Essay by Eric Worrall
A Canadian in a frozen parking lot trying to coax a bit more range, at 45C below zero (-49F).
I think the store behind the charger is a Mark’s clothing and footwear store, though I couldn’t find the exact location.
If Aircon drains the battery that fast, how long would EV owners last, if an unexpected blizzard dumps a few feet of snow while they are on the open road? The electric vehicle in the photo doesn’t look like it has significant ground clearance or off-road capability. At least with a gasoline or diesel vehicle you can sit idling and stay warm for a long time if you get stuck. In really severe frost conditions, an ICE vehicle can pack a few extra cans of gas in the back to stretch your survival time, in case of emergencies.
I hope the Canadian EV owner survives the winter. But continuing to drive a vehicle which struggles to make a few miles down the road in conditions like that? What would have happened to the EV driver if the charger was not working? Would he have had enough power to make it to the next charger?
Its not difficult to imagine such a scenario rapidly becoming life threatening, if the failed EV charger was remote enough that help wasn’t readily available.
Surely it is time for people who live in such places to throw in the towel on EV ownership. At the very least EV owners should purchase a real automobile, for use when driving conditions are too harsh for EVs.
Update (EW): quelgeek figured out the charging station in the photo at the top of the page appears to be in Vegreville.
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Deprive me of my 4WD gas-fueled V6 ICE?
From my cold, dead hands!
Trudeau will be happy to do that.
Trudeau will be happy to arrange that.
Trudeau will be happy to prosecute you for defending yourself from the folks he’s arranged to make that happen.
I love my loaded FJ cruiser. The ONLY short coming it has is the limited range due to the 15 gallon tank.
15? Sure it isn’t 19? That’s what I see as the spec. My 2014 Tacoma V6 tank is 21.
I’ve got a 2004 Tacoma with a 4 cylinder engine. Never had a problem with the engine, trans, or clutch. All the usual wear and tear of course on brakes, exhaust, tires but not nearly as much as on my previous truck, a Ford F150. The Tacoma is a bare bones model- no fancy features- I actually, get this, have to manually roll down and up the windows! Small engine but with balls- I’ve loaded as much as 1,600 pounds of stones on the truck, at a nearby gravel/stone quarry. A few years ago got a Rav 4. I’m a big fan of Toyota. For the truck, they replaced the entire frame at no cost once they found out many had defective, rust prone problems. The dealer said that would have cost $10,000 if I had to pay for it.
I hear ya Joe. I’ve owned several Tiyota pickups over the years. Like all my dogs from over the years, I wished I had them all with me.
My wife’s car is a 2015 Rav4 AWD, great car. We have a high miles 2003 Tundra V8 4WD we dearly love. We bought that new and it was our main family car for many years. A few years back I put a standup shell (lightweight) on so it’s a camper now. It needs some money thrown at it which I’ll gladly do this year. The black sheep is my 2019 Rav4 Adventure. It’s a nice car but too digital, I just can’t get comfortable in it.
The Tacoma belonged to a friend. A one owner, garaged, and well kept. And it’s got a manual transmission. I never thought I’d own one of these – I wasn’t looking for it, it found me. I had just sold what is possibly the last motorcycle I will ever own. I’m 69, beat to heck, and even though I’ve been riding motorcycles on and off road continuously since I was 14, I may be done with it. It’s a substitute for bikes I guess. Truckish and lumbering. I drive it pretty slow, I wouldn’t care either way on the engines, the 2.7L four would be fine with me.
The difference between 15 and 19 is about the difference between imperial and American gallons.
You know you have options to either add another tank or put a 30 gallon tank in it? Seems the overlander aftermarket has definitely addressed this FJ shortcoming. I think my range is 360 – 430 miles depending on what I’m doing. Tooling around on mountain roads, some 4WD, and around town I’m getting 17mpg.
I have a 2022 F250 with a Powerstroke diesel. Temps cooled to 3f causing the BIOdiesel to gel and would not start. I’m not the only sucker in town. I’m surprise fuel distributors would sell “winter mix” in an area that can go 30f colder. From now on I will only buy pure petroleum based fuel during future winters.
Randle, do you know where can I order a larger tank (2010 GX460?) I do a 3,000 mile round trip to the east coast 3x a year, and the extra range would be incredibly helpful. Thx.
search on google shows a couple options. Apparently for Lexus is a 5th gen 4 Runner. Not cheap!
