Can EVs handle cold weather? This man drove hundreds of miles around Norway to find out (video)

Norwegian Tesla road trip
Screen capture Youtube

Testing his brand new Tesla

If you weren't convinced by the Tesla-produced video that shows an electric Model S handling quite well the cold & snow of Norway, or if you still think the controversial New York Times reviewer was correct when he said the Tesla had a very limited real-world range in cold weather, this home-made video by a Norwegian electric car enthusiast should do the trick.

Youtube/Screen capture

Bjørn Nyland just received his new Tesla and decided to record his first few trips. But be warned, this isn't a PR video with everything polished and everything always going smoothly, though; at one point he gets to a Supercharger station with an almost empty battery, and the charging port doesn't pop open at first (frozen? was he doing something wrong? hard to know).

But the overall experience is positive and shows that the electric car does well in cold weather. As more Superchargers are built (new ones are appearing each month -- look at the map here), it'll be almost impossible to drive anywhere and be too far away from one to go do a quick top up of the battery. And as we can see in the video, when he gets to a Supercharger, the rate of charging is very impressive. Not to mention that the electricity is free and comes from renewable sources.

Youtube/Screen capture

At one point Bjørn drives 233 miles on a single charge with a bunch of stuff packed in the car (a large TV, a cat, etc), and even after that he had some juice left.

It's a long video, but it shows real-world life with an electric car doing long road trips in cold weather:

Via Inside EVs, ABG

See also: Can a Tesla electric car handle the harsh winter of Norway?

Tags: Electric Cars | Electric Vehicles | Norway