We own EVs. Ask Us Anything.

[SpaceEVDriver]

Thank you so much @SpaceEVDriver you will definitely be seeing more questions from me!

Bring the questions on!

Just remember that I'm only representing my perspective, even when I seem to state things strongly. It's only based on my experience and others might have very different experiences.

And while I tend to lean on statistics a lot, an individual might have bad luck with their car. My experience with our EVs so far has been statistically pretty average, perhaps even on the good luck side of the mean.

 

[Chavannigans]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

 

[cyure]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

There’s no such thing as a stupid question! I have that question too. All us EV newbies have many many questions.

I will take your question one step further. Can it ever be too cold to charge? Charger door frozen shut? Does it take longer to charge in the cold?

 

[BeerParty]

I have an Ioniq 5 and have charged at home (Level 1 charger) in heavy rain and snow. I have also changed on the road (Level 3 or DC fast charging) in the rain. There was never an problems charging in wet conditions. The charging was not effected by the cold once the battery was warmed up - the car will warm the battery when charging to get to ideal charging temperature. If you are going to a fast charger when it is cold out, you can pre-heat the battery (preconditioning) so the car can take full power when you arrive at the DC fast charger.

Just make sure you carry a rain coat or an umbrella. None of the fast chargers I have visited during my travels were under cover, and it does take a few seconds to get the charger plugged in and charging.

 

[J Alynn]

I have an Ioniq 5 and have charged at home (Level 1 charger) in heavy rain and snow. I have also changed on the road (Level 3 or DC fast charging) in the rain. There was never an problems charging in wet conditions. The charging was not effected by the cold once the battery was warmed up - the car will warm the battery when charging to get to ideal charging temperature. If you are going to a fast charger when it is cold out, you can pre-heat the battery (preconditioning) so the car can take full power when you arrive at the DC fast charger.

Just make sure you carry a rain coat or an umbrella. None of the fast chargers I have visited during my travels were under cover, and it does take a few seconds to get the charger plugged in and charging.

I wondered about cover because most chargers I’ve seen are away from pumps with no cover. I guess they assume when charging you’re there for a while and likely in your car anyway so why add expense. Nice to see some of the Ionna retro fit stations will have covering

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

No. I’ve left the Lightning and Mustang out in the rain, snow, and ice, and have never had any problems.

The CCS1 charging standard has a pilot connection that’s low voltage and that connection is made before either the vehicle or the EVSE (charger) can open any higher voltage connections. The NACS plug is a different front-end to the same CCS1 charging standard, so it also should have the pilot connection. If anything weird happens with the pulse from the pilot, the vehicle and the EVSE will fail to connect and the power will never be engaged. There’s a negotiation that happens with that pilot and it continues to negotiate during the entire charge. This is so the vehicle can slow down the charge as it feels it’s necessary or as the charger can slow down the charge as it feels it’s necessary.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

There’s no such thing as a stupid question! I have that question too. All us EV newbies have many many questions.

I will take your question one step further. Can it ever be too cold to charge? Charger door frozen shut? Does it take longer to charge in the cold?

The battery can get too cold to charge, yes. If the cells are below 0 ºC, the current dominant chemistry means there can be a runaway failure. The modern battery controllers will not allow that to happen.

Typically you want to leave the car plugged in whenever possible even if not actively charging so that the battery controller can manage its temperature.

But if you can’t do that, and the battery is cold soaked in a very cold environment such that the battery itself gets below freezing, what will generally happen is:
If you don’t plug in, the car will still work (you can discharge below freezing, it’s the charging that’s problematic). But as you drive, the battery will spend energy warming itself up to protect itself. Most manufacturers have a heat pump that’s used for battery thermal management. These are not the heat pumps of the late 1990s and early 2000s: they can operate fairly well down to about -25 ºC. You may also be using a separate (hopefully separate) heating device for the cabin. This means you will use energy from the battery warming the battery and warming the cabin. If you live in the very cold, you’ll want to have a Level 2 charger installed if at all possible, and you would prefer to keep the vehicle in a garage (heated or not). Level 2 will allow the battery to keep itself warm and will allow you to precondition the cabin without lowering the temperature of the battery.

