Welcome to season three of MTE's Plugged in podcast.

This season, we will continue to explore the world of electric vehicles.

Whether you're a seasoned EV driver or you're just beginning your journey into electric vehicles, this podcast is for you.

For a more enhanced experience, be sure to watch the video version of this podcast that will be linked in the show notes.

Welcome to MTE's Plus.

Welcome to the Plugged in podcast.

I'm Amy Byers, and as always, I'm here with Brandon Wagner.

And first and foremost, we both want to wish everyone out there a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

And I'm going to let Brandon kind of introduce our segment for today.

Thanks, Amy.

Well, today we're going to revisit a podcast we did last year about winter driving tips for electric vehicle owners.

You know, Amy, for some of our listeners may be their first winner with their ev.

And it takes just a little more intentionality than normal with that cold weather.

There's things you can do to maintain your battery range and maintain the life of your battery.

And so it's not like it's, you know, rocket science, but just things to be aware of.

So we thought it would be a good time to revisit that episode and share those tips maybe with some of our first winter EV drivers.

Right.

And maybe a good refresher for those who've had it for a few years.

So hope you enjoy this episode and we will be back with a new episode on January 10th.

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's.

So it's just going to be me and you today, Brandon.

And, you know, we were talking the other day as we were stuck at home, couldn't get out because of the weather, about how, you know, this would be a good topic right now, how to drive in an EV in ice and snow.

So I know you came into work a few times last week, so I'm anxious to hear about that.

And just kind of you were wondering what other people thought.

So you took to our EV car Facebook group and you asked the members of the club, hey, how did you fare?

So we still have some snow on the ground.

So this is, this is a very timely podcast.

First of all, I have a personal question.

So my husband and I were talking.

We actually got out for the first time yesterday.

You know, things started.

Our neighborhood was a solid sheet of ice the whole time.

It still has ice this morning.

But, you know, we could, we felt we could get out, but we were kind of trapped for a while.

But we got out.

We were riding around and we were talking about the EVs.

I was talking about having, you know, going in tomorrow to work to do this podcast.

And one thing we were wondering is, you know, EVs are heavy.

They're a heavy car.

They've got these batteries, they're spread out all over the car.

And.

And I know, like, when you think about people that drive trucks, a lot of times they'll weigh down the back of their trucks.

You know, you want a heavy car and ice and when you're on the ice and stuff.

So when you're thinking about EVs, I mean, is that an advantage?

I mean, did you notice that with your EV because of the heaviness of it, because of the weight distribution?

Did that in itself help with your driving?

Yeah, it did.

I was really surprised how.

Well, so I have a Tesla Model Y and it's all wheel drive.

So I thought between the all wheel drive and it being heavy because of it, you know, it's being, it has all those batteries, I thought, I'm just kind of curious to see how it does.

So that.

Plus my wife and kids were home, their school had been out.

So I thought, you know, having three kids at home, I need to go into work.

You know, I get stir crazy easily.

So I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna sort of take out how an EV drives on the icy roads.

But I was pleasant and you had a long commute.

This wasn't like I drove two blocks to work, right?

It's about 45 miles and, you know, some back roads, a lot of interstate.

And I'll tell you, the interstates were not good Monday, even Tuesday, they were still a little risky.

So.

But I learned a couple things right away that I was surprised how well it handled.

But I was also real.

Some of the features that I love about my Tesla, they were bothersome for me.

So, for instance, it's really quick accelerating, right?

I mean, that's one of the fun things about an EV is you can hit the gas and go, well, that's not what you want to do, obviously, on ice.

So the first thing I did was turn the acceleration to chill mode.

It's like chill or sporty mode.

So I turned it to chill mode and that made a big difference.

But yeah, the weight was a big deal.

And I think too, my tires, I've got 20,000 miles on my tires.

They need to be rotated on that.

But the tires on EVs are a little bit bigger.

And unfortunately, they're a little more expensive because they've got to handle all that weight.

So it seemed like my tires helped me out as well.

Well, that's good.

So did you notice any other issues when during your drive that tips maybe?

Because, you know, I mean, it is still January.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We still have, you know, February to go.

