Polar vortex has left Elon Musk’s Tesla cars frozen, literally

Washington, Feb 4: The polar vortex that has floored the Midwest of the United States has found one easy victim and it is Tesla's electric vehicles (EVs). It's not only the batteries of the EVs that are facing an adverse effect because of the extreme weather conditions but also the physical features: the sleek door handles that are getting frozen disallowing people from getting into their vehicles.

According to a report in Mashable, the drivers are getting screwed up by the plummeting abilities of their EV batteries that are also struggling to get warmed. The result is a far less mileage than what is expected.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had promised last week "ambiguous cold weather improvements coming in an upcoming computer update" but it is yet to happen as the polar vortex ran amok.

"Tesla sent over its winter driving tips that acknowledge its cars will suffer from "increased range consumption" when it's cold out. Drivers certainly noticed the limited range in the negative temperatures. The Model X 100D normally has close to 290 miles of juice. In negative temps, one driver reported 120 miles listed as its range," the Mashable report said, explaining the ordeal of the Tesla car owners in the inclement weather.

What has made Tesla's loss to polar vortex in the first round at least even more disappointing is that the company has a cold-weather testing side in Alaska.

Here are some reactions on Twitter to Tesla cars' plight in the polar vortex:

There’s no way @Tesla tested the #Model3 in cold weather. Doors won’t open, and now they won’t close. #strandedinmyowndriveway

— Steve Bailey (@baileydesign23) January 30, 2019

.@elonmusk .@Tesla I love you but can you hire a designer/engineer from places where the weather gets bad so that we don’t have to deal with bad design like this again?? This is after 30+ minutes of preheating the car to 80 degrees. Also wipers and side mirrors were frozen too pic.twitter.com/HO8igw131x

— sa ra (@sarahthanif) January 30, 2019

Now this is really cold. It doesn’t get any better that a good -7 degree morning in Central Indiana. Fortunately, my all-electric vehicle Nissan Leaf) continues to work well and the heat is on! pic.twitter.com/pwwfjk072d

— Marvin Blade (@blade_marvin) January 30, 2019