Driving in Snow

[DaveMiller]

Having lived in Illinois and Iowa all my life, I consider myself an experienced winter driver. I have owned and driven 4x4 trucks tens of thousands of miles through snow on slippery roads. I no longer own a 4x4 and yesterday, I woke up to about 6 inches of wet heavy snow here in central Illinois. I drove my I-Miev on un-plowed streets for the first time yesterday. There were no drifts and the snow depth was just barely below the I-Miev’s ground clearance. To be honest, I was amazed how well those skinny tires cut a path. This car did incredibly well in that mess. It miss my truck less today and love my I-Miev more. These are great cars to own.

 

[PV1]

The skinny tires on the i-MiEV help it go so well in snow. A smaller contact patch increases pressure, which allows the tires to sink in and bite the road. Fat tires ride on top of the snow and essentially hydroplane.

You want the exact opposite when driving on sand.

 

[MLucas]

The ASC and 600 lbs of batteries don't hurt either.

 

[JoeS]

After these last few weeks of 'interesting' winter weather in the US and Canada, I've been waiting for some iMiEV anecdotes...

 

[blownb310]

Me too, I'm a big winter driving enthusiast. I'd love to see some pics of i-Miev's in the snow. Also pics of the winter tire packages as well.

 

[Kuuuurija]

I'd love to see some pics of i-Miev's in the snow.

 

[PV1]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ud3th6sgaqnjv1t/20131112_060326.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnkh2qbqpoeyb9v/20131210_064557.jpg

What happened in the second picture with the blue MiEV? Somebody hit him?

 

[blownb310]

Great snow pics guys!

This car definitely has winter tires on it. They look like Blizzaks.

 

[Kuuuurija]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ud3th6sgaqnjv1t/20131112_060326.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnkh2qbqpoeyb9v/20131210_064557.jpg

What happened in the second picture? Somebody t-bone him?

Traffic accident happened in Saaremaa (the largest island here). The driver of the i-Miev lost her control over the car and it collided with VW Passat, that was heading to the opposite direction. The iMiev belongs to the Kuressaare Hospital. Source: http://www.saartehaal.ee/2013/02/12/esimene-elektriautoavarii-saaremaal-fotod/

Some more pics of iMievs in the snow:

 

[FiddlerJohn]

... Some more pics of iMievs in the snow...

Kuuuurija,
Thank you for the wonderful photographs.

 

[PV1]

Regarding the accident, the i-MiEV held up better than the VW. I'm wondering how the driver lost control of the i-MiEV. Glad nobody was seriously hurt.

Blue does look good on the i-MiEV. Makes me almost regret getting white, but blue wasn't available. That's what vinyls are for.

I'd have more pictures, but that's about all the snow we got.

 

[Kuuuurija]

The accident was most possibly caused by several factors:
1. The road was covered with thick slush walls between tracks.
2. The weather was windy (6 to 11 m/s), moist (rel. humidity 100%) and temperature was just around the freezing point (0 degrees Celsius).
3. The accident happened in the place, where the road gets out of forest and was open to the gusty crosswinds.
4. The driver was 50 year old woman, who might still had only small winter driving experience. The information about experience is wild guess, because several officials and social workers participating in the Electric Mobility program, had less than average driving experience.

The car was the same color as most of the cars in the other pics. The bluish glint is caused by the strobes of the rescue/police/ambulance car.
Here is another pic of the car, this time without the strobe glint: http://www.postimees.ee/print/11348...to-juht-kaotas-sirgel-teel-auto-ule-kontrolli

Video of another winter accident with iMiev, this time near to Tallinn Airport:
http://www.reporter.ee/2013/03/05/ulemistel-porkasid-kokku-elektriauto-ja-peugeot/
This time the rental iMiev, coming from the city centre, tried to turn left towards the airport and collided with the Peugeot, that was moving towards the centre.
Traffic light for iMiev changed into red, but the driver hoped to finish maneuver before the Peugeot, who was rather slowly approaching to the intersection, but accelerated as his lights changed green.

