EV Owners Forced To Abandon Vehicles In Freezing Temperatures Creating A Car Graveyard At Charging Stations

In recent days, Tesla owners in the Chicago area have been stuck at charging stations as cold temperatures hit the Windy City and the surrounding area, leaving many drivers of the famous electric vehicles without a charge. The inability of EVs to charge in the cold has led to many supercharger locations turning into car graveyards. The wider Chicago area has seen temperatures at or below zero degrees Fahrenheit for the past couple of days, with the Monday forecast reaching an intense negative nine.

According to Tesla, the Model S attempts to pre-heat the battery if you use the Trip Planner to prepare it for charging in extremely cold temperatures. Despite this, drivers could not counter the cold weather as the below-zero temperatures reduced the vehicle battery's output due to a slowdown in the chemical reactions that generated electricity. Because of this, residents at a Tesla supercharger in Oak Brook, Illinois, were left stranded as long lines of cars, some abandoned, waited to charge. "Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent," Tesla owner Tyler Beard told Fox Chicago. "And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday."

"This is crazy. It's a disaster. Seriously," Tesla owner Chalis Mizelle, who was forced to abandon her car and get picked up by a friend, told the outlet. Resident Kevin Sumrak, who had just got back to O'Hare International Airport after a trip, found his electric vehicle dead. He was forced to order a tow truck to take his vehicle to a charging station.

As electric vehicles continue to be pushed by the Biden administration in an effort to counter climate change, the drawbacks are becoming increasingly prevalent. Not only do EVs take a considerable amount of raw materials to produce from mines across the developing world, but they also have a limited range and do terribly in cold climates. Americans are rejecting electric vehicles across the board as demand has slumped significantly in recent months, and 2023 sales did not reach expectations. This is partly due to the high cost of EVs both on consumers and on automakers but for many Americans, the technology is simply not advanced enough to justify picking an electric vehicle over its gas-powered alternative. Most people would not stand for getting stuck in freezing temperatures in exchange for an EV, and no amount of subsidies will counteract that.

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