Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[sd455dan]

I cannot find anybody with a video of an EV car working in sub-zero. I see people lying about the temperature and some snowy pictures, but when I see that they aren't wearing gloves or a hat, and cannot see their breath I know they are lying about the ambient temperature.

I did find this article which basically says, I'll die of exposure in an EV in northern MN.

"one Model S owner recommends buying heated jackets and gloves designed for wearing on motorcycles. Dahn says the solution is 'snowmobile suits.'"

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/522496/electric-vehicles-out-in-the-cold/

The link above does point out that the Nissan Leaf uses battery power to warm the battery which reduced its range by at least half (they tested in a warmer area than where I'm at) while Tesla uses heat from the electric motor to try and warm the batteries. However, nobody says anything about the energy cost in maintaining warmer temperatures inside the cars.

I also found one data-driven site which shows snowy ice roads in and of themselves greatly reduce EV range.

Tesla Battery Range in Sub-Zero and Snowy Conditions

Anyway, for reference: Where I'm at we're frequently the coldest place in North America.

On this morning I had to go to Sibera to find colder weather.

I did find Tesla ad copy where they did testing on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota but they say nothing of the data they collected from northern Minnesota.

Here is a Volt cold weather start and run

you can see his breath once in the car and display says -12

-12 and wind chill of -26 on his phone and is wearing gloves with the special texture to be able to activate the cars touch screen,
also the camera's footage is very dark which does seem to happen in really cold environments some times
as stated- the car does start and run for the first few minutes in vid and ends up on battery 9.1 miles electric and 4.4 on the engine, still managed over 45 mpg.
Looks like Minneapolis? from his Nav screen

Chevy Volt Sub-Zero Start and Drive - YouTube

 

[Redneck in training]

I am looking on it this way. We need to buy a new car and are willing to spend up to 30k. There are two choices:
1.) 30 k ICE car that will be nice and have quite a few nice features.
2.) Chevy Bolt or similar.
Now there is a question: Will the nice near luxury car improve the quality of my life? The answer is no.
Will electric car improve my life? Not sure to what degree but it will certainly save me fuel and oil change money.
I rent a lot of cars while traveling for work. I can rent any car I want from compact to luxury. I tried them all.
I found too many features and gadgets are sometimes confusing and often distracting and seem to me that they will get old and forgotten after a while. In ex. We have a car with a moonroof. Not that we wanted it but the used car we bought had it. I am not sure if I opened it twice or three times in past 5 years. Radio in even the cheapest car has all kind of settings, I use just the on/off and two memory buttons. I didn't mess with fade, balance, tone etc for many years. Only feature I like is stability and traction control and colision avoidance braking.
I think the electric car makes a sense for us.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Here is a Volt cold weather start and run

you can see his breath once in the car and display says -12

-12 and wind chill of -26 on his phone and is wearing gloves with the special texture to be able to activate the cars touch screen,
also the camera's footage is very dark which does seem to happen in really cold environments some times
as stated- the car does start and run for the first few minutes in vid and ends up on battery 9.1 miles electric and 4.4 on the engine, still managed over 45 mpg.
Looks like Minneapolis? from his Nav screen

Chevy Volt Sub-Zero Start and Drive - YouTube

The St. Paul guy. The Volt isn't an EV, it is a hybrid.

 

[IslandTractor]

I generally run my EV/hybrid in hybrid mode in very cold weather. Easy to do, just push a button to switch between auto/EV/hybrid. Also, in very cold weather the auto setting will choose hybrid mode at least until the car has warmed up. You can also force the ICE to run simply by mashing the accelerator in park.

I wouldn't hesitate to own my CMax Energi if I lived in International Falls MN but I agree that a pure EV would be iffy in that location.

 

[Egon]

Any one remember the heater in a model A Ford or the first Volkswagen that were introduced? They did operate in colder areas of the country.

 

[Egon]

Industry and an economy dependent on Government subsidies and intervention is not a viable cause. Few of the goods, services and jobs were created and grew on anything other than supply and demand.

Now that supply and demand are explained it's easy to see how pollution is transferred. If there would be no demand for products supplied from polluting areas the supply of such goods would surely stop!

 

[buickanddeere]

Yeah, that whole ARPANET thing was a total bust and was never going to take off.

Public demand made that system work.

 

[buickanddeere]

Interstate highway system is a loser too.

Bankrupted most railroads and caused nation wide pollution when the general public bought cars and trucks. Now the greenies want everyone to travel by public transportation such as rail. Private companies and toll roads cost less per mile than a government operated highway.

 

[buickanddeere]

They don't call Winnipeg the name "Winterpeg" for nothing.
As you said , the EV is for downtown urbanites, a 2nd vehicle for putting around short trips or for use south of the Mason Dixon Line. Then again the political types may eliminate the Mason Dixon Line as they could find it offensive.

 

[buickanddeere]

I am looking on it this way. We need to buy a new car and are willing to spend up to 30k. There are two choices:
1.) 30 k ICE car that will be nice and have quite a few nice features.
2.) Chevy Bolt or similar.
Now there is a question: Will the nice near luxury car improve the quality of my life? The answer is no.
Will electric car improve my life? Not sure to what degree but it will certainly save me fuel and oil change money.
I rent a lot of cars while traveling for work. I can rent any car I want from compact to luxury. I tried them all.
I found too many features and gadgets are sometimes confusing and often distracting and seem to me that they will get old and forgotten after a while. In ex. We have a car with a moonroof. Not that we wanted it but the used car we bought had it. I am not sure if I opened it twice or three times in past 5 years. Radio in even the cheapest car has all kind of settings, I use just the on/off and two memory buttons. I didn't mess with fade, balance, tone etc for many years. Only feature I like is stability and traction control and colision avoidance braking.
I think the electric car makes a sense for us.

I also wonder why Mrs B&D is so thrilled about sun roofs in a vehicle. She was nearly ecstatic when she seen the power rear window. She asked why it was ordered, told her that now it's possible to deer hunt in any direction without leaving the vehicle.