Electric Cars in Blizzards

5 hour traffic jam on the east coast, do the electrics just run out of juice from running a heater and sit there dead?

Well they don’t charge them selves

3rdtryguy wrote:

5 hour traffic jam on the east coast, do the electrics just run out of juice from running a heater and sit there dead?

Yeap, just like the ICE vehicles running out of gas.

HRG

Don’t you think a gasoline vehicle would eventually run out of gas, too?

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Don’t you think a gasoline vehicle would eventually run out of gas, too?

My guess my truck may idle into a second day on a full tank of gas. Traveling, I have slept in my truck running all night on maybe a little over a quarter tank. Remember, in an electric car. You have an electric heater that uses around 1/4 of your charge. Per energy .gov. Compact car burns .16 gal per hour at idle. Truck with a 5 to 7 liter motor .84 gph. My truck has a 3.5 with a 36 gallon tank.

Do you think they can provide heat for 5 hours, plus clearing time they say will be hours, and still drive away? I know zero about electrics except I can’t afford one. You

3rdtryguy wrote:

Do you think they can provide heat for 5 hours, plus clearing time they say will be hours, and still drive away? I know zero about electrics except I can’t afford one. You

Could have your buddy on a snow machine or AAA run you out a thousand pounds of batteries.

3rdtryguy wrote:

5 hour traffic jam on the east coast, do the electrics just run out of juice from running a heater and sit there dead?

Mine’s never ran out of juice

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Here’s some info. Probably should keep in mind that ICE vehicles are only about 20% efficient losing most of their energy through heat generation during combustion and EVs are about 80% efficient.

http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/53v4v9/how_long_can_a_tesla_sustain_a_comfortable_level/

It really depends. But let’s make a few assumptions: say it’s a 90KWh Model S with 80% charge at time of being snowed in. That leaves us with roughly 72KWh of energy to use.

Let’s also assume the heater is using 700 watts — on the efficient side for an electric space heater. That would mean we could run the heater alone for roughly 100 hours or 4 days.

Keep in mind this isnt accounting for the battery thermal system (it would use a significant amount) or vampire drain from the computer.

Considering a modern petrol engine uses about 0.8l an hour at idle, that would only give you 87.5 hours if you had a full tank (and the tank had a capacity of 70 liters).

0.8l/h was what my brothers 2009 VW Passat used on idle.

You can always get a can of gas, not sure how you get a can of charge for your ev…lol

gregory wrote:

You can always get a can of gas, not sure how you get a can of charge for your ev…lol

When you start every single day with a full tank, the need for a can is significantly reduced.

I’d imagine the odds of getting stuck on the highway for numerous hours in a snow storm are pretty low.

biggill wrote:

When you start every single day with a full tank, the need for a can is significantly reduced.

Not all of us have a gas/fuel pump at home. But I’ll bet that most of us have 240V available to charge an EV if we wanted to. I know I do.

HRG

3rdtryguy wrote:

5 hour traffic jam on the east coast, do the electrics just run out of juice from running a heater and sit there dead?

Wouldn’t common sense say yes? Not sure how much juice the heater would draw, but any eclectic heat would probably be resistance type heating, but I don’t really know. I’m guessing they have something figured out for that scenario. I’ve never been in a 5 hour traffic jam.

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

Not all of us have a gas/fuel pump at home. But I’ll bet that most of us have 240V available to charge an EV if we wanted to. I know I do.

HRG

Exactly the point I was trying to make.

Kinda like boating. Check the weather before you leave. Telecommute if it’s not looking good.

biggill wrote:

It really depends. But let’s make a few assumptions: say it’s a 90KWh Model S with 80% charge at time of being snowed in. That leaves us with roughly 72KWh of energy to use.

Let’s also assume the heater is using 700 watts — on the efficient side for an electric space heater. That would mean we could run the heater alone for roughly 100 hours or 4 days.

Keep in mind this isnt accounting for the battery thermal system (it would use a significant amount) or vampire drain from the computer.

Considering a modern petrol engine uses about 0.8l an hour at idle, that would only give you 87.5 hours if you had a full tank (and the tank had a capacity of 70 liters).

0.8l/h was what my brothers 2009 VW Passat used on idle.

You also need to add in the reduced capacity when under 32 degrees. Say at zero it’s about 50% capacity so 72Kw would be 36Kw as well 700 watts might not be enough in colder weather.

