Tuesday's Energy Absurdity: It's Chicago, It's Winter, and - surprise! - EV Owners are Struggling
By DAVID BLACKMON
Tuesday's Energy Absurdity: It's Chicago, It's Winter, and - surprise! - EV Owners are Struggling
In other news, water remains wet.
JAN 16, 2024
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Tuesday's Energy Absurdity: It's Chicago, It's Winter, and - surprise! - EV Owners are Struggling
[Follow me on Twitter/X at @EnergyAbsurdity]
Man, nobody could have seen this one coming! Oh, wait: Actually, yes, yes, pretty much anyone with a brain could have seen this one coming. After all, this is Chicago in the winter we’re talking about here, all that lake-effect snow, the howling winds, the blue northers we now give names to in order to further hype climate alarmism.
This is a place only fit for penguins and polar bears from December through March each year, and trying to drive a car that runs on a lithium-ion battery in that kind of sub-zero weather and ice is a sure sign of impending bad luck and trouble. One of the worst-kept secrets in EV world, after all, is that the batteries lose a huge part of their range anytime the ambient air temperatures drop below freezing, and freezing is a heat wave in Chicago in the winter.
Thus, it is no surprise at all that Fox News ran a story Monday headlined, “Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold: 'A bunch of dead robots out here'. [Hat Tip to LinkedIn reader Philip Easterling and Substack Reader Rick Church for tipping me off to this one.]
Oh. You don’t say. Tell us more.
Ok. Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Desperate Tesla owners in and around Chicago were seen trying to charge their vehicles with no luck amid frigid temperatures that have gripped the Midwest.
Charging stations have essentially turned into car graveyards in recent days as temperatures have dropped to the negative double digits, Fox Chicagoreported.
"Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent," Tyler Beard, who had been trying to recharge his Tesla at an Oak Brook, Illinois Tesla supercharging station since Sunday afternoon, told the news outlet. "And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday."
[End]
Ooof.
I’ve written many times that I like Teslas. They are beautiful, stylish cars with a lot of cool features, and if someone wanted to give me one, I wouldn’t turn it down, although I would insist that someone also give me one of those handy garage charging stations. On the other hand, though, I wouldn’t go sell my Infiniti QX60, either, because I know that that Tesla is always going to be a problem whenever the weather is not ideal. I live in North Texas, where the weather is not ideal at least half the time.
So, I could enjoy that free Tesla for about 180 days a year, so long as I was just driving it around town and not trying to take a road trip in it. But I’d have to keep that Infiniti for all those other days of the year, because I don’t want to be stuck on the side of the road or sitting stranded and out of juice at a broken EV charging station - which most of them seem to be on any given day - for hours at a time.
Also, isn’t it getting to be a little ridiculous that EV owners are still having to deal with absurd problems like this? Let’s all acknowledge Tesla is now 20 years old. Isn’t it sort of time we all quit making excuses for Tesla and its fellow EV makers as not being a “mature” industry?
Were Americans driving Model-As in the 1930s rationalizing excuses for Henry Ford and GM as not having enough government subsidies whenever their car broke down? I wasn’t there, but it seems doubtful.
But I suppose I should be grateful here. After all, it seems like about half of my Energy Absurdity stories end up being about EVs. It’s the most target-rich environment in the world.
Thanks, Elon.
That is all.