The EV charging industry knows it needs to solve cold-weather woes

The “Tesla graveyards” that popped up amid last week’s polar vortex could have been isolated incidents, but EV industry execs know it’s crucial to address such issues if they’re going to win over skeptical consumers.

“The early adopters are tolerant of some bugs and issues,” Rick Wilmer, CEO of EV charging provider ChargePoint, told Tech Brew. “But when you get into the mainstream market, the tolerance for that goes down. And if we’re gonna prevent the lack of charger reliability…from being an impediment to EV adoption, we’ve got to stay on top of network reliability.”

EVs’ cold-weather woes made headlines after reports of long lines and dead batteries near charging stations in Chicago, where the wind chill dropped as low as 30 degrees below zero. EV drivers also reportedly faced drastic drops in battery range and longer charging times.

The New York Times spoke to an Uber driver whose EV died while he was en route to a charging station with 30 miles of range left. The driver had to have his car towed, and it later took him hours to charge up.

EV proponents are quick to note that ICE vehicles face challenges in freezing conditions, too—as anyone who’s shivered in the cold while their starter sputters can attest. Still, it’s true that EVs have some unique challenges when the mercury plummets.

That’s in part because electric cars don’t have engines to warm them up, so when it’s cold out, more energy is spent on heating the car, including the cabin. Axios, citing data from Recurrent, reported that the battery range of 18 popular EVs dropped an average of 70% in below-freezing temps.

Charging providers like ChargePoint and FLO qualify their chargers to endure extreme temperatures. Both say their equipment can handle temps as low as -40 degrees Celsius.

For drivers, there are some things they can do to help their EVs work better in the cold, Wilmer said. One: If they have an at-home charging station, make sure they plug in overnight so that when they’re ready to hit the road, their car’s battery is topped up and the car is warmed up and ready for charging at a public station.

“If you don’t have the option of charging at home, then you want to make sure you keep your vehicle, rough rule of thumb, above 20% state of charge,” Wilmer said.

FLO also recommends charging to double the range needed for a trip, and using the heated steering wheel and seats instead of blasting heat throughout the cabin.

Meanwhile, look to Norway for a model of how to keep EVs running in the cold. The Nordic country experiences extreme cold but fewer EV issues, likely thanks to robust charging infrastructure and because drivers are more accustomed to plug-ins.

“There’s a lot of research out there that shows that chargers don’t work even without the cold,” Nathan Yang, FLO’s chief product officer, told us. “It’s a broad problem. It’s not just a cold-weather problem. As an industry, we need to be better at reliability and uptime.”