Tesla's Having Issues Charging In the Cold

cartechboy writes "It's winter, and apparently meteorologists have just discovered the term Polar Vortex, as that seems to be the only thing they can talk about these days. But seriously, it's cold, and apparently the darling child of the automotive industry, the new Tesla Model S electric car, is having issues charging in the cold weather. It's being reported that the charging cables that come with the car are unable to provide a charge when the temperature dips below zero. As you can imagine, this is an issue in a country like Norway where the Model S is one of the most popular cars. In fact, it seems this issue has already left one Model S owner stranded with a dead battery nearly 100 miles from the nearest charging station. Other owners are reporting issues charging. Tesla's European sales chief Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen apologized for he inconvenience owners are facing, and said it's 'trying hard to resolve' the issue. Apparently the issues are simply down to the differences in the Norwegian network as Norway uses a slightly different charging adapter than other countries in Europe."

Comments

units please

[ziggyzaggy]

"below zero' Kelvin? (is that you, Frank Herbert?) Centigrade? Farenheit?

Re:units please

[sabri]

"below zero' Kelvin? (is that you, Frank Herbert?) Centigrade? Farenheit?

Considering it's Europe and the fact that water freezes at 0 Celsius, my guess would be C.

Re:units please

[Vanderhoth]

0 deg C is the freezing point. Well below is at least -20 deg C to most people in Canada. Heck in the spring when the temperature gets up to -10 deg C people pull out their shorts and t-shirts. It'd be nice if they were just a bit more specific.

Re:units please

[mark-t]

Not that much of a llmb to go out on... there are 7 nations in the entire world that use Fahrenheit... one of them is the USA, and half of the remaing ones are US territories. The other three are all in the Carribean, iirc. Norway is not in the Carribean.

Re:units please

[ziggyzaggy]

the article-linked site uses U.S. units. it's hard to figure out

Re:units please

[fahrbot-bot]

Centigrade? Farenheit?

Sometimes it doesn't matter. From Futurama:

• Leela: Our car broke down and we're low on oxygen. Can we borrow some?
• Moon Farmer: Borry? Listen here, city girl. Oxygen doesn't grow on trees. You'll have to work it off doing chores on my hydroponic farm. You can go back to your precious park at sun-up.
• Fry: I guess we can do chores for a few hours.
• Leela: Fry, night lasts two weeks on the moon.
• Moon Farmer: Yep, drops down to minus-173.
• Fry: Celsius or Fahrenheit?
• Moon Farmer: First one, then the other.

Re:units please

[ziggyzaggy]

yes, many people in the world would be much more concerned about electric car with 32 degree F problem versus one that appears at 0 degrees F (-18 degrees C) Since the problem appears at 0 degrees C, that isn't very cold at all. It was -26 degrees C last night here

Re:units please

[The Grim Reefer]

They'd do even worse at 0K!

Actually 0K would make it easier to get superconductive chargers. But your hand would snap off and shatter on the ground when you plug it in. It's probably not a good trade off. ;-)

Re:units please

[Jane Q. Public]

Apologies. Typed too fast. I meant "It is used in the United States to mean below 0F (-17.8C), just as much as it is elsewhere to mean below 0C."

The point being that the phrase "below zero" means just that... the units you use are irrelevant.

Re:units please

[mythosaz]

0F is "well below the freezing point".

...of what?

Re:units please

[Pope]

3M is headquartered in Minnesota, so it's clear the 3rd one just froze off from the cold.

Re:units please

[girlintraining]

In fact, it seems this issue has already left one Model S owner stranded with a dead battery nearly 100 miles from the nearest charging station.

