Virginia 24-hour traffic jam left man experimenting with how long 2 Teslas can stay warm in frozen temps

A very cold Virginia 24-hour traffic jam left a man experimenting with how long two Teslas can stay warm in frozen temperatures.

People were left stranded in their cars with a need to keep the heating on because of the freezing temperatures, and it caused media speculation that cars with an internal combustion engine were better for emergencies.

This YouTuber decided to test two different Teslas in the same condition to see whether your EV will be a trusty and toasty companion in extreme weather conditions.

While the creator acknowledged that cold temperatures did affect battery life, he believed that EVs got unfairly judged as bad in an emergency – it was time to prove the naysayers wrong.

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A 24-hour traffic jam caused a man to turn to experimentation

Virginia had a severe winter storm that stranded a lot of drivers in a 24-hour traffic jam that included both cars with internal combustion engines and EVs.

The media took this fact and ran with it, arguing that keeping the heating running in a car while dealing with freezing conditions would drain an EV battery much faster than a gas-powered car’s fuel tank.

The YouTuber from Dirty Tesla decided that he wanted to prove the naysayers wrong and show that a Tesla EV can be a useful and reliable companion when stranded in a snowstorm.

He started the experiment with both a 2021 Model Y and a 2020 Model X at around 90 percent in extremely cold conditions, around 12 °F – 15 °F, and he set both the cabin temperatures and heated seats to 70 °F.

How long can two Teslas stay warm in frozen temps?

After two hours, the Model Y dropped from 91 percent to 82 percent, and the Model X dropped much further to 79 percent.

The Model X’s battery is bigger, so each percentage point is more energy-intensive.

After 12 hours of heating both the Model Y and X at 70 °F, the Model Y used 33 percent and the Model X used 43 percent.

At this point, the estimated run times for the models were roughly 36 hours for the Model Y and 28 hours for the Model X.

After reducing the cabin temperature to 60°F, the estimated run time went up to 60 hours, showing that the experiment was successful and he had proved the disbelievers wrong about Teslas and freezing temperatures.

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