If you’re plugged in and the battery is cold soaked, and you go to charge the very cold battery, much of the energy will first be used to warm the battery to at least 0 ºC so it isn’t harmed by the charging. So your very cold winter charging times will be longer and your costs may be higher than you would expect for the size of the battery.

Note that the size of the battery for the Scouts will actually help a bit with this: they’re very massive and will retain their temperatures for longer. But an 18-hour cold soak in North Dakota is an 18-hour cold soak in North Dakota and it’s just going to be cold.

So, my advice if you live in the very cold: Get a Level 2 charger, clean out your garage, and always be plugged in.

You can run into the same issue at a Fast Charger. The battery, unless it’s insulated will generally stay at ambient temperature when you’re driving. You don’t pull a ton of power from the battery so it doesn’t heat up a lot. The wind blowing over the bottom of the battery keeps it at about ambient temperature most of the time. So when you’re driving through North Dakota and it’s -20 ºF, your battery is also going to be cold. So when you stop to charge, it might take longer than usual because the battery has to warm itself up before it can charge. Many EVs have an automatic battery thermal conditioning if you punch in your destination as a charger. In the summer my Lightning and Mustang will cool the battery and in the winter they’ll warm the battery when I’m within about 18 miles of a DC Fast Charger and I put that in as my destination.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The Ford charge port cover is poorly-designed and ice can block the hinge such that you need to clean it out, possibly with a hair dryer (don’t use a heat gun) before you can close it. If your vehicles live outside and you get snow, you might want to invest in a charge port cover.

Until we were able to put both our cars under cover, we had this as a charge port cover:

Ma Capuche

Protection pour véhicule électrique & hybride Protégez votre prise de la neige, verglas, pluie. Protective charge port snow cover for electrics and hybrids cars Housse de protection pour port de recharge - Voitures électriques et hybrides - Macapuche.com voitures et camions

macapuche.com

I don’t recommend anything magnetic. First, most of the vehicle panels will be aluminum, and second heavy pieces of metal can cause scratching.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I wondered about cover because most chargers I’ve seen are away from pumps with no cover. I guess they assume when charging you’re there for a while and likely in your car anyway so why add expense. Nice to see some of the Ionna retro fit stations will have covering

A few places out west have shades over the parking spots. Mostly we don’t stand around at the vehicle. We’re off for a bio break, lunch, or a short walk, so the weather at the charging station is no more inconvenient than the weather at most parking lots in the country.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

... or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

I meant to answer this as well. If you’re using the CCS1 or NACS port to do V2H, you will have that same pilot protection. If you use a NEMA outlet, you’ll have no more protection than any other 120v or 240v outlet provides, which is to say the breaker/fuse protection that protects the circuit as well as the GFCI the Scouts will likely have built in.

 

[cyure]

I meant to answer this as well. If you’re using the CCS1 or NACS port to do V2H, you will have that same pilot protection. If you use a NEMA outlet, you’ll have no more protection than any other 120v or 240v outlet provides, which is to say the breaker/fuse protection that protects the circuit as well as the GFCI the Scouts will likely have built in.

Does it ever get to a point where it’s like putting gas in the car and you don’t have to think? Or is there always some consideration you have to be mindful of? I guess I’m asking is does it just get easy?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Does it ever get to a point where it’s like putting gas in the car and you don’t have to think? Or is there always some consideration you have to be mindful of? I guess I’m asking is does it just get easy?

It does. There’s still slightly more consideration necessary because you can’t just take any exit off the freeway and find a charging station.

But most of the time I’m using a mapping application anyway, and both Google and Apple Maps integrate with my vehicles so they just tell me when to stop to refuel. Sometimes I decide to ignore them and they adjust. I think the mapping application that Scout ends up using may be the Rivian software, which isn’t Google/Apple friendly, but I believe it also knows when you need to stop to refuel.

 

[Dana]

Does it ever get to a point where it’s like putting gas in the car and you don’t have to think? Or is there always some consideration you have to be mindful of? I guess I’m asking is does it just get easy?