Your quote from Futurama is amusing, but there's something even more amusing, or sad, depending on how you look at it. It's that one dude's car died, and somehow this is a reflection on the entire model line? I live in Minnesota, in the coldest major city by average temperature and up here, every cold snap results in thousands of dead batteries. The number one call out for tow truck companies out here isn't a flat tire but a dead battery. And simple physics provide plenty of explanation for why this is; Yet somehow, out of the thousands of cars that wouldn't start (to the point that it's a running joke: "Come for the low unemployment rate and good schools, stay because your car won't start")... one dude got selected and they say his electric car is somehow defective because of this?

Dude... if ONE car dies during a cold snap out of the entire model line, that's not a problem, that's an engineering success up here of epic proportions when it comes to cars. Maybe you've heard about our roads? We only have two seaons: Winter and road construction. Believe me... if a line of cars can survive up here and only one of them goes tits up in the cold, then someone's doing it right.

Re:units please

[femtobyte]

"Pretty much everything" in the universe is hydrogen (well, not counting dark matter, which also doesn't seem to freeze much) --- which you won't find frozen at 0F in many places.

Re: units please

[Anonymous Coward]

It's for the same reason that the interwebs are slow in the winter. The pipes get frozen. That's why everyone wants a fat pipe, so there will be some unfrozen space in the center where the bits can flow easily.

Re:units please

[cs668]

Because of the continental climate many of the north central US cities are colder than those in Alaska.

Were I live in MN for example the average low for January is 3F(-16C), in Embaras MN it is -8F(-22C), the average for Anchorage AK is 8F(-13C).

Re:units please

[Timmmm]

Welcome to England?

It's actually really annoying that no apps (Google Navigation, MyTracks etc.) let me have distances in miles and metres. It's either miles and feet, or kilometres and metres.

Re:units please

[MickLinux]

Welcome to the era of Rome. 100 miles is 100.000 paces, which is very a very appropriate unit when you are asking OUT OF CHARGE!!!?!?!

Re: units please

[AvitarX]

In what world is zero f negative thirty two c though? The plot thickens.

Self-solving problem

[i kan reed]

People disincentivized into buying electric cars, increasing CO2 emissions, raising planetary temperatures until electric cars work.

Re:Self-solving problem

[i kan reed]

Blithely accusing others of naivety, in defense of the scientifically unfounded: an activity I'm tired of dealing with.

Re:Self-solving problem

[Talderas]

As Mune, from Chrono Trigger, once said, "I'm the wind! Whoosh!"

Re:Someone's got a hate on for Tesla

[Anonymous Coward]

News you don't like is still news.

Blaming the cables?

[hubang]

I'd think the batteries would be the problem. Running serious current through the wires should keep them warm even in cold weather. Plus, conductivity should go up with colder temperature.

Now the batteries on the other hand.... Batteries don't hold charge very well in the cold. It's been one of the two big problems for electric cars since the 19th century.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[Andy Dodd]

Thing is, a number of people have indicated that they have used third-party cables and those have solved the issue.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[Luckyo]

As I understand the chemistry, they do in fact hold the charge just fine. They just become unable to release it as well. Easily demonstrable with a cell phone using similar Li-ION tech - take it outside and let to go to minus 20C and you'll see the charge indicator go low after usage that would normally only use about half of the charge in normal condition. Get it back inside and let it warm up and charge indicator goes back up to show the about half of the charge that remains.

I live in Finland and use one of the older nokia phones that has to survive the cold-warm environment switching on daily basis, so I'm quite familiar with the mechanics.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now the batteries on the other hand.... Batteries don't hold charge very well in the cold. It's been one of the two big problems for electric cars since the 19th century.

Actually, batteries tend to hold charge very well when cold. Cool/cold and dry is typically the recommended (below freezing or not varies).
The problem is that they aren't very willing to let go of, or accept new, charge when cold - just as most any chemical process slow down when it's cold. This makes it hard to draw current to run the car or to charge the batteries back up.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[sribe]

Thing is, a number of people have indicated that they have used third-party cables and those have solved the issue.