Even March, we've had snow.

We've ice storms in March.

So this may not be the only time we have to deal with these slick roads.

So any other things that you found before we go to see what our Facebook friend said, Any other things that you found as you were going along?

Yeah.

So I think one thing was the regenerative braking.

Regenerative braking or one pedal driving.

That's tricky because, you know, obviously when you're driving in your ice vehicle, you don't want to slam on the brakes.

Well, as soon as you take your gas off, you're kind of applying some brake pressure there.

So that scared me.

And with Tesla, you can't turn it off.

So that kind of got me thinking.

I talked to someone here that also had driven in, and they said they turned it off in their car.

And I thought, you know what?

I want to kind of see what other things people are doing.

We were always thinking about different podcast topics and ideas.

Oh, yeah.

And we've done cold weather driving and trying to think about how can you squeeze as much of that range out as you can.

But this is a totally different situation.

We hadn't really anticipated.

No.

And.

And, you know, I know we just did a code weather driving recorded it.

I don't know that it's aired yet, but we've recorded it, so it's in the bank.

But, you know, we didn't even talk about slick road.

Who would have thought we would have had this for a week?

I mean, you know, normally we may get a day or two, but I mean, it got to the point where people had to get out, they had to drive.

And if what you have is an ev, then this is.

This is probably a first test for a lot of EV owners.

I know for you.

You know, because even I don't think we had any snows last year.

I think we did in 2022.

Right.

But there's a whole lot more EV owners now than there are in 2018.

Right?

Yeah.

The EV world has changed drastically since the last big snow and all ice.

That's right.

So you went to the Facebook page.

What did you find out from the members on the Facebook group?

It was really Good discussion on there, I thought.

People promptly replied with some good suggestions, things I hadn't thought of.

And we're just kind of going to go through these in not any particular order.

Sam had chimed in and he addressed the state of charge thing because we know that we're not as efficient in our kilowatts per mile, kilowatt hours per mile, but when it's cold outside and that sort of thing.

But so he just kind of made a comment about when you're charging.

Typically you want.

It depends on what your EV suggests.

But mine suggests not charging more than 80% every day for all day driving or for your daily driving.

But keep in mind that this is a special circumstance.

So you really want to kind of increase your state of charge and maybe add a little bit of percentage points because it is cold out.

And so if you have the ability to heat your car beforehand, that extra battery life will come in handy and you don't have to worry about driving and sometimes you do run into some traffic and you're.

I know I've been stuck on icy roads and you don't want to want to run out of battery.

So maybe prepare ahead of time by putting a little bit of extra charge on your car just in case something bad happens.

You have a little more than you normally do.

Yeah.

And I know, I read, I think this is your comment was how, you know, being able to warm that car up before you go get in it.

Like when you were at work and it was freezing cold, you went ahead and started your car and had it and you were looking forward to after that mad dash in 1 degree temperatures from the office to the car that your car was going to be ready for you and nice and toasty warm.

Yeah.

It's when you're cold and you're walking out and it's icy and you know, you're bundled up, it's really nice to open the door and have a blast of heat.

I like to heat my car to 77.

I like it nice and toasty.

And then heat the seat, heat the steering wheel.

It's really nice.

And Mike made a good comment with a lot of preheating.

You can't do some of this with an ice vehicle because you've got carbon monoxide issues in your garage.

But if you can preheat the cabin, not only does that make you just feel better when you get in the car, but it also kind of gets that battery warmed up and then you do have a little bit of, you know, the chemicals in the battery.

I Guess can flow a little.

I'm certainly not a chemical engineer, but that helps with the efficiency of the battery once it's warmed up and ready to go.

Well, and that'll help again, like you said, to save on that battery life if you do get stuck on the interstate or, you know, I'm sure there were people that were stuck a lot of places in a ditch or somewhere else.

So what else did the people see that were out there driving?

Yeah, and.

Well, and Mike made one more comment to Sam's comment about state of charge because he mentioned about the DC fast charger.

Some of these DC fast chargers across the US were kind of known to throttle down the speed of their charge.

