But for EA users, what could be frustrating/dangerous about this scenario, is that these chargers all show to be fully open & operational on the app. But when you arrive & plug in, that’s not the reality.
Now to be fair, a lot of things don’t work ideally in this kind of extreme cold.
EV adoption is still relatively new & these things are understandably going through growing pains. BUT that’s all the more evidence of why we don’t need to be rushing/forcing this stuff to market so fast. Should the auto industry be pursuing EVs – sure why not. But governments forcing a mass-market switchover from ICE to EV within a decade under some sort of corrupted ‘green’ agenda… is absolutely not the best move.
I don’t know who’s out there road-tripping an EV right now in these kinds of temperatures.
Maybe some desperate people trying to get home for the holidays because all the flights were canceled? But generally speaking – we should not expect an EV to be a fully capable, survivalists type of vehicle. They’re just… not yet. Know what you bought. Even if you have a charge… it won’t get you too far in these below freezing temps. What’s kind of a catch-22 though… is that the Rivian (drivetrain-wise) seems to be very capable in the snow… minus the whole ‘battery’ thing.