So it's obviously that the skin-effect electrons are out of phase with the ones in the middle, or that the wire is in the cable backward because, as everybody knows, the electrons flow through wire more easily in the same direction in which the wire was extruded. And that, of course, is why Monster brand charging cables would solve the problems ;-)

Re:Blaming the cables?

[Luckyo]

Actually this has been a concern with ALL cars. ICE cars don't work all that well in cold either. Ranging from cars refusing to start, lead batteries dying out and not supplying power to starter, fuel lines freezing, fuel filters failing, computer systems dying from condencation/corrosion damage and a vast multitude of over issues, northern climate proves a massive challenge to automotive industry even today. Not to even mention the whole "diesels don't work in the cold" issue we had until very recent times, I'd say this argument has been done to death and then some.

Batteries themselves actually fare pretty well in general.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[NewWorldDan]

Electricity is a funny thing. Had a problem with a piece of electronics that we make. The CPU wouldn't boot up if it was colder than about 20F. It turns out that the CPU has an internal voltage regulator that relies on an external capacitor. My engineer used an electrolytic cap, and at around 20F, the series resistance of the cap exceeded the tolerances of the CPU's voltage regulator and it went into a perpetual brown-out reset. Now, if the chip was up and running, it was happy and kept running, even if it got cold. So it's fixed now, but for some older hardware in the field with the problem, we don't send firmware updates between December and March. That's just one of many bits of stupid we've encountered over the years. In short, every piece of electronics you develop needs to be tested in the most absurd conditions you can find. And even that won't be enough. Never underestimate the creative stupidity of your customers.

Re:Blaming the cables?

[Luckyo]

Solid state batteries based on Ni-MH and Li-ION fair quite decently in cold actually. It's the liquid state ones, such as lead batteries that have severe problems.

Also internal combustion cars have severe problems with hot engine and cold fuel lines leading to it among other things. Just because your engine is running warm doesn't mean that things like fuel lines are. Not to even mention that you need completely different fuel and fuel filters on diesels to even run in the cold.\

As for electric cars proving this, I'm afraid this has already been proven. Priuses have been sold here for about a decade now. They work fine. This is no longer cutting edge new technology, but one that has been in the wild for a good decade and survived the test of time. Hybrids are only becoming more and more popular here in Nordics due to even increasing fuel prices and their excellent fuel economy. To an extent they are actually more reliable in the cold than pure ICE cars as they have less problems with cold starting, especially when compared to the other fuel economy car option which is turbo diesel.

Re:Whenever I hear about electric car failures

[xlv]

newsflash: batteries generate electricty from stored chemical energy

In Norway this is a problem

[kaliann]

Yes, it's related to the cold, but it also appears to be related to the specific issues of Norway's grid.

Some speculation is that the problem involves too-extreme fluctuations in the electricity provided by that grid and a charger-side software-mediated shutoff of charging. If that's the case, then this might be another charger issue that can be solved with an over-the-air "patch" like some of the previous problems.

While this is definitely a concern for Tesla and their Norwegian customers, it doesn't seem to be relevant to cars in North America.

Re:In Norway this is a problem

[0123456]

If you went to bed assuming you'd have a full charge in the morning, only to find that it only charged for 10 minutes before shutting off, you'd think that the charger was broken.

If it only charged for ten minutes before shutting off, the charger is broken.

Re:In Norway this is a problem

[TyFoN]

We have standard european 230V grid.
I've never had issues with anything using an european plug.
My guess is the cold. It's been bad lately.

Another thing is the number of teslas here. I see them _everywhere_.
With my Toyota I had to pay $25000 as a one time tax, yearly taxes, road tolls, gas at $9/gallon.

The tesla and other electrics are completely tax free. Not even VAT. No yearly taxes. You pass for free in the toll roads, and electricity is about 16 cents/kWh.
I could also drive past the traffic in the bus lanes and save one hr compared to driving, 30 mins compared to bus/train.