And so there were stories that I was reading where cars, EVs were waiting for hours to get access to a charger, and then when they got there, they were charging much slower than what was advertised.

And several of those vehicles, they ran out of juice before they had a chance to charge, so they were getting towed.

It was a mess.

And so, you know, going back to that state of charge thing is super important because if you, if you do need public charging, you just really never know what the speed of charging is going to be.

We've talked in the past about uptime on some of these DC fast chargers.

Some are really reliable and some are not.

So the more you can put on your battery, the better, just in case that public charging doesn't work out the way you think it might.

So your advice, I'm paraphrasing, I could be wrong, but your advice then, for someone, when we have the situation where we have with the, you know, really cold temperatures, snow and ice on the ground, you need to only go as far as you can go on the charge that you can get from your house, just to be on the safe side.

I think so.

And I think too, if you.

Until we can be, you know, I'm sure that, that these problems with the DC fast charger hopefully would be fixed.

I don't understand.

You know, I don't know a lot about that.

I don't know if it was the, the cold or what was making them have issues.

But until those can be worked out, you're probably better off only going as far as you can go and come back on the charges you can do at home.

That's the safest bet because since you're not getting as much miles per kilowatt hours, there's a higher probability that other people are going to need those chargers as well.

So if you go out of your way to get to a charger and there's four dispensers there.

They might all, you know, on a normal day, they might all be free, but on a cold day when everybody is using more miles per kilowatt hour, they might have more need.

So they might not be need.

And they may be topping off, so to speak.

You know, I mean, they know that they're fixing to go.

They probably got enough to get home.

But then they're like, well, what if I get stuck on the Internet?

You know, it's the same thing with a railer car.

You know, if.

If I know that there might be some problems on the road, I'm gonna make sure I have a full tank of gas.

So it could be that some of these people probably didn't need maybe necessarily to stop.

But that panic that we all get when the ice and the snow's on the roads, they're like, I just need to at least go top off.

Just get a little bit more.

Just in case.

Yeah, just in case.

Cause you don't want to get stranded.

So they're gonna be used more than normal, which is gonna.

If you need to use them and you need to rely on them and they're always free, don't count on them always to be free.

So if you're always charging at 80%, which is.

That's what I do.

I was charging a little bit above that just to have some extra just in case.

So did.

Since we're talking about the DC fast chargers, did the snow, I'm sure that stacked up on top of those fast chargers just like it did everything else.

Did that affect them, you know, in to how they worked or run?

I mean, are they susceptible to, you know, having issues or having problems at these extreme temperatures and.

And that type of thing?

I mean, did things ice up inside there?

You know, I don't.

I'm not explaining this.

I'm not a mechanical engineer.

But you mean I don't know how it's all work, or electrical engineer for that matter.

I don't know how it's all working.

But did the.

Did the wet, the snow, the cold, the combination of all three, did that affect that in any way?

Well, I hadn't heard any issues as far as them not performing well.

And I've had a chance to go and take a tour of some DC fast charging manufacturing sites.

And sometimes there's like water used to cool, but I haven't heard anything that degraded the quality.

Except when it's snowing, it's icy.

That reliability of the grid in general is a little more fragile because a line could ice up and then that could be an outage.

So they probably a little more susceptible to power outages than normal.

And then the other thing is, since the grid is always looking for opportunities to shed some load during.

And I'm not just talking about our grid, I'm talking about the US Grid.

Right, right.

Those are really nice, low hanging fruit for grid operators to be able to say, hey, I'm going to cut down the charging speed a little bit and save on the pull for the system.

So it may not necessarily not perform or have an issue, but it may perform a little slower to help the grid in general.

Yeah.

Okay, so let's go back to the Facebook group.

Sure.

Yeah.

What else do you have for me?

Well, you know, Sam also mentioned about tires and this was an important one.

I think Lee mentioned this too.

Tires are so important.

Obviously the tires for an EV are a little bit bigger and require a little more performance than an ICE vehicle of the same footprint because they're heavier, as we talked about.

But tire pressure, and this kind of goes back towards both EVs and ICE vehicles.

