Summertime EV

Charging my hybrid EV last summer was a rewarding episode in my life-long automobile love affair. The home charger would power up the electrical renewal overnight and we learned to take advantage of after peak rates that began at 8 or 9 PM .  We saved money by charging overnight and it was elegant to wake up in the morning to a fully refreshed battery.  And then we would hum around town without gasoline, fumes, or noise.

And then came winter.  As temperatures dropped to below freezing,  we began to notice that the fully refreshed battery was only storing about half of its promised capacity.  The distances we could travel under electric power were considerably reduced and our summertime reliability was frozen like Mill Pond ice cover. 

We heard stories of stranded EVs in the recent  Chicago cold snap and of drivers unable to renew their batteries in cold temperatures at all.  Powerless EVs were being towed by gasoline-powered wreckers away from cold charging stations.

We heard of a meeting of the BEP that was cancelled due to weather disabled power outages in Augusta, Maine.  And this meeting was the same group of unelected government officials who were tasked with the mandated adoption of EV production and sales for our near term future. These winter challenged EV advocates should have their meetings in the summer and choose to table EV mandates until their winter meetings are accessible by their unvetted futuristic power scheme.