I'm seriously considering selling the toyota and getting a tesla, or buying a leaf as a 2nd car.

Re:Whenever I hear about electric car failures

[multimediavt]

I am reminded why most lifeforms has been storing energy chemically, as opposed to electrically, for billions of years.

Oh, you mean like this? Coming soon to an electric car near you! lol

Were having some trouble adapting them to the cold

[Terko]

Then we'll have to go out on Tauntauns

Re:Edgar Hansen Was Right

[Shinobi]

Well, as the joke goes here in Sweden:

Why are there no mental asylums in Norway?
It'd cost too much to put walls and a roof over the whole country....

It's almost as though cars need winterizing

[sandbagger]

Weird, eh?

I used to work in Northern Canada where all the US and some of the European manufacturers used to do cold weather testing. (The toolsets and options differ in North America which is why separate testing was done for Europe.) The Asian manufacturers were also doing cold testing there but their labs and warehouses ended up with all of the crappy real estate.

Did anyone seriously think the cold wouldn't be an issue? People need to get out of California and see what the rest of the world is like.

Re:It's almost as though cars need winterizing

[Luckyo]

As noted in the OP, the issue is not so much the battery tech but the Norway-specific cable that doesn't work. It charges in cold weather in other countries using different cables and it charges in Norway using a third party cable. But first party cable in Norway is apparently dysfunctional in the cold.

Reason given is that Norway has a different spec for the cable for specific local reasons.

Re:It's almost as though cars need winterizing

[CanHasDIY]

Did anyone seriously think the cold wouldn't be an issue? People need to get out of California and see what the rest of the world is like.

Merely pointing out that a world exists outside California is enough to blow a fair amount of minds, I'm afraid.

Even worse, you can extrapolate that to include, "outside 'Murica" for a large portion of the populace.

Re:It's almost as though cars need winterizing

[Cimexus]

Hmmmm...

I suppose as an Aussie I should look for any opportunity to put the boot into our mates across the Tasman...but I feel that I have to stand up for them here. While I can't offer any solid evidence either way, your statement immediately triggers my "that doesn't sound right" sense. I haven't spent a huge amount of time in NZ myself (about a month), but I feel that in their travel habits they are similar to Australians, who are huge travellers (both within Australia and overseas). 70-75% of adult Australians have a passport and they use it too, with roughly a quarter of the population of the country travelling overseas in any given year (unlike the US, Australia has both incoming AND outgoing immigration checks, so we have very accurate statistics on this stuff).

Now to be clear, I'm not saying that:

- Your observation isn't true; or

- That Kiwis are the same as Aussies (culturally or otherwise).

But something doesn't add up here. The two countries are located in the same area of the world, with similar migrant and historical ties to Europe and other areas of the world. Both have a 'gap year' tradition where overseas travel is almost a rite of passage for kids after finishing school. Both have similar entitlements in terms of annual leave/vacation, long service leave (which IMO is the #1 reason Americans don't travel more - they get much less time off than other OECD nations), etc. So your observation is a bit puzzling.

However, one thought I did have is that "going to the other island" or going overseas requires a flight in NZ (with the exception of those living close to a car ferry or alternative way of linking the two islands). Californians may have visited OR, NV, AZ and Mexico ... but they can just get in a car and ... go. The middle-class/wealthier families have flown to Hawaii, and I think THAT is the apt comparison as it requires a (comparatively expensive) flight. Car travel is less of a barrier than air travel, even disregarding price. Requires less planning and organisation. Less documentation too. That might explain it to some extent. I wonder what's the percentage of people in CA that have been to HI, versus the percentage of NZers who have been to the other island?

Anyway yeah ... your anecdote surprises me I have to say. Never thought of NZ as insular at all...

Re:Who Cares?

[DarkOx]

Because many of us are interested. Tesla, love'em or hate'm are trying to sell a pure electric car without the compromises at a price at least a segment of the mass market can afford. There are ton's of technical hurdles to doing that and its interesting to watch theory and design encounter real world conditions.

