Tesla owner goes viral after his car would not charge in the cold

A video of a Tesla owner who failed to charge his Model S at a supercharger station in the cold has gone viral. Virginia radio host Domenick Nati was having some trouble trying to charge his Tesla Model S last Friday ahead of a vacation trip. It seems that he was 19°F – or -7°C – At that time. Nati claims that she first tried charging at home without success, then at a local Supercharger station and posted the video on TikTok, where it went viral.

When connected to the supercharger, the car displayed a message that it was warming up the battery pack in preparation for charging, but it didn't actually start charging, even after an hour. Nati claims to have contacted Tesla about the issue, but did not receive a response by Saturday.

Electrek take

Videos and media reports about it are causing confusion. Some associate this with normal charging problems in cold climates. First, while it is true that electric vehicle charging is affected by low temperatures, this is not normal. It takes time for the battery pack to warm up enough to support higher charging speeds. That's why Tesla has built in a feature that can adjust the battery pack to pre-charge when you enter a charging point with your navigation system. Yes, there are issues with charging at low temperatures, but not this one. This is a malfunction of this gentleman's particular vehicle. Charged a Tesla or other EV at a temperature lower than -7 degrees°No problem C. It's a shame, but it looks like the owner's particular car is having issues rather than hoping it's covered under warranty. If anything, the biggest highlight was the inability to contact anyone at Tesla for remote diagnostics. This is a big problem for Tesla's service. It's hard to get someone to call you.

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