Toyota 4Runner 5th Gen and Lexus GX 460 (2010-2022) – 24 Gallon Auxiliary | Long Range America
That sounds pretty grim. What was Jack thinking? And I’m still in shock about the $100 cost to charge. Why is he holding on to that car?
The EMT will have to pry his cold dead hands from his EV. He must think he is saving Mother Gaia.
I still remember when I was in elementary school, it was one of the coldest days and a student decided to lick the monkey bars on a dare, and he drew blood when he pulled off his tongue, which had become frozen stuck to the bare metal.
Remember the movie “The Christmas Story”?
There are lots of examples of similar ‘frozen brains’.
And today we call him President Joe Bribe’em
Please, please see the South Park episode on the Prius and its emission of smug.
Brrr.
News Tip ?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/here-we-go-texas-power-grid-operator-issues/
Maybe because he’s already invested his money in it and doesn’t want to admit to having made a mistake. Either that, or he’s just bull-headed. Some people will do some very unwise things but will continue on the path they started simply because they are determined to do it.
We don’t know the whole conversation and if he is from Kelowna, he doesn’t have to deal with super cold weather like this (only -13°C now, Sunday afternoon.)
Multiple charges that day – lots of charging and waiting if it can only go 280kms on a full charge.
I can go 600km in my fuel efficient Mazda5 van, sun or freeze, and heating in winter is a free bonus. Fueling takes a handful of minutes and is available everywhere.
Tesla’s aren’t really Earth saving eco vehicles – they are electric hot-rods prized for their torque. Nobody buys a fancy sportcar because it’s economical or the best car in all situations – it’s a toy.
I doubt it gets 280km when the temperature is -45C.
It’s OK Jack can afford to save the planet-
St Vincent de Paul report calls for shake-up of power bills amid green energy equity fears (msn.com)
Lefties don’t do irony.
Thi is the worst case use of an EV I have ever read.
A long EV trip in extremely cold weather/
Most long trip in an EV articles are bad news in good weather
In 2022 96% of EV owners also had an ICE or hybrid vehicle in their household. The percentage declined in 2023 as EV sales boomed over +50% above 2022. People with choices would not take an EV on a long trip more than once.
The real story here is this guy is going to make a long trip in very cold weather, even though the several stops for recharging will be expensive and take perhaps double the normal timing.
He will not be freezing inside his EV but he will be wasting hours waiting for a recharge. The chargers may not be near a warm gas station or store with bathrooms, snacks and drinks. Where you could l keep warm and not use your EV heater to speed up recharging. But the batery case still has to be heated.
An EV works for leftist virtue signaling
Batteries work well in China for cheap, lightweight, tiny city cars that can not be sold in the US. They are not glorified golf carts but they are cheap. EV batteries are not ready for prme time … and that has been true for over a century.
Experience is still the best teacher. We must have patience with the trendy ones.
The story is actually a good advertisement for a “hybrid” vehicle. What would be insane about a dual capability? Oh, it would mean that hydrocarbon energy would still be in the transportation portfolio. Couldn’t have that.
We own a MY2007 Ford Hybrid Escape small SUV with AWD and class 1 tow. We get 32 mpg city and 28 Hwy at 70mph with AC on in summer. We cleared the hybrid premium over the comparable V6 on day one via 2007 hybrid income tax credit. Between better milage and hybrid regular versus V6 premium gas, have so far saved about $12k in fuel charges. The NiMH traction battery is still going strong.
Hybrids make sense. EVs don’t.
YOU are welcome, for the tax credit out of MY pocket, because if you had your way, like me, there would be no such credits.
The @ssh@ts that support the subsidies, not so much.
Our 2007 Escape hybrid unfortunately hasn’t fared so well. It’s major problems are electrical, and apparently a lot of mechanics won’t work on hybrid electrical.
Following the [see more] link tells us that the fellow was driving to Saskatoon from Kelowna. Google tells us that’s a distance of 580 miles as the crow flies. Gee whiz why do people buy these things to take cross country trips in winter no less? Makes no sense.
I’ve thought that maybe I’d like an all electric car for zipping around town. As it turns out a plug-in hybrid is looking like the way to go for most driving conditions.