 

[PV1]

Finally got some real snow. The i-MiEV did wonderfully on slick roads. There's a straight stretch in front of my work, where I turned off the traction control and gunned it. It was neat, in that I could hear the motor speed up, but the car did nothing, just accelerated slowly. Later down the road, I had to slow down for a car that was turning, and the regen itself had an ABS function. It would start to slide a little, regen would cut back, then come back on full. It did that repeatedly, but the actual ABS never activated. I could feel a slight fish-tail, but nothing more than driving on an open-grate bridge. It met its match on my driveway, though. Solid ice on an uphill concrete driveway. Once one tire track was salted, the i-MiEV went right up, although slowly since the brake force distribution was working hard.

The best thing is, you can attempt a driveway all you want and not worry about overheating. The Cavalier was only able to try it three or four times before I started getting concerned about engine temperature. I must have made a dozen attempts in the i-MiEV, and the coolant pump still didn't kick on.

Too bad I didn't have Canion running...and a dashcam. :x

 

[fjpod]

I've generally had pretty good luck with the imiev in the snow. A few weeks ago though, it was snowing, but almost immediately it turned to ice, and I couldn't get traction no way-no how. But neither could anyone else. Cars were turned sideways all over the road.

 

[PV1]

Had some fun this morning :lol: :mrgreen: . No worries, it was on purpose. There was a nice patch of snow-covered ice at an intersection where I got the i-MiEV to oversteer nicely. The ASC let me have a little fun then straightened out the car. The drive to work was uneventful until I got to work. The driveway up to the parking lot is a full-lock turn from the direction I come. As is common, the guy behind, even with plenty of warning that I'm turning, doesn't slow down, so I just nose it into the driveway quickly just to get off the road and let the idiot pass behind me. Once he went, I backed up and lined up with the driveway, since I stopped sideways on the bottom of the snow/ice driveway. Once lined up, I turned off ASC and punched it. I was doing 25-30 mph with the back end kicked out but barely moving up the driveway. What fun :mrgreen: .

It's amazing the different mindset I have about snow coming from a front-wheel drive car to a rear-wheel drive. It's almost scary.

 

[Phximiev]

Russian 'Miev at 2:04?

https://youtu.be/IU-_TeZAvno

If not, what is it?

And let's be safe out there!

 

[PV1]

Looked like an old Smart Fortwo or Wheego Whip. Way too short to be an i-MiEV.

 

[Lief]

Having lived in Illinois and Iowa all my life, I consider myself an experienced winter driver. I have owned and driven 4x4 trucks tens of thousands of miles through snow on slippery roads. I no longer own a 4x4 and yesterday, I woke up to about 6 inches of wet heavy snow here in central Illinois. I drove my I-Miev on un-plowed streets for the first time yesterday. There were no drifts and the snow depth was just barely below the I-Miev’s ground clearance. To be honest, I was amazed how well those skinny tires cut a path. This car did incredibly well in that mess. It miss my truck less today and love my I-Miev more. These are great cars to own.

Hello from Winnipeg,
I have the same background as Dave...this is my first winter with the iMiEV....Winnipeg just broke a 100 yr record for snowfall. My car has Dunlop Enasave that was installed in June and now has 11,000kms. I got stuck in about 7-8inches of snow with 3 adults inside, but it didn't help that the pavement under was as slick as ice(new suburbs). The car is easy to push with 2-3 people. My range went from 100-130kms to around 40-50kms in Nov it was -3C avg...right now its been -22C for 3 weeks now and prob won't let up till April. For one week it warmed into the single digits and the snow turned into a sand like slipperyness...Got stuck 3 times in like 2-3 inches of snow. So disappointed and embarrassed. Maybe if I put a few sandbags in the trunk and install snow tires,,,but it still sucks when it doesn't even heat up at all during a 20min commute drive in -15 to -25 weather. I don't have access to a heated garage.
I have researched a lot about installing a diesel heater but seems like too much trouble/expensive. I will prob buy an ICE car to use for 5 winter months and store the iMiEV. Vice versa in the 7 months of 10-20C summer mths. My 2012 iMiEV wouldn't rust up, if only used in summer

 

[wmcbrine]

... it still sucks when it doesn't even heat up at all during a 20min commute drive in -15 to -25 weather. I don't have access to a heated garage.

Have you tried pre-heating?

You might also try the seat heater, if you have it.

 

[jray3]

Even though we don't get much snow, I love the greater traction, esp on the front end when wearing my winter tires in the cold and wet. Our alloy wheels can be had on car-part.com for $100 apiece now (though the salvors don't know to post front vs rear wheel). Having a spare set is much easier than swapping tires.