Tire pressure obviously is important in the winter when you're, you know, obviously when you're cold outside, your tires will lose pressure.

And fortunately mine will show me the pressure on each tire.

So I kind of monitored mine and I noticed that they would be low, but once I started driving they would kind of rise a little bit.

But that's something to keep an eye on, is that your tire pressure is high.

We saw that Lee had made a comment that his son's vehicle was having a hard time with some hills, but he realizes tire pressure was really low.

And they aired it up and they did a few things and were able to get over the hill.

So tire pressure is a big one to keep an eye on.

Well, while we're talking about tires, I remember from one of our earlier podcasts, our first few podcasts last year, I guess we talked about maintenance and the difference of maintenance cost from EVs to ICE vehicles.

And we had a tire discussion because one thing I didn't realize, but makes totally sense when we talked about it, is that with EVs, you do go through tires quicker because of the weight.

There's more wear and tear on the tires because of the weight of the vehicle.

So people that have been used to driving in a regular ICE vehicle and know that, well, you know, every now and then you need to, you know, every what year, two, three years, you know, check your tires that with EVs, that's not the case.

So would you advise really, before you're starting into these cold weather months to go check, check your tires, make sure that you've got a, you know, good thread or whatever to where you can get through this winter season before you have to change?

Because I don't know that and I don't know you've bought an ev.

Did they tell you that when you bought your ev, now you got to check your tires more often?

Well, yeah, I mean, the big thing they told me was you got to rotate your tires frequently.

I think Tesla says every 7,500 miles, I think, which is pretty frequent.

I never did that.

Maybe I was supposed to in the past, but I haven't done that very well.

But yeah, that's a big thing to make sure they're wearing evenly.

Because what you'd hate to do is get one tire out of the four to run a little balder than the rest.

And now you've got a brand new tire, so you're trying to keep it even.

That was a big one.

I do have, even in my wife's car, I've got one of those tire pressure things just so I can kind of keep an eye.

And most cars will have a little indicator that says you have a tire that's low.

But from my naked eye, I cannot tell which of the four is low.

So especially this time of year, it's good.

I have a compressor in my garage that I can top off if I need to.

Of all the things that go into driving on an icy road, especially with an ev, regen was very, very important.

And accelerating too fast was very, very important.

But if you have good tires, even if you don't have everything else perfect, if you have good tires, that can help out probably the most.

Yeah.

So I think we have three more tips from our members on Facebook.

So why don't you tell us about those?

Yeah, well, lawanda made a comment about scheduling her departure and how that helps with her efficiency on her battery.

And, you know, that does a couple things.

One, it allows you, like we said, to get the battery warmed up a little bit.

The other thing it does is it lets you warm up the cabin and it's just a more pleasant ride.

But along with that, she mentioned just taking her time and allowing people to go past.

One day I was driving 840 and it was one lane was good and one lane was ice, and everybody pretty much just sat in the good lane.

And we went about 55 and every now and then, somebody would fly past me at 80 miles an hour.

Luanda said, just let those people go past.

I like.

I mean, obviously, I think schedule, besides just scheduling your departure on your car, schedule your time wisely, allow for extra time, go slow.

I know that sort of common sense.

But one thing I love, I kind of enjoy driving in it.

I know it's a little dangerous and, you know, that sort of thing.

Everybody needs to be safe.

But it is pretty to drive in, and it just feels kind of quiet, and you feel kind of like you're just the only person on earth sometimes, and it's just beautiful.

So if you're not in a hurry, that's going to be safer, and it's just a pleasant ride.

Okay, so what else?

Well, you know, I asked some folks about the slowing down, the acceleration and the Regen, and Tom, who has a Hyundai Ioniq 5, he mentioned that the Ioniq 5 and the Ioniq 6 both have a snow option, and you can just turn that on with a push of a button.

And I was curious about what all that involves.

And Mike had mentioned he has an EV6 that has the same platform.

And what it does is it reduces the regen levels to a safer regen amount and then also degrades the throttle response a little bit, or he has a good word for it, it mutes the throttle response, meaning when you push down on the pedal, you're not going to accelerate real fast, spin your tires.