Our 2010 Ford Escape got around 20 mpg. Our 2021 Ford hybrid Escape gets around 40 mpg, less in winter more in summer. My understanding so far is that plug-in hybrids can be setup to go 20 miles or more before the engine kicks in. That means for most driving around town you’d never have to buy gas, and you could drive from Saskatoon to Kelowna if you needed to, but you’d have to buy gas. Of course the Democrats & Canada’s sitting Prime Minster want to pass regulations that will make gas stations a thing of the past. That is what they want to do isn’t it?
I’m thinking of a later model Porsche, like a Boxster with a manual transmission, as a nice weather car.
The hybrid is the wife’s car, I have an ’09 stick shift 2 door hatch back, get’s a steady 32 mpg.
There’s that “the wife” again. Such disrespect, imo. Dollars to donuts your wife uses “my husband”, not ‘the husband’.
From THE @SSH@T!!
LOL
If only the energy spent by “Being offended on behalf of someone you’ve never met” could be harnessed in some way! Perhaps it’d be useful for warming up EV batteries in sub-zero conditions.
Why get so offended on behalf of someone else? There’s far too much of that going around these days.
“Woke by Proxy” is surely the latest and greatest thing.
Front Range traffic is so bad anymore I’d be scared to get on I-25 in something that small.
So, I looked up your MY2021 Escape Hybrid. Your numbers are right, Measures the Ford hybrid drive train technology improvement from an ‘old 2007’ to a ‘new’ 2021. Impressive.
BTW, per my research today, the AWD penalty is still only about 1Mpg highway for both years.
About 750miles as the crow walks.
Didn’t Wyoming legislature want to ban the sale of EV’s? Unlike our pooh-brained president, they’re smart.
https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2023/SJ0004
Not a ban, just a suggestion.
Batteries rely on chemical reactions to create their power. In rechargeable batteries, these reactions are reversible. When it gets cold, these reactions slow down, so you get less power from the battery. At -45C, you are going to have to heat the battery, before you can get usable energy out of it.
Beyond that, you can’t charge Li-ion batteries when their internal temperature is below freezing. How much energy is going to be used to warm that 1000 pound battery by 45C? How much energy will be used during the charging process to keep that battery above 0C until the charging is finished?
On the plus side, they’re less likely to spontaneous combust when they are so cold.
Strange to think that. I equate the battery to gun powder, fuel and oxidiser in close proximity.
It burns in the cold too, might be slower, but it still burns.
The combustion occurs when a cell gets too hot. With the outside air that cold, it’s harder for a cell to get “too hot”.
Li-Ion battery fires are Exothermic and don’t necessarily require an external heat source to commence. A reaction between the 2 primary components of the battery creates the heat and thereby the potential for thermal runaway with energetic eruptions.
Sounds exciting.
You are not allowed to charge a near-empty battery, if the battery temperature is 32 F, according Battery University. Just google
If you charged anyway, the ions will build up on the anode surface, which will permanently reduce its output. It cannot be reversed. You have screwed up your battery
Normally, the battery temp control system tries to maintain your battery at at least 40 F, but sitting at the airport for a week, in freezing weather, you may come back to a dead battery, and you will be in line with many others to get a tow to a warm garage; a big money maker for garages and tow trucks
” but sitting at the airport for a week, in freezing weather, you may come back to a dead battery,”
In 2022 Ford engineers tested a variety of EVs parked outdoors in a temperature averaging about 0 degrees F. in northern Minnesota. te The loss of range was from 2% to 4% a day.
If you fully charge your EV battery before driving to an airport and parking it there, the probability of returning to the airport, even two weeks later, and having a dead battery ARE NEAR ZERO even at 0 degrees F. for the entire two weeks.
Why the UPPER CASE? If you don’t fully charge before driving to the airport, or do so but are a long distance from it, then the risk is NOT NEAR ZERO.
And is that % of full charge or % of residual charge?
an ICE vehicle can pack a few extra cans of gas—-Reminds me of the time a friends kids were trying to evacuate the Texas coast during a major blow. Stuck in bumper to bumper very slow moving traffic on I-45 and getting low on gas, and most service stations already out of gas. they called Dad. His advice –stop at the first liquor store and buy all the everclear and high proof vodka they could get, and fill the tank. They made it home.
