Freezing temperatures put electric cars to the test, especially when it comes to fast charging. Be careful though, more than the outside temperature, it is the temperature of the battery that matters. And for that, fortunately there are tips to avoid struggling when the mercury goes down.
Just a few days ago, a line of Teslas found themselves stuck at a Supercharger in Chicago, in polar cold that surprised many. As is often the case in such cases, the problem is more to be found on the driver’s side than on the manufacturer’s side, as explained Numerama. The opportunity to see how a Tesla fared at the Supercharger at -35 degrees Celsius.
Fast charging in extreme cold is possible
We’re not going to beat around the bush: yes, it is possible to have good charging performance, even in extreme cold conditions. To prove it, one person filmed their Supercharging session on YouTube, with an outside temperature of -35°C, no less.
The secret, for Teslas at least, comes from pre-conditioning the battery. It is triggered automatically when navigation has registered a fast charger at the destination. This is called the route planner and is found on more and more electric cars (but not all). This is of course the case in this video, where the destination is a Tesla Supercharger.
In France, the same thing would happen by indicating an Ionity, Totalenergies, Fastned or other fast charger if it is clearly visible in the navigation as a fast charging station. What can explain poor charging performance in extreme cold is therefore the temperature of the battery, and not just the outside temperature.
On other vehicles, there is the possibility of forcing the heating of the battery, but this is not the case on Teslas. You therefore have to be cunning (that is to say sometimes putting a Supercharger at the destination rather than the real destination) to be sure to have a warm battery before arrival. In any case, do not jump to hasty conclusions by sharing the information which consists of saying that in very cold weather, the charging of an electric car is compromised – it is more on the side of the chargers that some problems may appear.
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