Russia’s trade minister shares his experience of driving a Tesla in winter

Driving one of Tesla’s electric vehicles can be a real challenge during Russia’s severe winters, as its drive range inevitably drops in low temperatures, according to Russia’s trade and industry minister, Denis Manturov.

“The existing energy storage units aren’t yet a fully established technology, particularly in our climatic conditions,” Manturov said at the plenary session of Russia National Day at Expo 2020 Dubai.

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The international innovations event, which launched on October 1 and runs until March 31, was originally scheduled for 2020-2021, but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the severe travel restrictions it ushered in.

The trade minister provided his first-hand account of driving a Tesla during the Russian winter as an example of the current insufficiency of the technology.

“It has a claimed range of up to 450km, but my experience shows that, after being parked for an hour and half at -30 degrees Celsius, the vehicle is barely able to get me home, as the remaining range was only enough to drive less than 100km – in fact, even less,” Manturov said.

According to the minister’s annual financial declaration, he has been driving the Tesla Model X 100D since 2020.

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