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Is your electric vehicle lying to you?
We wanted to know why the most technologically advanced cars on the road can’t seem to give drivers more accurate range estimates.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Electric vehicles are zippy, super smart and give off zero emissions, but there’s an elephant in the vroom: true battery range.
The estimated battery range for electric vehicles — especially in the cold — is more of a “guess-o-meter,” according to one Twin Cities EV expert.
Our cold weather tests in two different Tesla models showed between 37% and 43% fewer miles driven than the estimated range showed.
We wanted to know why the most technologically advanced cars on the road can’t seem to give drivers more accurate range estimates.
The Tests
Our journey for answers started with a series of tests, first in a Tesla Model Y Long Range and next in a Tesla Model 3 Long Range.
We charged the Model Y at a Supercharger until it read 258 miles until empty (almost a full charge) and drove it from Minnetonka to St. Cloud, a 118-mile round trip of mostly highway driving in 29-degree weather.
For this long-range test, the car dropped 191 miles in the estimated battery range, even though we only drove 118 actual road miles.
Four other shorter tests (under 40 miles) with the Model Y and Model 3 showed similar results. Each trip got between 57% and 63% of the miles estimated on the range gauge.
Next, we wanted to find a warm-weather comparison for the Model Y. We replicated the exact same 118-mile trip to St. Cloud but on an 80-degree day. This time, the car used 21 more miles on the battery than actually driven.
After every trip, the vehicle’s software told us where the car used more energy than estimated — but that does do us any good after the fact.
The Experts
“I probably lose 30 to 40 percent in the cold,” said Jukka Kukkenon, a former Ford Motor Company engineer who teaches an EV class at the University of St. Thomas and runs an EV consulting business called Shift2Electric. “As long as you are of it, you’re fine, but you have to know about it.”
Kukkenon says it’s no secret that batteries lose their power in cold weather. It’s why combustion-engine car batteries sometimes don’t crank in the frigid temps.
In the case of Tesla, he says the batteries use some of their power to consistently keep the batteries at an optimal temperature in the winter and summer.
The other major factor in frigid weather? The battery’s got to keep you warm.
Unlike combustion engines that use a running engine’s wasted heat to warm the cabin, electric vehicles must use battery power to heat a coil and warm the cabin.
The U.S. Department of Energy says about two-thirds of the extra energy consumed in the cold is due to simply heating the cabin.
Again, why don’t EVs reflect these facts on your battery gauge?
The EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests all new car models to produce range and emissions standards for the auto industry.
The agency uses five different tests on all-electric vehicles:
- City test (no HVAC)
- Highway test (no HVAC)
- High-speed test (no HVAC)
- Hot test at 95 degrees (AC used to cool cabin)
- Cold test at 30 degrees (heat used for cabin)
The agency then weighs each test and averages them together to produce a city and highway estimate for mileage on a full battery.
However, we (and several other media outlets) found the weighted average for full electrics doesn’t even come close to the true range in cold weather.
“The car needs to sit in here 12 hours. It has to be at room temperature before you start,” said Paul Steevens, an engineering aid at Minnesota State University-Mankato.
The university has a dynamometer (known as a dyno), which can spin the wheel of a vehicle at various speeds to record how far and efficiently cars can travel.
MSU-Mankato can run the same tests used by the EPA.
“It is efficient at just moving itself, but as soon as you add more [heat] and take it out of those parameters, that range falls way off,” said Steevens.
The EPA says its range tests create “reliable, repeatable and fair” results across all models.
EPA & car company responses
We reached out to Tesla, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and General Motors for comment on their electric vehicles’ mileage estimates in cold weather.
Nissan was the only car company to respond.
“Nissan’s official EV range estimates are actually calculated by the EPA, rather than internal Nissan estimates,” said Nissan spokesperson Jeff Wandell. “That being said, yes, it is common to see some range reduction when in cold temperatures. However, Nissan does have some features that help combat this, including a battery heater on vehicles like the LEAF and specific driving modes that help conserve range in certain situations, including cold temperatures.”
