Cold weather battery tips

[HariK]

I was told it does keep the battery warm when plugged in, but I haven’t tested that personally. I’d be interested in your results!

I know one person who can answer that. Emad Dlala of Lucid. @mcr16 can easily find out and answer.

 

[hydbob]

I know one person who can answer that. Emad Dlala of Lucid. @mcr16 can easily find out and answer.

Maybe someone should have asked during a certain meeting that involved coffee and Pleasanton.

 

[HariK]

Yes, even the “perfect” Supercharger network is no match for the extreme cold.

Behind every DCFC is a Tesla Powerwall battery and that includes Tesla Superchargers. I guess the extreme cold with grid power limit can impact those batteries as well.

 

[HariK]

Maybe someone should have asked during a certain meeting that involved coffee and Pleasanton.

Blame us the spoiled Norcal folks not exposed to such extreme weather

 

[new owner]

Well
Better its the charger than your car.
So thats good!

 

[Genghis]

Tesla Super Chargers down in freezing Chicago weather:

I just spoke to a buddy who lives in Chicago that converted to EV in October to a '23 Plaid. He and his wife live in a nice apartment building that doesn't have EV chargers yet. He was praising the Tesla Supercharger network all the time and how convenient it was... until this weekend when he couldn't charge his car due to the extreme cold craziness. The car finally died waiting at a Walmart, and he got it towed out to a service center on his own dime since Tesla CS provided no support.

Now, he's bitching and cursing Tesla. He and his wife took today off to go ICE car shopping as they have been Ubering everywhere the past two days. This is not good for mass EV adoption when a lot of new owners are going through this experience. I'm curious to know if this is specific to Superchargers or if all electric charging stations are not working due to this extreme cold.

 

[segbrk]

I'm curious to know if this is specific to Superchargers or if all electric charging stations are not working due to this extreme cold.

Just checking around Illinois and Michigan on plugshare shows EA seems to be doing not much worse than usual the last few days. Saw several check-ins saying they're only getting 65kW in sub-zero temperatures, but at least they're working.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I have to think this is a battery issue unless someone can explain to me what's inside the charger that is diminished by cold.

High tension interstate power lines drop to 3 volts when it's cold ?
There is nothing inside the charger box but a couple of thick wires and a debit/credit card reader. What is going on in there?

If you took a room temperature Lucid out of the showroom to a sub freezing charger, the charger would not deliver full rate of charge ?

Does this mean electricity doesn't work in the near absolute zero of space?

 

[Shuasha]

There are threads about this on Reddit. It seems the batteries were too cold to charge and didn't have the ability to heat up quickly.

Kyle at OOS tested this last year at -14F. It took around 45 mins to get the battery warm enough to actually start charging.

 

[Tâm]

...I'm curious to know if this is specific to Superchargers or if all electric charging stations are not working due to this extreme cold.

I think it's a cold issue that could be coped with.

Superchargers in the Arctic Norway have been working fine all these winters.

For the US, I guess we need to winterize the equipment and beef up the maintenance crew. Increase the number of chargers. Increase the EV range...

Down chargers lead to long lines. A long line leads to a dead battery while waiting.

More chargers with robust repair crews would shorten the lines. A longer-range battery would still have plenty of range while waiting...

In the meantime, EV drivers need to learn how to get caught up in this problem. Make sure your station does not have a line. Ensure the car automatically pre-conditions the battery when driving to the station. Aware of the shortened range in the cold winter, and don't think you'll get the same range as in a hot summer.

 

[Tâm]

...Now, he's bitching and cursing Tesla...

Same problem with EA in the area. This EA station works but people ran out of battery while waiting in line.

 

[Tâm]

I have to think this is a battery issue

Lithium cannot charge if too cold like 32F 0C. Fortunately, most modern cars now have heaters for the car's battery (older Nissan Leaf don't), but it can still be a challenge to keep it warm in the extreme cold.

The colder it is, the slower the charge rate, the longer the wait line, and the more people in line run out of battery while waiting.

..unless someone can explain to me what's inside the charger that is diminished by cold...

Some electronic components may not work in extremely cold weather.

Some components might be physical switches that might get stuck in ice.

Tesla has a cooling liquid cable for summer, but I am not sure if it has a good warming cable for the extreme cold or not.

a debit/credit card reader...

Some still use a roller to roll the card in and then roll the card out. They might be non-functional in ice.