Tesla is somewhat unique in this area too, Yes there is all electric Leaf and that strange i-Miev thing but neither of those comes anywhere near offering the range and performance characteristics of what most of us Americans expect from our ICE powered vehicles, in other words they make compromises, where as most Slashdoter's would be quite pleased with the Tesla compared to their current ride, provided it continues to live up to expectations.

Meteorologists

[necro81]

apparently meteorologists have just discovered the term Polar Vortex

No, meteorologists have understood the term Polar Vortex for decades. Weathermen, newscasters, and ratings-minded producers have only just discovered the term.

Re:Meteorologists

[geogob]

Indeed. Working with a meteorology research center that has been studying the polar vortex year after year for many decades, I find that remark in TFS quite out of place.

News meteorologist are quite fond of playing with hype... Just wait until one "figures out" that there is a link between the polar vortex and the ozone hole *gasp*

why is everyone always snide about Tesla?

[SuperBanana]

apparently the darling child of the automotive industry

What's with the snide side commentary? Tesla isn't the "darling" of anyone. Snide, obnoxious comments like this are pretty much du jour in any coverage. Everyone's gunning for them, simply because they're odd kid on the block.

A Tesla catches fire after hitting a piece of massive road debris or getiting into a crash, and it's a fucking national emergency, their stock tanks, electric cars are suddenly "unsafe", etc.

Meanwhile: do you drive a Ford SUV made in the 90's? Twice, Ford weakened the roof and support pillars to save money, against the recommendation of their engineers.

Drive a 90's Ford? Their ignition switches were substandard and could short out, causing your car to catch fire at random. 8.6 million vehicles: http://articles.baltimoresun.c...

Drive a recent GM truck? They've also got a "randomly burst into fire" problem; 370,000 vehicles: http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/1...

Just google "GM recall fire" or "Ford recall fire" and read page after page of recalls that affect hundreds of thousands if not millions of vehicles.

Re:Someone's got a hate on for Tesla

[CanHasDIY]

Really? This is the first submission I've seen that includes articles from greencarreports.com that aren't completely apologetic to Tesla.

Not to mention, just because you don't like the facts the news presents doesn't mean it's not news.

Re:Who Cares?

[pr0fessor]

The name Tesla also holds a special place in geek culture. Choosing that as name for an electric car manufacture puts a greater expectation on the product.

Really?

[xplosiv]

What's next, are we going to post about a gasoline car not starting (am actually trying to help someone jumpstart their ICE right now, maybe I can get featured too)?

Anyways, just last week, someone made the trip from NYC to LA in his Tesla Model S, seen temps in the -20F range, and the car was just fine. I'm driving my EV in these same temps, no issues either (ignoring the lower range).

This is not a battery issue as some people seem to indicate.

This is why nobody reads the articles

[T.E.D.]

I'd advise Slashdot readers to take their typical tack, and not read the linked articles. They are crap. However (again, much like Slashdot), the comments can be enlightening.

What I'm seeing there is:

a) This is not about the cold, or winter at all. Its been a problem since they started delivering vehicles in August.

b) Due to all the bad press (from poor journalists such as these) over fires from improperly overcharged batteries, Tesla charging cables now try to detect when a battery is fully-charged and stop the charging process.

c) They do this by looking for changes in the current flow through them.

d) Norway's power grid is so dirty that it is fooling the cables. That's the issue, near as I can tell.

Re:This is why nobody reads the articles

[terjeber]

d) Norway's power grid is so dirty that it is fooling the cables. That's the issue, near as I can tell.

Not really, no. The power grid is perfectly "clean" and significantly more stable than in most places in the world. This is solely a wiring problem. Tesla didn't know that the wiring in Norway was slightly different than in the rest of Europe, and they are erroneously detecting ground faults when there are none.