We used to test synthetic diesel fuel in an Audi TDI A3, and we would let operators take it for a few days on such tests. I put on a hitched carrier that could hold extra fuel and it could make it to Houston and back from Denver.
Good to know… must have had deep pockets.
During an emergency, pockets get deeper for the NEED.
He isn’t talking about using those resources for daily driving.
Saturday I was assisting my neighbour to get his large diesel engined pickup started. The high for the day was -32°C or so. It proved to be quite difficult to do this. He started Friday afternoon so this was 24 hrs later. It turned out the real issue was the size of the jumper cables. It draws about 800 amps.
Charging at -36 (the 24 hr average) was not effective. He had a small electric heater under the hood, a blanket over the whole thing, a 10 amp charger and a second vehicle connected by cables. No dice. Click-click-click.
I added a second set of jumpers in parallel and it cranked long enough to get the diesel to fire. Once going he took off to a battery dealer, completely secure.
Consider the availability of these solutions compared with the guy stuck with his EV at the specialized charging station. If he decided he had enough charge to make to a safe warm space or home or the next charging station, would he actually make it? Would that station be working?
Then, consider the situation when there are 20 times more people in the same predicament.
An EV is very much like a horse. They are a good and low cost summer ride. Neither can go far at very low temperatures. When they keel over you are on your own.
As it has not been above -25 for almost a week, we are witnessing a real world experiment in durability. Let’s hear from owners and observers and not speculate further.
For myself, I am not interested in an EV in this climate (west of Edmonton). This morning my car’s app sent me, unsolicited, a text saying the battery is so low it needs to be replaced. I forgot to plug in the battery warmer. The engine started on Friday at -35 and once going, I feel safe on the road. That would not happen with a EV when the wind chill is -55 C, like this morning.
I’d bet Hertz isn’t renting any Tesla’s in Fort McMurray.
Does Richard Greene know this?
Probably he knows.
I rented from Hertz there one time and it was -40. They asked me at the counter if I wanted a 4WD and I said that would be great. About 10 minutes later the guy came back in and said he couldn’t start the 4WD, so I got a 2WD pickup.
I had to drive slowly and pull over once in a while to get warm air to come out of the vents. That’s the coldest temperature I’d ever experienced.
lived there for 22 years, I grew a hibernation habit as a result.
Yes he does
The Fort McMurray Airport Hertz currently has four vehicles available and none are EVs. They appear to be ICE but one or more could be a hybrid
Do I win a prize?
Car Rental Fort Mc Murray – Airport | Best Prices Online (acar.pro)
Car Rental (acar.pro)
I could get you 10% off a rental there, and warmer weather is on the way. The high is forecast to be a balmy -13F tomorrow.
As I recall in this kind of weather the ICE rental vehicles in Ft. Mac pretty much run constantly.
“An EV is very much like a horse. They are a good and low cost summer ride. Neither can go far at very low temperatures. When they keel over you are on your own.”
Sounds a bit like Napoleons trip to Moscow.
You-know-who’s army also employed a surprisingly large number of horses on a similarly ill-fated journey.
An EV in a Canadian winter sounds like not much fun in Stalingrad.
It was not the trip to Moscow that did him in. That began in June and was completed in September. Unfortunately for him, he delayed his departure from Moscow, which held no supplies when he got there, a few weeks. He did not begin his retreat until the first week in October. That year, the snows began in mid-October and winter came on fast and hard.
Therein lay the seeds of disaster. Tolstoy writes long passages denying human agency in these things. But I cannot help but see the wheel of tragedy working out:
A man, such as Napoleon, who has arete (“excellence”) such as great power, great beauty, or great prowess (and his power and prowess were great) may develop hubris (“arrogant pride”), which in turn leads to ate (“folly, blind recklessness” the final letter is pronounced), when he loses his sense of humility and becomes rash or imprudent. The actions resulting from Ate violate the laws of nature and nature’s god and by that law must be punished by nemesis (“retributive justice”).
And so it was
Logistics. Important then, important now. See also, the current kerfuffle with the Houthis.
The guy should have had a block heater in that climate. They normally don’t warm the block much over 50F but diesels start well at that temperature. We had one on the motor home so if we were going to travel and it was a cold night, we would connect it to power and away we would go in the morning.