Does this mean electricity doesn't work in the near absolute zero of space?

Gasoline cars have problems with extreme temperatures, too. Some region would baby their engine/12V battery with a warming blanket.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I just started reading this thread from the beginning.

Thanks to everyone

what a wonderful site is this.

 

[Electrified]

I have to think this is a battery issue unless someone can explain to me what's inside the charger that is diminished by cold.

High tension interstate power lines drop to 3 volts when it's cold ?
There is nothing inside the charger box but a couple of thick wires and a debit/credit card reader. What is going on in there?

If you took a room temperature Lucid out of the showroom to a sub freezing charger, the charger would not deliver full rate of charge ?

Does this mean electricity doesn't work in the near absolute zero of space?

The only thing I can think of that could be affected with the Level 4 chargers are the contactors, cooling fans, relays and that would only be if they became condensate soaked and then froze up.

 

[Electrified]

Same problem with EA in the area. This EA station works but people ran out of battery while waiting in line.

I've been to that EA station several times with the intent to grab some tacos for lunch while the car charges, Lyft and Uber drivers charging to 100% all the time which generally foils my plan to charge while having lunch, so no free lunches and no free charging for me

 

[GearHead]

I know one person who can answer that. Emad Dlala of Lucid. @mcr16 can easily find out and answer.

I spoke with Customer Service regarding maintenance or preconditioning functions while plugged in at home on a L2 charger. Mine only charges to the preset limit with no maintenance functions happening. I was told that is how it is designed. Seems odd to me.

Pete

 

[GearHead]

I spoke with Customer Service regarding maintenance or preconditioning functions while plugged in at home on a L2 charger. Mine only charges to the preset limit with no maintenance functions happening. I was told that is how it is designed. Seems odd to me.

Pete

I’ve been doing some experimenting on how to keep the battery warm while plugged into my L2 charger at home. With this latest cold weather snap, my unheated garage gets to the mid 30’s F by morning. The car usually shows the “Power limited due to cold battery” message when this happens, which to me indicates no maintenance or warming is happening even though its is plugged in. I always thought that is why they recommended keeping it plugged in. Lucid has confirmed to me that the car does not do ant maintenance or temp control while plugged in, only recharges to the set limit. My curiosity led me to see what happens in different scenarios. Here is what my amateurish testing has turned up:

• The Preconditioning option shows while unplugged. It goes away when plugged in.
• Even though the panel indicates you can charge while preconditioning, if I plug in after selecting preconditioning, all activity stops as soon as the charge limit is hit.
• If I select preconditioning while leaving it unplugged, it will only run until the car shuts off or the car is fully charged, whichever happens last.

Interesting though, if I leave a door ajar, effectively forcing the car to stay on, things change a bit:

• If I select preconditioning while leaving it unplugged, it will run until the battery is warmed and the Preconditioning option goes off. It does consume 10 to 15 percent of the SOC to do this however.
• If I awaken the car while plugged in, it will charge and warm the battery (or at least the cold battery warning eventually goes off).

The later two scenarios are what I hoped would happen without my intervention or forcing the car to stay on. I only speculate that keeping the battery in its optimum temperature range, even when not in use, would be the best course of action but I don’t have any facts to know if any of this is better or worse for long term battery life.



Pete

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Got to 10 degrees F last night here in the Philly 'burbs.

Anyone else getting the 'stuck louvers" sound from the front intake ? It bothers me but I have to guess it's not going to break ?

We had the classic sticky frozen slush icy salty crud spraying everywhere ... I've worried about all those slots and crannies getting filled with it.

This is the second winter I've heard this noise after particularly (for us) cold weather. We didn't have snow last year so it's just the cold.

 

[AirPlur]

Seems like a battery warming capability while the car is plugged in and below a certain temp would be a great OOTA update. I was also told that plugging in overnight, even with just the L1 cable, would help condition the battery and prevent suboptimal temps from affecting SOC, so now it truly seems like the L1 has even less purpose other than preventing vampire drain.

Thoughts/prayers with everyone on this forum who doesn't live in California (though with what you're saving in income tax, just buy yourself a tacoma and call it even).

 

[Electrified]

If you want to ensure that your battery is receiving some sort of "maintenance" while parked in the cold while connected to a Level 2 charger may I suggest waking the car up via the app and turning on the heat and allowing it run for 5-10 minutes, this act will have the car calling for charging. I have done this several times during the current bout of cold weather when the car has been parked for the night.