EV drivers issued warning in freezing weather as mechanic claims they’re ‘not made for the cold’

EV drivers are being warned about freezing temperatures – as an expert mechanic said the vehicles are “not made for the cold”. 

Temperatures as low as -14C have been playing havoc with the UK’s transport network but battery-powered vehicles can be particularly susceptible.

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AA President Edmund King urged owners to take action by charging their cars at home where possible and making sure to warm them up.

It comes after Tesla owners in Chicago, US started abandoning their motors after being unable to charge them in sub-zero temperatures.

Mr King said: “EV drivers should consider keeping their cars plugged in overnight and pre-conditioning the car, which in many models can be done via an app from the comfort of your own home.”

Scotty Kilmer, who has over 50 years of experience in the motors business, has shed some light on why electric cars struggle with the cold weather.

He told The Sun Online: “What people don’t understand is you can’t charge a cold battery.

“It could take as much as 45 minutes for a charger to warm the battery before it even charges anything.

“They’re not made for cold weather.”

This comes down to the fact that lithium-ion batteries, which power most commercial EVs work by a process called electrolysis, where two pieces of metal react while submerged in an electrolyte liquid (in this case a lithium salt solution).

However, when the electrolyte solution is very cold, it significantly reduces the speed of the reaction and, therefore, the amount of power that can be generated in a given time.

As Scotty mentioned, it could take almost an hour for your battery to warm up to the extent that it can produce power at its normal rate.

EVs cannot run without a large amount of electricity, meaning that performance and range can be heavily affected by the cold.

Indeed, just this week drivers in the US found out the hard way as Tesla owners were forced to abandon their cars at charging stations.

One motorist, Tyler Beard, tried charging for six hours across two days, only to find his car still on 0%.

Another labelled the cars a “bunch of dead robots” as they stacked up in charging stations turned EV graveyards.

However, Mr King reassured motorists that the same is less likely to happen in the UK. This is because temperatures in Britain rarely plunge as low as they do regularly in parts of America. 

He said: “We have not seen a massive jump in the number of EVs out of charge.

“It basically runs at just over 2% of breakdowns for EVs being out of charge.

“In the US lots of those had been left overnight when they had basically frozen before they went to charge.”

Telsa has been contacted for comment

It comes after an expert revealed a NASA-approved hack for defrosting your windscreen this winter.

And it wasn’t all bad news for EV owners, as a price war between China and the West could see drivers benefit this year, according to industry research.

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