‘Tesla isn’t very good at explaining some things’: Expert says there’s a simple hack to charging your EV battery in the cold

Fortune

For nearly a week, frigid temperatures from Chicago to northern Texas have made life painful for electric-vehicle owners, with reduced driving range and hours of waiting at charging stations.

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00:00 Electric vehicle owners are waiting hours to charge their car amid freezing temperatures.

00:04 And some Tesla owners near Chicago say their cars won't start at all.

00:09 The cold blast sweeping across the US is impacting Tesla's travel range and how long it takes them to

00:14 charge. So what's the issue? Studies have found that EV's range loss varies from 10% to 36%

00:21 in extreme cold. In these temperatures, the lithium ions in EV batteries flow slower and

00:26 don't release as much energy, reducing range, depleting the battery faster, and affecting the

00:31 battery's ability to charge. Batteries have to be warm enough for the electrons to move,

00:36 and they have to be even warmer at fast charging stations like Tesla's. There's a simple hack to

00:41 avoid the problem, but Tesla isn't very good at explaining some things, according to Bruce

00:46 Westlake, the president of the Eastern Michigan Electric Vehicle Association. He says most EVs

00:51 are programmed to warm the battery if the driver tells the vehicle's navigation system that a

00:56 a trip to the charging station is coming.

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