Next thing he should do is contact the dealer for the truck and have them install one. Normally you order them from the factory but they can be installed after the sale.
Dena
Interestingly, not many vehicles here have a block heater. Amazing. They have battery heaters! Also available are oil pan heating pads. There is a dipstick version of an electric heater. Apparently block heaters are problematic from someone’s POV. Anyone know what it is? Sealing problems?
If you want a block heater and you find that the manufacturer didn’t provide appropriate frost plug access, they sell an in-hose heater that is spliced into the lower rad hose. You could put two. They are great and don’t interfere with the block.
After decades of vehicle work this was a new thing to me. They are effective and do not take one of the frost plug spaces which can be really difficult to access and remove.
I really like this in-hose solution. I would use that in Fort MacMurray. And Arctic Red. And Inuvik. Here, a battery heater is enough.
My Chevy diesel has a factory block heater.
My old Chevy gas did not and it always started fine down to -5f, but my son added a hose block heater after I gave him the truck. He lives in Casper WY. It gets cold there, -14 F. I know, not so bad, but I am sure a block heater helps.
The dip stick solution was supposed to have the risk of damaging the oil. Maybe they have improved them but direct contact with the block or the water would be a better solution. Living in phoenix, block heaters aren’t much of an issue because even hitting freezing is rare. If it wasn’t for the anti rust additives and the higher boiling temperature, you could probably get by without antifreeze.
Seems you drew the very shortest straw when it came to a place to live. It would be more than good exercise cutting enough wood to stay warm in those conditions.
Many Victorians living along the coast are wingeing because it only got ABOVE +25C for one day last week. Warmer than 25C on dry land, the 20C water along the coast is bearable for a while without a wet suit.
Water off Noosa where the article photos for the next story were taken is around 28C. In the rock pools it will get close to body temperature so very pleasant when the air is nudging 33C or higher.
Tried a Web search to find the estimated range of a Tesla—any Tesla—at -45 °C. No luck.
However, I ran across an article stating that the real-world achievable mileage (as measured by AAA) for a 2017 Tesla Model S 75D driven at an outside at a temperature of -7 °C (20 °F) dropped by 12% if the cabin heater was never turned on and by a whopping 41% assuming the cabin heater was turned on. (https://www.evspeedy.com/tesla-battery-temp-explained/ )
Therefore, I wonder if that Tesla in the article’s photo, even “fully charged” at -45 °C, had enough range to get out of the parking lot?
LOL. Maybe he plugged-in just to run his heater.
“I briefly spoke to him as he went into the store. He said…Show more…I am an idiot but proud of it. The right to be a stupid virtue signaler is one of the few freedoms Trudeau is in favor of”. There, fixed it so nobody has to check it out.
But no damn honking.
According to the government of Canada, everything West of Ontario is a vast, empty wilderness, mostly populated by undesirables that vote for the wrong party.
I think the Cdn govt includes most of Ontario in that assessment. Only Quebec and the city of Toronto are righteous , with the Atlantic provinces reluctantly allowed to tag along with the big kids as long as they don’t say anything or embarrass anyone.
I remember when, not that long ago, there was a strong separatist movement in Quebec.
Ach, they got bought off decades ago.
Why would they separate when they now, for as long as the True Dope has been PM, are in total control of the federal government??
The stupidest thing conservatives ever did was to allow Quebec to stay a part of Canada.
Like Scotland in the UK, and California cities, Western Oregon and Washington and most of NY and New England in the US, if the rest of the country could rid ourselves of them, we would have conservative governments for at least 50 years, along with balanced budgets and much smaller federal governments. And the NEW US would have control of the Mexico boarder.
As to throwing off those states, the new US would maintain the interstate system access and the military ports so as to maintain access to commerce at the Pacific and northern Atlantic ports.
Let the idiots in Eastern NY NH, Vermont, RI, Connecticut, NJ, Maryland, and Mass join with Quebec. Maine would probably join with the Maritimes to be OUT of the leftist new country. Put Philadelphia in with NJ. Give DC and Northern Virginia, less the HISTORICAL government buildings and Monuments to Maryland/Baltimore.
