NYT article: Stalled on the EV Highway

[Jeeps17]

This journalist had a somewhat unpleasant experience (to say the least) trying out the two east-coast superchargers in the current cold weather.

New York Times - Stalled on the EV highway

I hope Tesla react proactively to this, given the concerns about range in colder-than-California weather.

[Mycroft]

I thought it was a very fair article and his experience matches many who've seen their range drop ridiculously fast while parked overnight in freezing weather. Tesla needs to be more forthcoming in their cold climate information as well as installing more superchargers in the northern climes.

[Arnold Panz]

Isn't the obvious mistake by Tesla not telling the reporter to charge in Range mode to get more range when he stopped at the first supercharging station? I don't know if it would have enabled him to get where he was going, but the fact that he charged in standard mode put him behind the 8 ball unnecessarily in my opinion.

[Robert.Boston]

Unfortunate experience, and about as gently told as could reasonably be expected. Yes, the author should have Range charged in Dover; I would never have started a 199 mile trip in the winter, on I-95, with 241 rated miles. But that isn't the whole issue: Tesla really needs to add a Supercharger near Woodbridge Township/Metuchen NJ to bridge the 199 miles between the Dover and Milford Superchargers. It is a bit depressing the Tesla has added no Supercharging stations since December; not good progress towards its ambitious goals for coast-to-coast, north-to-south charging.

[Dan5]

Unfortunate experience, and about as gently told as could reasonably be expected. Yes, the author should have Range charged in Dover; I would never have started a 199 mile trip in the winter, on I-95, with 241 rated miles. But that isn't the whole issue: Tesla really needs to add a Supercharger near Woodbridge Township/Metuchen NJ to bridge the 199 miles between the Dover and Milford Superchargers. It is a bit depressing the Tesla has added no Supercharging stations since December; not good progress towards its ambitious goals for coast-to-coast, north-to-south charging.

If I was Tesla I'd add one in Riverside, NJ or New Brunswick nj.

Riverside is about 50 miles, New Brunswick is about 110 miles. Metuchen or north jersey may be a little too far. Make in central jersey. Burlington/mercer/middlesex counties would be great. That's dead center in the state.

[Fred R.]

Excellent points, Robert. Is there any way that the Northeast Tesla enthusiasts could apply pressure on TM to push them toward both a software upgrade that deals realistically with the range loss associated with cold weather driving, as well as to add additional superchargers between Boston and D.C.? I would suggest that another is needed just south of Boston, for folks headed north from NYC (it's almost 170 miles from Milford to Boston - even Elon Musk admits the distance between SC should be 140 miles or less).

[bluetinc]

Hey Fred,

I don't think there is any need for "pressure" to have TM install more chargers. Tesla never planned to leave the system as it is now, this is simply the initial roll out. The initial plan has been something along the lines of, place the chargers at the greatest distance they can but still allow travel, and then fill them in afterwards. And in very few states (especially on the East Coast) there are no 400V - 90KW devices that allow a consumer to touch them, let alone plug them in to something, outside, in any weather condition, permitting issues have been much larger than TM expected. Add to this that you basically have to deal with a new state, and a new permitting office, for each station, with new rules, new concepts of what must be provided to show it's safe... I expect that as more are installed this will become easier, and the roll out speed will increase.

The changes to the software are possible, but they are not trivial and can introduce many more "failure" cases. You are basically asking that they not quite so conservative with their distance calculation. But what if the battery is reading low because a few cells are failing to take a charge, or the battery has 150K miles on it and doesn't quite act like it did at low states of charge. If those cases are not recognized and tested properly, you now have a car that says you can get 75 miles when it really can only go 50 miles, a much more dangerous case to have. Not that the display should not be tweaked, or that these issues can't be dealt with, but just realize that there is an awful lot of work involved to it.

Peter

Excellent points, Robert. Is there any way that the Northeast Tesla enthusiasts could apply pressure on TM to push them toward both a software upgrade that deals realistically with the range loss associated with cold weather driving, as well as to add additional superchargers between Boston and D.C.? I would suggest that another is needed just south of Boston, for folks headed north from NYC (it's almost 170 miles from Milford to Boston - even Elon Musk admits the distance between SC should be 140 miles or less).

[retinadoc]

It seems this reporter did not do his homework and bashes Tesla for his own stupidity.

Stalled on the E.V. Highway - NYTimes.com

[Mycroft]

Sorry, but I thought it was a very fair article. The reporter was in practically constant contact with Tesla professionals and they let him down. NOBODY mentioned how fast the cars lose range if parked overnight in freezing weather and this information will not be found in any Tesla literature. IMO, Tesla deserves the review.

[Trnsl8r]

Sorry, but I thought it was a very fair article. The reporter was in practically constant contact with Tesla professionals and they let him down. NOBODY mentioned how fast the cars lose range if parked overnight in freezing weather and this information will not be found in any Tesla literature. IMO, Tesla deserves the review.

I'm with you. Plus (apparently) conflicting information from TM. And someone should have told him to turn climate control OFF, not down... and plug in overnight, even to a 110.