A spokesperson for the EPA also responded to a number of questions we asked. Namely, if the EPA would consider offering a warm and cold climate fuel economy label considering how differently EVs perform depending on the temperature.
“The label range is a single number meant to represent the overall average range over the year,” said Shayla Powell with the Office of Public Affairs for the EPA. “No single number can capture the higher range in the spring, summer and fall when temperatures are moderate and then lower in the winter when temperatures are cold. When EPA last considered changes to the fuel economy label, we concluded a single average range result would be more useful to consumers when comparing two vehicles than a list of different ranges for different conditions.”
Given the EPA’s response, and the lack of response from car manufacturers, we don’t expect the fuel range standards to change for EVs anytime soon.
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CHANHASSEN, Minn. — Predicted weather conditions have triggered a Red Flag Warning for virtually the entire state of Minnesota Thursday, indicating an extreme danger for wildfires.
The National Weather Service (NWS) says the forecast – extremely low humidity and dewpoints and wind gusts in the neighborhood of 40 mph – will exacerbate already tinder-dry conditions, increasing the likelihood that a wildfire could spark and quickly spread.
Here are the counties impacted, and when Red Flag Warnings will be in effect.
8:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. – Northwest Minnesota: Becker, Beltrami, Clay, Clearwater, Grant, Hubbard, Kittson, Lake Of The Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Otter Tail, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, Roseau, Wadena and Wilkin.
11:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. – Central and southern Minnesota: Anoka, Benton, Big Stone, Blue Earth, Brown, Carver, Chippewa, Chisago, Cottonwood, Dakota, Dodge, Douglas, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Hennepin, Houston, Isanti, Jackson, Kanabec, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Le Sueur, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Mower, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Olmsted, Pipestone, Pope, Ramsey, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Rock, Scott, Sherburne, Sibley, Stearns, Steele, Stevens, Swift, Todd, Traverse, Wabasha, Waseca, Washington, Watonwan, Winona, Wright and Yellow Medicine.
12:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. – Northeast Minnesota: Aitkin, Carlton, Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca, Koochiching, Pine, and St. Louis.
Additionally a Special Weather Statement has been issued for Cook and Lake counties in northeast Minnesota where wind and relative humidity are predicted to produce near-critical fire weather conditions. Outdoor burning is not advised.
Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is telling residents to refrain from burning in counties where a Red Flag Warning is in effect, and to check any recent burning to ensure the fire is completely out. The DNR will not issue or activate open burning permits for large vegetative debris burning during a Red Flag Warning, and campfires are strongly discouraged.
“When fire risk is this high it’s important to be careful with anything could spark a wildfire,” said Karen Harrison, DNR wildfire prevention specialist.
Justin Ekelman’s business, Shrimply the Best, has a fan following.
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — There are things you expect to see along a desert highway and then there are Justin Ekelman’s hand-painted signs.
Drivers on State Route 347 between Phoenix and Maricopa usually pass them before they see the old, white cargo van Ekelman parks in a dirt lot off Riggs Road.
He is a man, with a van, who sells seafood.
“I do this year-round, I sweat it out and then when the winter comes, the snowbirds come back and it’s amazing,” Ekelman said. “You can’t bring enough; you can’t fill this thing enough.”
He is also not oblivious to what some people think when they see his Pike Place Market on four wheels: Seafood from a van in the desert? It seems a little sketchy. And a little dangerous.
But if you stop, Ekelman will proudly show you his frozen food vendor permit and other licenses one needs to sell shrimp and scallops on the side of the road.
Ekelman’s business, Shrimply the Best, has a fan following. In fact, one-third of voters in a recent InMaricopa poll named his seafood van their favorite food source.
Shrimp from Rocky Point are his bestsellers but Ekelman keeps his chest freezer stocked with Caribbean lobster tails, mussels and a variety of fish, too. An extension cord plugged into a gas-powered generator keeps everything frozen even when it’s 115 degrees outside.