On the Left coast, just follow the I 5 up the coast from Portland to the Canadian Boarder and come east to the Cascades. All the dams and generated electricity from the Colombia and other hydro projects would, of course, be kept with the new US, since the libs in the coastal areas would tear down the dams if they had their way, so we would not want to insult them by letting them have THAT power. They can have all the bird chopper power though, as long as they paid to maintain the choppers and transmission lines to the coast, LOL!
In California, Frisco, LA, and the Silicon Valley would be cast off. All agricultural and industrial areas would be kept by the US, AND the determination of the dividing line would take into account oil fields so the wells could be drilled within feet of the new boarder.
Finally, while completing the separation, relocate ALL illegal occupants of the new FREE US to the new Coalition of Socialist States, since they are the reason those illegals are in the country.
I know, separating these areas would cause a situation similar to the separation of Berlin, and walls may be required to stop the refugees from the leftist country from flooding the Free US. But the new boarder control would check those wishing to enter the Free US for voting records, especially for voter registration. If registered Democrat, Green, etc. they need not apply for entry.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”
Only this part of poem Colossus will be honored for applicants for acceptance to the new Free US. Emphases on the “yearning to breathe free” .
I can dream, can’t I??
It seems Northern Ontario is part of Alberta, policy-wise.
As Elliot mentioned above, there is a lot of flyover country outside of Ottawa and Toronto, populated (in Trudope’s eyes) by savages and heathens. I’ve yet to determine who is going to send equalization payments to Quebec after he’s done killing the economic engine that is/was Alberta.
Pretty much always been that way, although Dief. was from Sask., so there was some tempering of that description.
British Columbia is filled with “Progressive” Leftists.
… until the Chinese buy the rest of it and declare it a CCP province.
Desperately saving the earth requires increasingly desperate measures. Everything humans have tried so far to save the earth has not worked, so what did you expect?
10 deg F here near Detroit and I just saw an AMAZON delivery truck (EV) go by, the guy was dressed very thickly.
As ever with klimat diktat
“”Under the new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, auto manufacturers and importers must meet annual zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) regulated sales targets.””
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2023/12/canadas-electric-vehicle-availability-standard-regulated-targets-for-zero-emission-vehicles.html
You could say people like Jack (John) from Kelowna are the new pioneers. As far as the elites are concerned it birds and bats off a windmill
That would appear to be Vegreville. In which case he would seem to be taking a very northly route, probably via Edmonton.
Maybe he has social connections to Edmonton—maybe visiting friends or family. But if he has to take a massive detour like that to find chargers on what is already a long journey…well…
It doesn’t look that cold.
Scissor, can you see temperature?
If not, ask Gretta. If she can see CO2 she can probably also see the temperature of air.
By holding a mirror up to her earhole.
Funny.
Yep, that matches the photo. Thanks for figuring it out.
I remember having to drive from Iowa to Pittsburgh in Dec 1973, for a change of station while I was in the Navy. It was when Nixon shutdown all the gas stations on Sunday, and I could not just stop and waste a day in a motel. I bought a 5 gal gas tank and found an open gas station outside Chicago where I filled up the car AND the gas tank, which sat on the seat next to me inside the car. I got to Pittsburgh on fumes, filled the tank with the 5 gallons, and made it on time.
People are not going to recognize how useless these EVs are until a massive snowstorm strands a bunch of people on I-95 between DC and NYC, and people actually die.
My standard for range is the ability to drive from DC to NYC (about 250 miles), at night, in January, with snow falling and needing both heat and defrost (aircon), without having to refuel. AND, doing the same trip in August, during the middle of the day in a heatwave. My Subarus and my old Ford Ranger pickup could do a round trip on that route without refueling in NYC. I don’t think any Teslas could do it.
Hurricane evacuations will be fun also.
My father-in-law in Houston tried to escape Hurricane Rita. He waited too late as it turned out.The DVM had closed the southbound Interstate-45 so both sides headed north, out of town and away from the coast.
He called it a parking lot. After 6+ hours of creeping north for just a few miles (in the blowing rain) he gave up and returned home to ride it out (successfully).
He said dozens of cars (no EVs back then) ran out of gas; people relieving themselves on the roadside, and just general chaos. At least it wasn’t -45 F !
A decade later I drove from Ft Riley, KS to Manitowoc, WI to visit my grandfather for Xmas.
I was driving a beat up Dodge Power Wagon. It was endless fun in the snow. It was an especially bitter cold winter.