Re:This is why nobody reads the articles

[Lucky_Norseman]

I'd advise Slashdot readers to take their typical tack, and not read the linked articles. They are crap. However (again, much like Slashdot), the comments can be enlightening.

What I'm seeing there is: .....

d) Norway's power grid is so dirty that it is fooling the cables. That's the issue, near as I can tell.

The power grid is not dirty, but uses a different system with no neutral wire and the voltage will therefore be floating with respect to earth. Tesla cables detect this as an earth-fault and disconnect.

Very little to do with Tesla. At all. Again.

[sl4shd0rk]

FTFA: "The issues are simply down to differences in the Norwegian network that Tesla has not experienced elsewhere"

can't trust these electric cars!

[shadowrat]

good old gas and diesel cars always work when it's below freezing.

Re:can't trust these electric cars!

[Brit_in_the_USA]

Not always, gas and desil cars have had problems over the years requiring multi-viscosity oils (W winter rating), additives to diesel to prevent gelling, batteries with cold crank amp ratings and engine block heaters. Many decades of R+D has help iron out the issues with gas and diesel cars in very cold weather and yet people still have cold morning start issues when the car is no longer in top condition. you could argue instead that with a hundred years of issues we should have stuck with the horse.....

Norwegian Issue

[smack.addict]

I am in the middle of the polar vortex (-13F today) and haven't been having any issues charging my Tesla. I also haven't heard of anyone else in MN having charging issues. This really appears to be a Norwegian issue moreso than a general Tesla + cold issue.

Re:Norwegian Issue

[smack.addict]

As a side note, the battery on my wife's BMW is reporting issues and she's having to leave it running :)

Gas cars have batteries too!

Summary: Tesla doing fine in the cold, BMW having issues

Re: If you live in Norway, stick with proven tech

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you live in Norway?
Do you have any basis for making recommendations for what Norwegians should do?
The Tesla actually provides a very good value proposition in Norway because of the way petrol-based cars are taxed (and electrical cars are not). Hence the Tesla being so popular in Norway.
Also, diesel-based cars can struggle in cold weather. For instance p, whenever I go on a mountain trip in winter in Norway I need to make sure that I fill petrol in the cold part of the country as the diesel being sold there is adjusted to handle the cold, whereas diesel from my hometown probably won't work below minus 15 degC.

BS Summary anyway

[DarthVain]

Some example of a guy stuck 100 miles away from a charging station as a result... AWAY.

If it was a charging issue, then shouldn't he still be at the charging station? If his voltage meter? was indicating the wrong amount, this has nothing to do with the charging station. If it was reading correctly as "low" and he opted to drive 100 miles into the middle of nowhere isn't that the fault of a stupid driver?

Anyway I think you summarized all the points, but I am still left wondering why (how) that left a man stranded 100 miles from a charging station...

Don't make fun of the POLAR VORTEX

[HellCatF6]

Here's a must see link for us weather nerds...

http://earth.nullschool.net/

make sure to tune into the 10 hPa setting and watch the polar vortex do its thing.

Thank you supercomputer...

Re:Who Cares?

[BasilBrush]

Tesla (and battery powered cars in general) being fundamentally broken in cold weather...

A problem unique to the Tesla charging cables supplied in Norway is not "fundamentally broken" let alone having any significance to battery powered cars in general.

Tesla just needs to fix the problem and distribute new cables to Norwegian customers. Big fucking deal.

Methinks you have an axe to grind, and truth isn't important to you.

Re:I call bullshit

[The Wannabe King]

The Norwegian power system is actually very different from the rest of Europe. The three phase system in Europe has 400 V between the phases and 230 V between each phase and the neutral wire which is grounded. Such a system is called a TN system (Terra Neutral).

Norway, on the other hand, has 230 V between the phases and is completely isolated from the ground. With a perfectly balanced load you can expect ~127 V ground-phase, but the voltage can stray far away from that. This is an IT system (Insulated Terra). The Tesla charging cable is quite picky with the grounding, so it isn't working as it should.