“If it was sitting in a cooler in ice, it may be a little weird,” Ekelman said.
Selling seafood out of a van has provided Ekelman, a single father of two teenage boys, with enough to pay his bills and keep a roof over their heads. He feels more blessed than he did 15 years ago during the Great Recession.
Ekelman bought his first home in 2008, then lost his job as a carpet and air duct cleaner.
“Long story short, I ended up having to short sell my home, lived with my parents for a year and a half. My dad said come do this,” Ekelman said.
His father, a former door-to-door meat salesman, ventured into the roadside seafood business 40 years ago. Ekelman said his dad used wet rags to keep himself cool during the summer months.
“I did it one year like that. Why would you do that when you could buy a $130 air conditioner? I made a stand, put it in my window, now I have a little cold room,” Ekelman said, pointing to the curtains at the front of his van.
His father retired more than a decade ago and Ekelman retained many loyal customers. The business has not changed much since then, including the rudimentary hand-painted signs along the highway. Those are informative – and nostalgic.
“Ahead: Rocky Point Shrimp,” one of them reads.
“I go to Home Depot, get the wood, get them cut and paint them up, that’s how my dad always did it,” Ekelman said. “I have people stopping all the time saying ‘I can make you professional signs’ and I‘m like, ‘Bro, this is what people see. It’s a lot cheaper.’”
Ekelman also gets his seafood from the same source: His dad’s friend who owns a distributing company and gets seafood shipped to the Valley from across the globe. The company supplies seafood to restaurants, cruise liners and small fry (we couldn’t resist) like Ekelman.
“A lot of people assume I am getting it all from Mexico, it’s not,” Ekelman said. “A lot of the shrimp do but I just had salmon from Alaska, my lobster tails right now are out of the Bahamas, I have got orange roughy from New Zealand, the catfish is from here in the U.S., all sorts of different places but it is wild caught.”
Ekelman said he gets a good deal buying wholesale but the COVID pandemic forced him to raise his prices.
“My lobster tails, I was paying $5 a tail cheaper near 2019, COVID hit and everything went up,” Ekelman said. “I have tried to keep it pretty reasonable but my profit margins have gone down.”
Shrimply the Best accepts cash and credit cards.
A pound of raw, frozen shrimp ranges from $9 to $12 per pound depending on the size and type. Ekelman sells a 5-pound bag of extra jumbo, U-15 size tiger shrimp for $60 a bag. Chilean black mussel meat is $10 per pound. Wild-caught U.S. catfish sells for $6 per pound and orange roughy, a deep-sea perch caught in the waters off New Zealand goes for $12 per pound.
When Ekelman has no customers, he sits in the cab of the van with his makeshift air conditioning unit and reads his Bible.
He’s especially proud of his lobster tails, which are nearly as big as his forearm. An 18–20-ounce tail goes for $36 or two for $68.
“Mother’s Day is crazy; I could fill this thing with lobster and it’s just gone,” Ekelman said. “Father’s Day? Well, we don’t get treated as well as the ladies do sometimes.”
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The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way.
WELCOME, Minn. — Nine students were injured Wednesday morning when a truck crashed into a bus in southern Minnesota.
The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way at the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, according to the Redwood County Sheriff’s Office. In a press release, officials say the nine students sustained “minor injuries” and were transported to a nearby hospital.
The initial investigation indicates that the truck, an F550, was traveling north on County Road 7, while the bus, which was providing service to the Wabasso Public School District, was traveling east on 280th Street. The news release says the truck had the right-of-way at the intersection.
“We are grateful that no serious injuries happened to our students, the driver or the other driver, however, nine students were transported to area hospitals for follow-up treatment,” Superintendent Jon Fulton said in a letter to parents. “… The District and 4.0 bus transportation company is praying for a speedy recovery for the students and families involved.”
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