David Anderson wrote:

You also need to add in the reduced capacity when under 32 degrees. Say at zero it’s about 50% capacity so 72Kw would be 36Kw as well 700 watts might not be enough in colder weather.

Still nowhere even remotely close to the <5 hours people seem to be concerned about.

biggill wrote:

Still nowhere even remotely close to the <5 hours people seem to be concerned about.

One guy has been stranded for over 19 hours. Im sure its still counting too because it didnt seem like they made much progress.

Electric, gas, meh. I’d walk to the beer truck 11 cars ahead of me and just go from there.

Deuces wrote:

Electric, gas, meh. I’d walk to the beer truck 11 cars ahead of me and just go from there.

Unless it’s a Sam Adam’s truck. We have standards, you know!

HRG

CaptainMusky wrote:

One guy has been stranded for over 19 hours. Im sure its still counting too because it didnt seem like they made much progress.

Using the calc I provided above and adjusting for 50% capacity due to cold weather and a full charge it’s still over 50 hours. 1/2 charge still makes the 19 hour with ease.

The odds of an EV starting the day with a full charge is almost a given. The odds of starting the day with a full tank of gas are slim.

They are literally asking folks in Cali not to charge their vehicles… it is overwhelming the grid. Can you imagine even 30% of ice vehicles replaced with electric ???

big_g wrote:

They are literally asking folks in Cali not to charge their vehicles… it is overwhelming the grid. Can you imagine even 30% of ice vehicles replaced with electric ???

Naw just get a diesel generator to charge it. Problem solved.

It makes me laugh the contortions some will go through to create situations where electric vehicles are bad, won’t work, etc.

Yes, yes, a lot of us get pinned down every week in our cars and get trapped in a traffic jam for 30 hours straight so that’s really a thing you’d want to put at the top of the list of reasons why not to get one.

The traffic jam out east this past week is the exception that proved the rule and besides, in that situation only a total retread would sit in his car for 30 straight hours when the whole traffic jam was within sight of strip malls, gas stations, fast-food restaurants, Starbucks, pizza joints, hotels, etc. I mean it literally happened in the burbs, for God’s sake, get past it. Nobody got eaten by wolves because his Tesla went dead and he had to set out on foot in a blizzard.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Nobody got eaten by wolves because his Tesla went dead and he had to set out on foot in a blizzard.

That happened to my second cousin’s neighbor’s best friend’s ex-wife. It happens, Grouse!!!

I have no issue with a blizzard in the burbs… but when you have an power supplier(they sell power) asking you not to buy their product (power) red flags should go up… no ?

Are you planning to move to CA and buy an EV sometime soon G? Didn’t think so.

biggill wrote:

Are you planning to move to CA and buy an EV sometime soon G? Didn’t think so.

Yeah, well with all the push to these “clean” power the grids across the US are going to start to collapse. Look what happened in TX last year when they had that cold and ice! Why, because of the grid load being so high in the summer due to AC, they cannot afford to take offline the “dirty” electric producers so they do it in the winter when load is small. Hit them with an ice storm and ridiculous cold and Wind and Solar cannot keep up to demand.
If some country wanted to cripple us enough they could do so just by hacking the grid system, which, funny they actually did with the natural gas or whatever that grid was last Spring.
It isnt necessarily that electric vehicles are bad, its the whole concept around this green energy crap that is actually probably worse for the environment than actually using fossil fuels due to how you mine for the minerals for the batteries and all the waste when they are no longer useful.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Yeah, well with all the push to these “clean” power the grids across the US are going to start to collapse. Look what happened in TX last year when they had that cold and ice! Why, because of the grid load being so high in the summer due to AC, they cannot afford to take offline the “dirty” electric producers so they do it in the winter when load is small. Hit them with an ice storm and ridiculous cold and Wind and Solar cannot keep up to demand.
If some country wanted to cripple us enough they could do so just by hacking the grid system, which, funny they actually did with the natural gas or whatever that grid was last Spring.
It isnt necessarily that electric vehicles are bad, its the whole concept around this green energy crap that is actually probably worse for the environment than actually using fossil fuels due to how you mine for the minerals for the batteries and all the waste when they are no longer useful.

Where in the world are you getting the idea that green energy was the cause the TX power outage? Tucker Carlson? Wind contributed to only 13% of the power outages and was mainly due to failure to winterize their wind turbines. Ironically enough it was mainly failure to winterize their power plants and well heads. Places like Iowa seem to have little issue with their wind turbines.