You get used to it, know all the tricks, etc.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Does it ever get to a point where it’s like putting gas in the car and you don’t have to think? Or is there always some consideration you have to be mindful of? I guess I’m asking is does it just get easy?

Also, in the long run it’s easier than gas. You get home, you plug in, and the next morning the car is charged up and ready to go.

In the long run, you have a lot less hassle because most of your driving is likely not road tripping. So, if you have a L2 charger, you’ll pretty much NEVER need to go out to refuel the vehicle when you’re within your local area.

We had the Mustang on an L1 charger for over a year before I got around to installing our L2 charger. And even with that, the slower charge still recovered at least as much as we would drive on a daily basis.

The L2 is better for trucks with larger batteries and it’s better for when you might have a back-to-back trip such that you get home with low charge and have to turn around the next day and go for another long drive. But at worst, it’s like you’re back in the old days of having to refuel at a station before you head out.

 

[Dana]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

Perfectly fine as long as cables are in good condition. Teslas, at least, and assuming every other EV is the same, protect themselves from silly humans. Car won’t charge if not fully plugged in, cords are too hot (shorts, etc), and battery has a warming circuit to keep itself in good shape.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

And that long post about the battery and temperatures: You don’t think about it except when buying the vehicle and deciding on the charger to install. After that, you just tell the charger to warn you if you forgot to plug in and then just always be connected. The vehicle manages its own battery temperature.

 

[LastDayScout]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

I’ve personally never had an issue. Although I do try to avoid it if possible.

 

[Chavannigans]

No. I’ve left the Lightning and Mustang out in the rain, snow, and ice, and have never had any problems.

The CCS1 charging standard has a pilot connection that’s low voltage and that connection is made before either the vehicle or the EVSE (charger) can open any higher voltage connections. The NACS plug is a different front-end to the same CCS1 charging standard, so it also should have the pilot connection. If anything weird happens with the pulse from the pilot, the vehicle and the EVSE will fail to connect and the power will never be engaged. There’s a negotiation that happens with that pilot and it continues to negotiate during the entire charge. This is so the vehicle can slow down the charge as it feels it’s necessary or as the charger can slow down the charge as it feels it’s necessary.

Please, believe me when I say you are awesome for all the guidance and advice you have offered here with your experience with a fully EV household. But I am a goober and worry about worst case scenario situations.

I am basically asking if anyone has actively attempted to charge in heavy/wind driven rain and was not able to charge their vehicles. I am sure the vehicles themselves hold up to the weather fine, and even ICE vehicles could be in trouble if its pouring rain while you are dumping gas in without a rooftop overhead to protect you.

Previously my waterproof Samsung phones would tell me that my charging port was wet if my pockets were too humid or I got them soaked in rain, and I would need to thoroughly dry the USB-C port out before I could charge my phone again.

I just didnt know if there was anything similar with EVs since the chargers along interstates tend to be open roof.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Please, believe me when I say you are awesome for all the guidance and advice you have offered here with your experience with a fully EV household. But I am a goober and worry about worst case scenario situations.

I am basically asking if anyone has actively attempted to charge in heavy/wind driven rain and was not able to charge their vehicles. I am sure the vehicles themselves hold up to the weather fine, and even ICE vehicles could be in trouble if its pouring rain while you are dumping gas in without a rooftop overhead to protect you.

Previously my waterproof Samsung phones would tell me that my charging port was wet if my pockets were too humid or I got them soaked in rain, and I would need to thoroughly dry the USB-C port out before I could charge my phone again.

I just didnt know if there was anything similar with EVs since the chargers along interstates tend to be open roof.

I can't say that's impossible for any vehicles, of course.

I can say I've never run into an issue with charging during our monsoons here in the Southwest.

Nor have I had issues charging immediately after going through a rainstorm or a car wash.

I've also never heard of anyone running into such an issue. I'm not going to pour a bunch of water into the charger port to test it, but I'm confident in the safety enough that I do not worry about plugging in while it's storming and have done so several times.

 

[cyure]

Okay so if I did go through with my harvester purchase and let’s say I was going up to my doctor in Chicago which is 260 miles round trip. Am I just filling up the Harvester? Do I need to find a gas station with a charger and charge too? Having yo do both seems more inconvenient.