How Owning A Tesla Or Other EV Affects Hurricane Planning
Credit to Author: Paul Fosse| Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 01:01:23 +0000
Published on August 30th, 2019 | by Paul Fosse
August 30th, 2019 by Paul Fosse
I’ve lived in Tampa for almost 30 years and have owned EVs for 7½ hurricane seasons, so I thought with Dorian coming to visit Florida that I should write an article on how having an EV changes your hurricane planning. Last year was different from previous years, because I had a Tesla, and this year is different again, because I don’t have a gas car (but my daughter lives 10 miles away and has a Ford C-Max, so I could use that).
The biggest question is, should you stay or should you evacuate? That question is beyond the scope of this article, but I’ll give a few of my thoughts. If you live in a zone and they tell you to evacuate, it is a good idea to evacuate for safety, but I totally understand the people who don’t evacuate. When they order an evacuation, you need to do one of 5 things.
So, you have to figure out if you are staying or going. You can wait for the next weather update, but you really should have a plan for both scenarios. If the storm weakens or turns away from where you live, you should stay. If the storm strengthens enough that you don’t feel safe or comfortable, you should go. I would argue everyone in the path of a category 5 would be more comfortable if they left. The rest of the article will focus on how having an EV affects those two plans.
I won’t go into all the preparations you need to make for a hurricane. I’ll just talk about the ones related to fuel. Google your way to a checklist or follow this link for some ideas for other matters.
You want to fill all of your vehicles up (which is a problem, because everyone filling their gas or diesel cars at once uses more fuel than the stations have). This is an advantage of an EV, since before the storm, the electricity is working fine and you can just charge to 100% at home. If you depend on public charging, it might be a problem.
Gas and diesel cars have these issues to contend with:
Yes, there is room for one big person or 2 small people to sleep in the back of the Model 3. With a foam pad and climate control, it is quite comfortable. I slept in mine one night about 6 months ago while visiting my son.
Owners with EVs have different issues:
If you must leave town, it is best to leave at least a day before the storm hits because the last thing you want to do is leave at the last minute, hit a traffic jam, and be stuck on the road while the storm is bearing down on you.
Whether you have a gas or diesel car or an EV, it is best to start with a full tank or charge if you can. If you have a non-Tesla EV, I would really be worried about whether or not the public charging infrastructure is good enough to support my trip. I would want to leave extra early in that case or take a gas or diesel car if possible. With a Tesla, I’m pretty confident that its Superchargers can handle an evacuation, with some delays of course. You might have to wait a bit to charge, but at least you don’t have to worry about the station running out of fuel as happens frequently with gas and diesel stations. Tesla also makes Supercharging free in the area when there’s a natural disaster.
The key to surviving a disaster as comfortably as possible is planning. I hope this article helps people in Florida and other hurricane-prone areas plan for storms coming to their area.
Use my Tesla referral link to get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging on a Tesla Model S, Model X, or Model 3 (you can’t use it on the Model Y yet), here’s the link: https://ts.la/paul92237 (but if someone else helped you, please use their link).
Paul Fosse A Software engineer for over 30 years, first developing EDI software, then developing data warehouse systems. Along the way, I’ve also had the chance to help start a software consulting firm and do portfolio management. In 2010, I took an interest in electric cars because gas was getting expensive. In 2015, I started reading CleanTechnica and took an interest in solar, mainly because it was a threat to my oil and gas investments. Follow me on Twitter @atj721 Tesla investor. Tesla referral code: https://ts.la/paul92237