This has nothing to do with the connectors, which are the same in Norway as in Germany or France.

Re:Proof that electric cars can never work

[DarkOx]

And the reason this story is in the news is because internal combustion engines never have problems in cold weather.

I don't think most people are unaware or haven't experienced cold weather related problems with traditional ICE powered cars. We also know most of the time (modern cars anyway) they work just fine even in very cold conditions. On the other hand many of us have little or no experience with pure electric cars. So the failure modes and frequencies are in fact interesting whatever they may be, because my guess is at some point many of us will own an all electric car.

Re:I care

[rajanala83]

Might also be the electric heating.

Re:If you live in Norway, stick with proven tech

[The Wannabe King]

My Nissan Leaf works perfectly during the Norwegian winter, and the Tesla owners I know here in Norway are very satisfied with their cars. They have had some charging problems, though. This has nothing to do with the connectors (which are the same as in Germany and France), and everything to do with the strange grounding system used here. In short: Both wires are live, we have 230 V between the phases (all three), and ground is, well, somewhere, who knows really. This is what seems to confuse the Tesla charging cable as it believes it has detected a ground fault and shuts down. As third party charging cables work perfectly, Tesla probably needs to redesign the charging cable in Norway and give a new one to every customer.

Perhaps you shouldn't give such strong advice on topics you are not that familiar with?

Oh for fux sake

[Radical Moderate]

Let's see...Norway has a crappy grid that's giving Teslas problems, it's cold in Norway, so let's title this "Teslas Having Issues Charging in the Cold". Journalistic ethics, how do they work?

Look, I think Elon Musk is a jerk, I'll probably never own a Tesla, but the Tesla-bashing hype is getting old. And stupid.

Re:If you live in Norway, stick with proven tech

[Kjella]

Let's face it. Norway is often very cold in the winter.

Not particularly cold, given how far north we are due to the Gulf stream and particularly if you live near the coastline - and Norway is a lot of coastline. In the capital, the lowest temp last year was -17.2C, just above 0F, the average in the winter months is just below freezing. True, if I pick one of the coldest cities on the coldest nights it might be -30C, but that's rare.

If you fuck up and buy a 'green' car that won't start in the cold, then you die in the cold.

Oh please, it might be a big inconvienience calling a tow truck but nobody's going to die. If you're at home and it won't charge, stay home. If you're at a charging station there will be houses nearby. And if it breaks down in the middle of nowhere on a night with -30C then you're equally screwed as in an ICE car.

And there is this briefly mentioned problem of the fucking Norwegian electrical connectors not mating with standard electric car connectors...

Here we're talking about quite regular home connectors, we use the "Schuko" plug used in most of Europe or alternatively the IEC 60309 industrial plugs for faster charging, both very standard in Europe but different than the US. I guess that's what they're talking about since there's few other Teslas on the road in the colder parts of Europe.

The charging problems mentioned here have by the way been solved in a software patch already, Norwegian papers covered that on last saturday. With charging stations popping up in more and more places, rather abundant and cheap electric power and very nice tax breaks on electric cars I can assure you Tesla will continue to sell well in Norway.

Re:Proof that electric cars can never work

[PopeRatzo]

Those of us in the north

I live in Chicago, Illinois, where the outdoor temperature last night was -15 F. Windchill, -40F.

I had to promise my car that I'd wax it every weekend this summer if she would just start this morning.

My wife's car, 10 years newer than mine, did not start at all. Heavy snow followed by deep freeze is hell on internal combustion engines that are not kept in a heated garage overnight. I was sarcastically trying to make the point that suddenly these journalists have discovered that cars don't do well in record cold temperatures, but only the electric ones. I don't feel like reading this press release, but I'll bet the story didn't mention that probably 1/3 of the cars in Chicago couldn't start this morning.