Featured Dead “robots” pack the Chicago Supercharger stations

If only people would take the time to read the owner's manual of that $$$$ vehicle they just bought so they know how to effectively use it and handle what could happen with the said vehicle.

 

Good write up of the Chicago situation that is creating headlines and news clips.

What Happened With The 'Stranded Teslas' EV Charging Panic In Chicago

 

"And since Teslas typically stop preconditioning at a lower SoC to avoid running out of charge ahead of reaching a fast charger"

I knew that some features turned off once 20% was reached but nowhere did it mention that preconditioning was one of them. That's a biggy to be aware when road tripping in winter! I find it odd however that the car, when it calculates the SoC at arrival at the supercharger, taking preconditioning into the equation, could not figure out that arriving at 15% SoC with the preconditioning being on was not ok.

 

They seem to be blaming the evse station, is it? These cars were driven in, so the battery must be working and the car is charging it with regen, etc?

 

A little chilly in Dixie:


This should keep the battery at operational temperature, I hope.

Bob Wilson

 

See this article

What Happened With The 'Stranded Teslas' EV Charging Panic In Chicago

 

Did it ever mention chemistry? Nominal voltage for LFP is 3.2V. Five cells gives you 16V. Four would result at the low end of the operation range with a 12V lead-acid.

Tesla friction brakes are blended with the regen during one pedal driving to provide consistent performance for the times when the battery can't accept the full charge from regen.

Aside from performance reduction, discharging a cold Li-ion battery isn't a risk. It could reach the point of simply not discharging, but will be fine once warmed back up. Charging a cold one has the risk of damaging the cell, and that risk goes up with faster charge rates. These cars would probably start charging just fine if plugged into a Level 1 or even a Level 2. For DC charging, they needed to be warmed up first. That takes time. Thus longer waits that are made worse with the stalls that aren't working.

 

Insidev.com posted a new article with a video from Out Of Spec Kyle that flew down to Chicago to get an idea of what happened there.

How Uber, Lyft, Electrify America, EVgo, Tesla And Lack Of Knowledge Led To Chicago's EV Disaster

Interesting read/watch.

That last part though...

"He did attempt to get it towed to the rental agency, but the two truck companies in the area were overwhelmed at the time, so it wasn't worth the wait"

I wondered why tow trucks were all of a sudden busy with vehicles that didn't want to start... /s

 

Our area got very cold during this last weather event - right at 0 degrees for a number of days.

I received a message on our PHEV that said: "EV mode has been disabled so car can be heated". The car sensed the extreme weather and cabin temperature and then made all the right decisions on its own to work through the situation. Impressive. First time in 5 years and many extreme weather events we've ever received that message.

 

Having read the later news bits related to this story, it sounds like it adds up to "not enough chargers in Chicago" as a first approximation.

With more of them around, a fraction out of service and others tied up for longer periods with slower charges and heating during a surge of demand would not have been such a big deal.

I'm sure there's other things that would have helped too, but they all seem to be side factors.

 

I read that before I posted. I looked up Ohare airport too, and at a glance see 24 level 2 chargers in a parking garage. As I understand preconditioning it isn’t a requirement, except for fast charging.
One point, you won’t find many gas pumps standing out in the open in Chicago, or anywhere, there is almost always a roof.

 

I guess we all have our problems. Not EVs, so this won't be sensationalized.
Contaminated fuel that left NJ drivers stalled out last week was 58% water, officials say (msn.com)

 

you'd think the tanks would be sealed, but maybe there's a breather tube?

 

Don't know for sure, but I can tell you I've never had a bad "tank" of electricity.

 

oh no! how am i gonna refill my bolt?

i guess i'll have to tank up in my garage

 

That is possible but is kind of a waste of weight, cost and space since the Li-ion battery would only charge to around 50%.

 

Those of us with "flow through" home fire sprinkler architecture don't have that choice. Any system with antifreeze would also require a special backflow preventer (not a simple check valve) in order to be connected to the public water system, for which the water utility require$ annual te$t certification$. (I believe some commercial-industrial systems are 'dry', pressurized with inert gas, flooding only when the gas pressure falls.) A hard-arse at my utility even made some noise about retroactively requiring me to install one, but relented when faced with a copy of the national residential fire sprinkler code and other materials.

We went traveling before this recent cold snap, and so did the neighbor who owns my house's (originally-) identical twin. My weather station recorded 10.6 °F over the weekend (very low for here but not a record during my home ownership). His sprinkler system blew out for the second time, seriously flooding his house for probably two days before he returned, while ours survived despite me neglecting to activate several of the maximum-cold-protection measures before we departed. I had even set the thermostats down and turned off the water heater in the unheated garage.

We intended to compare notes today, but schedules haven't yet meshed. I want to find out just how his system was re-insulated after the first repair, about a decade ago. Knowing that my own (not very good) sprinkler insulation had been significantly compromised by various attic projects, that incident pushed my attic upgrade aspiration to the top of the priority list, getting it done before the next winter arrived. Now the overhead portion should never freeze as long as we keep the interior even just semi-warmed, and two remaining 'weakest links' (not overhead) should survive to considerably colder than has ever been recorded in the area.

In our first year of ownership, decades ago, the exposed and uninsulated supply pipes through the garage did experience a cracked valve body and slow seep. They are now heat taped and very heavily insulated, and should survive anything but an extended power outage if we are away. (And we turned the water off when away.)

If I ever build a house, it won't have any pipes in exterior walls. Not even here in the the "mild" lowlands.

 

That's how I designed my cottage. The pipes going to the sinks/toilets/appliances go through the floors, not the walls. Between floors, they follow an inside wall in the staircase. The only exception is the washer lines, but the wall thickness behind it was doubled to accommodate extra insulation. It survived -35°C with the cottage unoccupied with an inside temperature set to just 10°C.

 

The point was that there have been fire sprinklers have been used in freezing locations for years and don't just keep freezing every year.

What I don't like on this forum is how people keep bringing up "problems" that have been solved decades ago. The way some people talk on here:

• All ICE powered vehicles suddenly stop working when temperatures go below freezing.
• Lead acid batteries suddenly die regularly from the smallest hint of cold leaving the car owner with an apparently now useless forever car.
• Homes must have frozen sprinkler pipes that burst several times a week every winter.

I know they're trying to counteract the same kind of uneducated emotional criticism of EV's. But come on! It's like -20 °F here and my ICE car started up just fine and I went to work. Yes, I had to replace the lead acid battery a couple years ago, when the battery was about 8 years old, which is about the typical life of a lead acid battery in cold climates. But no, it didn't leave me stranded and I didn't die or have to sell a kidney or something like that.

My house was built in the 1970's with 2x3 construction. The insulation is terrible. The hot water heater is in an outside compartment. But do I suffer from frozen pipes? NO! I did have a small problem, but I haven't had a pipe freeze in years.

Are EV's affected by the cold? Yes. Is it the end of the world? Probably not. I had an EV, a 2013 Nissan Leaf. One of the first EV's available to consumers. And it wasn't the greatest in the cold. Does that mean I'm going to write of EV's and never get one? Of course not! EV's are great, I like them and I know what to expect, and they're getting better all the time.