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Comment by jnwatson | Hacker News Reader

I had the misfortune of renting a Tesla right before a severe cold snap in Virginia. I was charging at 4 miles an hour at the public charging station. I’m not sure I would buy an EV in an area where it stays below freezing for weeks at a time.

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Norway has the highest rate of EV adoption in the world. I live in Minnesota and none of my friends or neighbors have had problems with their EVs.

Level 2 charging (i.e. 240V home charging) is not affected by cold temperatures unless it's well below freezing, like below 0 F.

Most Norwegian BEV owners also own an ICE for the winter. Adoption is high due to incentives.

More importantly, most of the places where people live in Norway are not actually that cold. In Oslo it hasn't dropped below -20C / -4F since 2010.

Global warming came in handy for once.

-4F is pretty cold, especially compared to temps in VA in the US. I'd be a little surprised if VA got to below 10F in the last 10 years.

Depends on where. Probably not in Richmond, certainly not in Virginia Beach. But up in the mountains it gets chilly. Winchester apparently averages a little over one day a year where the low dips below 0°F.

Most folks would consider -20C cold AF.

> not actually that cold

> In Oslo it hasn't dropped below -20C / -4F since 2010.

-20C is brutally cold, far colder than any coldest winter day I ever experienced while living in the northeast USA.

Man oh man you wouldn't enjoy eastern Europe in the 90s.

Aside from the general post-communism, we had -30C cold snaps.

But yeah, snot freezes at around -18C - I consider this the point at which things become universally unpleasant regardless how prepared you are.

That being said during a cold snap of -22C I saw my neighbours struggle to start their ICE cars while my hybrid just brutally kicked the engine into action.

Where I live we usually have that for at least two weeks during winter, and the rest of the time hovering around -10C (for two to three months). We don't have much snow though, and little wind, so it's really not that bad if you are dressed properly.

That's crazy. I've had my Model 3 in northern Virginia for over four years. Charging at any Tesla charger has always been quick, freezing cold still 100+ miles in 20 minutes. Charging at the free chargers at the grocery store with an adapter in the dead of winter isn't the fastest, but it's always greater than four miles per hour.

The only car temperature problem I've had in the winter in Virginia hasn't been with an EV at all - just a VW diesel that had trouble starting due to extreme cold.

That seems like a very low power charger that had nothing to do with the cold.

Sounds like an L1 or malfunctioning L2. I’d never revert to ICE in cold weather climates. Handling is great and ability to preheat (without idling) is a wonderful convenience on cold mornings.

Growing pains. Not really unlike how it used to be hard to start cars in cold weather- newer cars have heaters built into the battery, since its basically zero-cost, and enough insulation that they can get up to temp quite quickly. Heating the cabin is a bigger issue, since it's pretty hard to reduce what is a significant drain.

4 miles/hour is very, very slow. It's the maximum output of a standard wall charger. Maybe you were at a level 1 charger?

I live in the upper midwest where it gets quite cold, and I absolutely love my EV. I charge at home off of a regular wall outlet, and haven't had any issues during the winter. The trick is to charge overnight at home, slow and steady wins the race.

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