A You’re here owner in Virginia was forced to cancel his Christmas plans with his son after his electric vehicle failed to charge in the extreme cold gripping the country.
Domenick Nati, 44, told Business Intern how he plugged his Tesla S into a supercharger in Lynchburg on Friday as temperatures hovered below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
But over the hours, the percentage of charge decreased as the the temperature has droppedbefore the car completely stops charging.
He then tried again on Christmas Eve, but after a few hours of doing nothing he decided to abandon his car in the field and drive home.
Domenick Nati, a radio personality from Virginia, revealed that his Tesla S would not charge in extremely cold weather
Without his car, Nati said, he wouldn’t be able to see his son’s open Christmas presents.
Nati, a local radio host, shared his frustrations with Business Insider on Sunday as he revealed he wasn’t the only Tesla owner struggling to charge his electric vehicles amid the arctic blast.
He said he drove to a compressor in town on Friday to recharge the car ahead of the holiday weekend. The car battery was at 40% at the time.
“Two hours have passed and not much has changed,” he told Insider. “It was very slow and the numbers went down as the temperature went down. Eventually it completely stopped charging.
After that, he said he tried to charge his Tesla S at home, but had no luck either.
So he left on Christmas Eve and posted a video on TikTok of his efforts to charge the car.
Nati documented what happened when he tried to charge his electric vehicle on Saturday in a TikTok video
“It’s 19 degrees outside, I have 19 miles left before the battery dies,” Nati showed thousands of viewers.
He then explained that after facing the same problem the day before, he was told he had to wait for the charger to heat up. So when he went to the compressor on Saturday, he had his heating and cooling settings on.
“There’s no way to charge that battery or let it get warm in the cold,” Nati told viewers.
At that time, Nati decided to document what happened when he tried to charge the Tesla S.
The TikTok showed the compressor displaying a message: “Battery is heating – Keep charging cable inserted.”
But the message remained the same for the next two hours, with the time remaining reduced from two hours 25 minutes to three hours and 15 minutes.
Nati went to a supercharger station in his hometown of Lynchburg, Va.
The message remained the same for two hours while the remaining time decreased from two hours 25 minutes to three hours and 15 minutes
Nati said he tried to contact Tesla for help, but received no response.
He was then forced to cancel his Christmas plans and was upset that he couldn’t see his son’s open presents on Sunday morning.
But Nati said he was not the only one experiencing the problem as the United States is experiencing its coldest Christmas on record.
“Since I posted the video, a lot of people have mentioned having the same issue,” he said. fox business on Sunday.
“Some Tesla owners have even messaged me to see if I’ve found a solution,” Nati noted. “Unfortunately, my answer is no.”
The issue is bad news for American Tesla owners as record temperatures hit the United States.
at least 24 died in the arctic explosion, BBC reports, including seven in hard-hit Buffalo, New York, where high winds hampered rescue efforts.
Other storm-related deaths were reported in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas and Colorado as more than 250,000 homes across the country were left without power Sunday morning and blizzard warnings extended from Canada to Texas.
Missouri was hit hardest by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50 degrees Fahrenheit on Christmas Day.
The problem is bad news for American Tesla owners, as record temperatures continue to plague the United States.
Teslas’ charging problem is just the latest issue facing the electric vehicle maker, which has seen its stock fall more than 65% over the year.
Earlier this month, CEO Elon Musk sold an additional 22 million Tesla sharesamounting to $3.58 billion worth of company stock.
He has now sold nearly $23 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, with much of the money likely to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. He also sold nearly $22 billion worth of stock in 2021.
The fall in stocks, meanwhile, caused Musk to lose his status as the world’s richest person, with his net worth falling to $174 billion, according to Forbes. He was overtaken by French fashion and cosmetics magnate Bernard Arnault.
Musk has sold nearly $23 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, with much of the money likely to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. He sold nearly $22 billion worth of stock in 2021
Tesla’s share price is now down more than 66% over the past year as investors fear Musk may focus more on Twitter than the electric vehicle company.
Investors have punished Tesla shares recently as Musk spends much of his time managing Twitter, raising concerns that he could be distracted by the automaker.
“It looks like Elon Musk spends 100% of his time on Twitter and you know, he might need more capital,” said Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Management in November.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has tweeted very little about Tesla, a practice that has helped him gain traction on the platform.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Musk is now a villain in the eyes of Tesla investors. He said Tesla’s fundamentals remain sound, but its behavior with Twitter is hurting the company’s brand.
“The Twitter overhang is a growing nightmare with no one but Musk to blame,” Ives wrote in an email.
Musk had pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the Twitter acquisition, which covered the $44 billion price tag and closing costs. Banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp have pledged to provide $13 billion in debt financing.
The billionaire had tried to pull out of the deal in May, alleging that Twitter had underestimated the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. This led to a series of lawsuits between the two parties, before Musk finally agreed to take over the company in October.
Around this time, the company was also seeing its value decline, with shares falling about 30%, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Rising inflation and fears of a possible recession haven’t helped and shares of the company, which have fallen another 32% in the past month.
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