Deep-Frozen Tesla Model 3 Needs 45 Minutes Before Finally Starting To Charge

When radio show host & celebrity publicist (by his own description) Domenick Nati published his story on TikTok, it became viral. According to his video, he wanted to charge his Tesla Model S at a Supercharger, but after two hours at the charger, the state of charge actually decreased. He then tried plugging the car into his home charger and then into another supercharger, but the car simply wouldn’t charge. After leaving the car plugged in for around 15 hours, Nati had to cancel his Christmas plans because his Tesla had no range left.

This was indeed unusual, and we wondered why nobody had complained about such weird behavior before. Electric vehicles are likely to be affected by cold weather, but this should not become a problem with charging in freezing temperatures. Otherwise, the Norwegians would not buy almost exclusively electric vehicles.

Carmakers use clever thermal management to make sure the battery always has the right temperature, even if this means dropping the battery charge a few percentages. EVs also come with battery pre-conditioning, raising the battery temperature before connecting to a charger to shorten the charging time.

The funny thing is, just a day prior, Kyle Conner from Out of Spec Reviews has made an experiment showing exactly what happens with a Tesla plugged into a supercharger while being deep frozen. Kyle parked his Tesla Model 3 in the freezing cold at a Supercharge station in Loveland, Colorado, for two consecutive days. When he finally returned to the car and connected it to the charger, it was -14° Fahrenheit (-26° Celsius) outside.

His Tesla appeared to do absolutely nothing for 45 minutes, as the car used all the energy drawn from the charger to warm up the battery. But after that, it started to charge normally, needing another 45 minutes to go from the initial 35% to the set 90% limit. That’s not very fast, but it’s not very slow either if we discount the first 45 minutes of warming up. It’s true, having to wait 90 minutes in the cold for your car to charge seems a little extreme, but then again, there are very few occasions when someone would do exactly what Conner did.

Most of the time, EV owners would charge their cars at home, leaving enough time for the thermal management system to warm up the battery. If they do go to a Supercharger, they most likely drive there, and simply inputting the destination into the car’s navigation system would trigger the battery pre-conditioning system. This means that it’s almost impossible to get to a Supercharger with a deep-frozen battery.

This experiment was published a day before Domenick Nati encountered his unusual problem with his Tesla, begging the question of how true his story was. After all, he is a public figure who benefits from viral stories like this, even if untrue. It wouldn’t be for the first time someone would make false claims about Tesla. We’re eagerly awaiting Tesla’s verdict in this case, as the EV maker has stepped in to investigate the incident.