Stuck in I95 ice storm, traffic jam

I do want to encourage EVs, but this editorial looks to me like a lot of competitive FUD. Having last week made a 400 mile trip trying to beat a very heavy snow forecast nearly certain to cause an I-90 mountain pass closure somewhere around 300-350 miles into the route (which it did, for 89 hours, but starting several hours later than I was guesstimating), I can't sympathize with many of the author's statements.

I thought sliding on glazed ice and packed snow was more a function of tire suitability and driver behavior, than of propulsion system.

OBDII-port monitors do as well for gassers lacking similar gauging.

Gas drivers rarely top up their tanks? What world did he come from? While I know some with that bad habit, most I know do fill up. And with this winter storm forecast, even starting the route with a nearly full tank, I had already topped up twice before reaching the road closure risk zone, just in case I couldn't detour to my back-up destination and might to have to car-camp overnight and the next day.

If everyone had an EV, I don't know how their "long lines at snowed-in and overwhelmed stations" issue would have been any different. This particular case sounds like he was in better shape because relatively few drivers were competing for his refueling source.

I wish. They are about 30 miles apart on the final Interstate portion of my trip up to the mountain crest, totaling 28 connections in the hundred miles leading up. Then 22 connections in the next 35 miles. For a road averging 27,000 vehicles per day.

But the first half+ of my route had just one mapped charger location with 2 Tesla connections of 8kW.

Yes, many more will be installed as adoption increases. But that doesn't mean the 'long lines' issue will be meaningfully different when mobs of suddenly unstuck vehicles all head together for recharging.

That is lethal hogwash. The two drivers who died in floodwaters here last week didn't die because their gas engines were inundated. They died because floodwaters floated and swept their vehicles off the road into deeper water to gradually sink, killing them by drowning or hypothermia in the dark of night. EVs won't fix that.

 

Most people probably do fill up. The issue in that section of I95 is that it is heavily built up. There are gas stations accessible at every exit. With plentiful supply, people are more likely to let the tank get low before stopping. Once stuck in traffic, there is nothing to do.

 

I've traveled that stretch of I-95 at least a hundred times. I can't recall a trip when I didn't have at least a half tank of gas in my car at all times because gas is expensive in DC so I would fill up at the NC border and have plenty of gas to get back to that cheap station.

I've been on I-95 when bridges were totally closed and a multi-hour detour was necessary and gas gars were in a panic tring to find the few rural gas stations on the detour. That was before EVs.

And sat is a 2 hour backup on I-95 in my Prius v feeling smug as I used such little gas compared to the spewing monsters next to me.

I read the full article in the Post.

Golly, you could have made money with the properly located porta-potty. An aspect not covered in the Post.

 

When we were caught in the blizzard of 1974, we noticed it was typical for the stranded drivers behind you to turn their headlights off when you got out of the car to deal with that.

Thinking back on it, I wonder what we all thought we were accomplishing having our headlights on the rest of the time.

I typically treat 1/2 tank as my "not to go beyond without fillup" point. Therefore, the average amount of fuel in my tank is 3/4.

Lots of people wait for near-empty and then fill up. The average amount of fuel in their tanks is 1/2.

 

Ever since a very unpleasant (but not nearly as unpleasant as it coul᠎da been) experience in Virginia: WAG bags.

Weirdly, even the updated link in that post now goes to a 404 page. You'd think the company that sells them would quit changing their URLs all the time so people could make working links to their products.

 

Been there, done that. Except the bridge closure. My 10 hour trip has taken as long as 15 hours. Skippers is my usual refueling stop.

Half tank on the display is likely less than half. Sometimes, it seems like a third. Between the rain and holiday traffic, the cars aren't getting their best fuel economy. Drivers may realize they should get off and get gas, but after hours on the road, they are thinking of just getting home without anymore delay. Then snow starts, and things start freezing. Then there is an accident, and now they are stuck.

 

My '78 Ford was like that, but on every gasser since, half on the gauge has been well over half a tank, due to significant reserve margin below E.

I have noticed that it is common to turn off headlights during all sorts of lengthy delays, whether for construction, crash response, or winter road clearing. Many folks turn engines off. Whether ignition is fully off, or turned to accessory mode for radio updates, having headlights on squanders 12V battery charge.

Cabin set to a tropical 70F, in a balmy 40F ambient? Not us.

Sorry, I am unable to run a test from home, because home doesn't fall to my temperatures of interest. Our winter travels are for skiing, so we always have a decent supply of cold weather ski clothing to be pulled on as temperatures drop, with even more on hand on overnight trips. Inside the cabin has a big advantage of no wind chill, so no need to create a cabin camping mode temperature above 35F. Start with outside temperatures at +10F (Gallatin County MT, among our favorite destinations, overnight averages 9F in December), and continue down to at least -20F (the coldest night on our last pre-pandemic ski trip). Extra credit for matching the coldest ski trip temperatures I have driven in, -36 to -46 F (depending on whose thermometer is referenced). (No, we didn't ski anywhere near that cold, just started driving home.)

I'm seeing that the 2021 Model 3 has a better heat pump than your 2019. But also reports this week of some of those heat pumps failing.

 

And most also have a high reserve over full. The first quarter of the gauge seems to always put more miles on the trip meter.

 

On all mine, the extra on the top has always(*) been much less than the 100-125 miles extra on the bottom below E.

(*) except that '78, which had negative margin on the bottom, running out with its needle still above E.

 

I read that article too. The author pointed out that he charged the car to 100% before leaving on that trip. If he used the typical Tesla charging technique of doing partial charges (quicker charging at lower SOC) and just enough to get to the destination.... he might not have made it.

 

Bob, the point made was that the he had 50 miles of range left because he was charging at home and not relying on the algorithm that Tesla uses when it plans out your charging points.

When I enter snow country in bad weather we make sure that we gas up frequently and that we carry food, water and blankets too. A post on this site in the last week said that their prime used .10 gallons of gas per hour to heat the car in extreme cold. That's about 2.5 gallons per day, or almost 5 days of heat. Not too bad.

How many watt-hours does it take to heat that model 3 when it's stuck in a snow storm?

 

when we hit the beltway in january on the way to florida, the tank is getting close to empty.
we fill up that evening near the hotel in fredericksburg, va for the next day.
a traffic jam like that would be a disaster for us.

 

Been using Skippers for 20 years. Somewhere about Exit 7 in VA IIRC. That intersection's establishments sure have increased.

A gas tank is a wondrous thing and all the gauge readouts are supposed to be dictated by SAE standards. Referring to J398 Appendix B Figure B1: Beyond Low Fuel warning there is Empty readout but even beyond that there is a reserve that you go into at the risk of bricking your car if you totally exhaust the reserve. The half tank readout is supposed to be exactly at the half way point between auto-shut-off and indicated Empty.

 

TL;DW.
At what temperatures?

He isn't dressed the way I need to be when outside at -26C.

That is a 2021, your 2019 doesn't have a similar system:
https://electrek.co/2020/12/03/tesla-model-3-heat-pump-comparison-results/

But the new system is still having many problems and failures:
https://electrek.co/2021/01/01/tesla-model-3-y-cars-plagued-heating-issues/
https://electrek.co/2022/01/12/tesla-owners-losing-heat-extreme-cold-heat-pumps-failing-badly/
Tesla Heat Pumps Failing In Cold, Tips To Help Until Fix Arrives