As I hit the Chicago area, all the roads were slush from all the salting. My carburetor froze over with slush, had to try and chip it off without damaging anything. I was lucky to be able to stay overnight nearby with the family of a guy in my unit back at Ft Riley. I let the truck idle for a few hours to melt the slush off the engine.
Then drove the rest of the way to Manitowoc the next morning. They had 3 ft of snow on the ground, and the wind chill was 80 below.
Fun times.
“an ICE vehicle can pack a few extra cans of gas in the back“
Define back. Get a pickup truck. Carrying fuel inside a closed auto is a bad idea.
In the boot of the car….
Always had a gerry can going long distances across Europe.
Freezing to death is even worse. Sometimes you just gotta make choices.
When I was a small child we lived in Maine. We did not have a garage. Dad used to bring the battery for the car inside at night on cold nights, and replace it in the morning. He covered the hood with blankets to keep the engine block a little warmer. It all seems to have worked okay that way.
Does anyone remember a magazine article called “How to start a VW Beetle at 50 below zero”? It was from Alaska. The trick is to remove the engine oil and heat it in the house. The battery comes out as a matter of course. That is a common tactic.
The use of a battery blanket is cheap and easy. Saves removing it. Same result.
EVs are a novelty, they are not suited for serious transportation.
BEV’s: Great 3rd car in a Mediterranean climate like here at central coast Cali. The roads are packed with the little model, the one that looks like an ugly duckling.
I don’t think CO2 is a problem and the gubment should get out of the CO2 agenda. Electric World is a world too far….would require 3 to 4 times the current grid output….that’s a lotta wind/solar. No subsidy for any vehicles….some of the hybrid EVs may have battery failures after some years and the cost of replacing the bat may be too much for the price of the car…most 10 year old vehicles are beyond 60% depreciated.
It seems the solution to many of our problems is Trump 2024. Unfortunately that won’t help Canadians.
Likely ‘help the world’ (again) if it happens.
Yet the current Liberal Party government is mandating the pipe dream of something like 20% of all new cars being produced having to be EVs by 2030 with the proportion rising higher every few years. What it hasn’t figured out is what happens if consumers refuse to buy these. Will the manufacturers have guns put to their heads to continue producing them and losing money on products for which there’s not enough demand? , In addition, what happens if the electrical infrastructure is inadequate to supply energy for them in the first place? I maintain that since a change of government appears likely within the next 18 months, this legislation will be repealed just as we’ve seen in several European countries like Germany and Britain. And in the US, a proposal like this wouldn’t even get off the ground; but when the people in power occupy environmental fantasy worlds, the populace is guaranteed to have to face legislation designed by strictly by wishful thinkers.
Also, illegally.
The go-to method of forcing people to change their behavior is via tax policy. A $10/gal tax on gasoline would change a few minds and survive any court case.
The impossible takes a little longer.
About temperature, but off the topic of charging – – –
I have an ACU-RITE remote sensor. With 8″ of snow
on it, it read high {21°F } – not even close to the 8 degrees
nearby locations were reporting.
I cleaned the snow off and now it seems correct. It is
mounted in full sun, that I now have. Now at 10°F
Airport 5 miles SW and 500 feet lower claims 9°.
If this is a design issue with the outdoor part, I suppose
I need to build a snow-shield above the instrument.
Mine (older) looks much like this:
Best idea so far: snow stopped the fan and the thing heated inside.
I have the same brand. The outside unit looks the same. It is pretty accurate for temperature (I have compared it with an alcohol thermometer in the shade on my porch and it is consistently within global warming or less, i.e. 2 degrees f. What a novel idea, running the new and old side by side for a while, lol.) wind, and precipitation when it is rain. Depending of the speed and direction of the wind since it is on a west facing slope with tall trees not far away I can get good results.
BUT it is not measuring the recent snowfall, more than 12 inches of snowfall over the last week showed up as 0.2 inches total precipitation.
We are supposed to get to the 50s f this week, so we shall see if the powder melts and gets recorded.
So, if it isn’t too hot, or it isn’t too cold, he likes his EV. Paying that kind of $$ for charging (poorly)… must be a gov’t. or ex-gov’t. employee, where he has never had to be concerned where the $$ are coming from.