Featured Cold Weather Could Impact Your Electric Car

You learn something new every day.

 

Yep, what a stupid IMO report.
Batteries don't charge as readily or maintain charge as much once temperatures fall below Zero.

Why is that a "Consumer Alert" and not a "No Shit Sherlock" report?

The owner in this report, doesn't seem to have a garage either, which means he's plugging in his vehicle outside in the below 0 temperatures. His battery might more readily accept a full charge, if he was charging his vehicle in a heated garage.

Once you are talking about temperatures at Zero or below? You should expect some loss of efficiency, whether it's a full electric, hybrid or regular ICE.
I don't really need a "Consumer Alert" to point that out, in a tone that insinuates some evil plot by automakers to not reveal what should be obvious.

 

Is CTV going to run a report about how the EVs can get better range in warm weather?

 

I don't know if I agree that the dealership has the responsibility to tell buyers what should be obvious.
I mean, the reported range is described as "up to". IMO "up to" automatically suggest the converse reality, that you may not always get "up to" that amount.

You have to know that outside factors...some as mentioned that can be controlled or helped. Who doesn't know batteries are less efficient when it becomes cold...and cold to the point of below zero?

Plus I guess I just wouldn't expect dealerships or salesmen to be that type of forthcoming.
When I bought my Prius, I knew from my participation at Prius Chat, and other research, that my MPG would vary, and be influenced by environmental factors...like winter. But of course when you walk into the dealership, all you are going to see is the 50 mpg signs. And no salesman is going to walk up to you and say anything like....you can expect to get less in cold weather.

You might be able to talk me into a marginal disclaimer explaining that electric range, and charge can be affected by severe cold weather temperatures, but I still think it's not a "Consumer Alert" type of situation.

 

Of course not. It's the same nonsense we've been dealing with for many, many years now. That's why I'm creating my own videos to show...

 

Yep people don't get it. People also don't understand energy consumption in general. If you are coming from an ICE to a HEV, PHEV, or BEV the realization that city mileage is better than highway mileage can be crazy talk. I routinely get asked "how many miles can it go?" with my Leaf. When I answer between 40 and 120 miles depending on how its driven, they look at me like I'm crazy. It's the same thing with the Prius. We make a huge deal over 47mpg vs 50mpg with threads of "omg my mileage is soooo terrible, why????" But when your 20mpg vehicle gets 17mpg in the winter, it's expected and 2.5x worse.

 

The part I disagree with is the "customers leaving their lot fully understand the vehicle". Preposterous. The freaking manuals are hundreds of pages thick. Myriads of options. Thousands of variables relative to the driving conditions.

What hand holding or even manuals do you get with a cell phone or tablet these days? Or the latest Operating System?

I've left the dealer's lot at my request buying a Honda $40k product with as little as 30 seconds of "help me program the navigation to get me home". The rest I learned by experimentation and rereading the manuals when I entered an area where I wanted more info.

The salespeople are sales people. I guarantee I walk into the lot knowing more than the sales guy does about the characteristics of the car I might want. And I can't count the number of falsehoods the sales people have made (oh the maps are updated for free via download one cost me $400+) and I don't attribute it to deliberately lying, just ignorance. Heck, they don't meet their quota they get fired. No time to learn even one brands characteristics. When was the last time you saw a sales person who had been there 10 years? The back office people are sales people (insurance, warranty, paint protection, etc). The service advisors are sales people. The mechanics are overwhelmed with the number of models and the number of changes year to year and option to option.

So who is going to do this customer education? And what defines "fully understand"?

Remember the ad which said "the educated consumer is our best customer"?