So if you have an Ioniq 6, if you have a Hyundai or if you have a Kia EV6, those are options you want to use.

But Mike made a comment that uses more energy.

So once you're back on a normal road, you can turn that back off and kind of conserve your battery.

And then I think the last one you wanted to talk about was Jack's comment.

Yeah, Jack, he just mentioned some good, you know, the laws of physics and, you know, we can kind of have a feeling of that when we're driving, but certainly plan ahead when you're driving.

He made a good comment.

Inertia.

It can be your friend going uphill, and it can be your adversary going downhill.

I live on the top of a hill.

And the thing that was the most nerve wracking for me was coming down that hill and my Regen starting.

And I'm sliding a little bit because at the very bottom of the hill are two big brick mailboxes.

And I could just see myself not being able to stop.

And, you know, you can't turn after you start sliding it's kind of hard to get out of it.

And I could just see myself gliding right into those mailboxes.

So he mentioned slow down well before you think you need to.

And when we talk about regen, that doesn't mean just take your foot off the pedal and coast.

In an ice vehicle, that might mean that, but for a car that has regen, especially if you can't turn it off, instead of maybe taking your foot all the way off the pedal, just back it off a little bit and still have a little power on there so you have a little more control still.

And I guess I need to put a caveat here to say I'm not, you know, I want everybody to be safe.

And these are just some tips that we're sharing.

Life experience.

Life experience.

Yeah.

Whatever your experience is that's gonna make you safe is what you need to do.

But it seems like that's been helpful for me.

Yeah.

Well, I think this has been a very timely discussion we've had, and I think people.

I know you just told me a story about your wife driving your car and people stopping her during, you know, wanting to know, how did it drive?

I think people want to know.

People want to know how all these EVs did during this ice storm.

And I think overall, we've decided they've done pretty well.

They have done well.

Yeah.

And in fact, all of last week, whenever one of us needed to leave the house, I encourage my wife take.

Take my car because I just.

I felt very.

I felt safer in it.

When you said she did, you said she.

She felt like that your car handled better than.

Than her ice vehicle.

So in.

In this kind of weather.

So, yeah, she took it to.

To yoga one night and everybody swarmed her to ask, how is it doing?

How's it?

And.

And it was funny because I've, you know, I've read some.

Some Facebook posts about how EVs are not performing well.

But I've had several sedans that I've driven in ice, and I have slid off into the shoulder and all that.

I've had nothing but really successful driving with my Tesla, and I've been very impressed with it.

Well, as you know, on Facebook, that person that said that probably doesn't have a vehicle doesn't know what he's talking about.

Nine times out of 10, they have an opinion, and their opinion is not going to change.

So hopefully this will change some opinions because, you know, we've talked to some of our members.

You've had some experience.

We've all made it through the snow.

The ice is melting for the most part.

I think it's going to be in the 60s at some point this week.

Yeah, hopefully.

Our hope is that this podcast episode is a complete waste because, you know, we don't have any more of this ice rush.

But if it happens, you know, you have a reference and the biggest thing, too.

And Amy, we talked about this.

This, to me, highlights the value of the EV Car Club, because people have a resource.

You can go and ask a question.

I've got to drive from my house into work and I don't know, what can I do?

And there's a whole group of people willing to help you out with that.

Absolutely.

And if you're a member of the evcar Club and you have not joined the EV Car Club Facebook group, get on Facebook, search for EV Car EVCarClub Facebook group, and we'd love to have you join.

Join that community and, and join the club if you are not.

You don't have to have an EV to be a member of the EV Car Club, but we'd love to have you.

So just again, you can email us@evcarclubte.com and you can go to driveev.com and those places have information on our car club where you can go ahead and sign up.

And I think you even send them a nice little welcome packet, don't you?

That's right.

So thanks for everybody for listening today.

I hope that you found this very informative.

If you have any questions about ice driving or anything, EVs Brandon, I'm sure can get the answer for you.

So just give us an email@evcarclubte.com Again, for more information on MTE's Drive EV programs or the EV Car Club, please visit driveev.com or.

Or email us at evcarclubte.com until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.