My mom asked me if I saw the story about Tesla and electric vehicle owners stranded in the frigid Illinois weather because the weather froze the charging stations.
HI MOM!
Public charging stations have turned into car graveyards over the past couple of days.”Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent,” said Tyler Beard, who has been trying to recharge his Tesla at an Oak Brook Tesla supercharging station since Sunday afternoon. “And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday.”Beard was among the dozens of Tesla owners trying desperately to power up their cars at the Tesla supercharging station in Oak Brook. It was a scene mirrored with long lines and abandoned cars at scores of other charging stations around the Chicago area.”This is crazy. It’s a disaster. Seriously,” said Tesla owner Chalis Mizelle.
One man said: “We got a bunch of dead robots out here.”
A charging station in Skokie has 20 charging stations. People lined up to charge their cars.
Some ran out of power while waiting. The freeze also contributed to the batteries losing their juice:
“I saw my battery was getting low 20 to 25%. Went to the gas station there was a long line,” Tesla driver Wes France said.France said he then drove to the station at the fashion outlet station in Rosemont, but it wasn’t in service.“By that time my battery drained down to 5%, which is faster than normal,” France said.France eventually had to load his car onto a tow truck to get it to a charger.“Long story short here I am. We had to tow it out this way,” France said.
I get alerts on my phone about my security cameras in the cold weather. “Extreme cold weather can lead to battery drain.”
Don’t drive electric vehicles.
Maybe it’s worth reading that big manual the car came with.
Mark Bilek of the Chicago Trade Association told FOX Chicago the owners “have to precondition the battery, meaning that you have to get the battery up to the optimal temperature to accept a fast charge.”
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