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Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by adventured on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:27PM (#28569919)
I've lived in areas with serious snowfall and icy road conditions that you have to deal with 4-5 months out of the year, most of my life. These small, lightweight, weak EVs are a bad joke in that context, they'd be useless.

NYC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Denver, Detroit, etc. have some terrible Winter weather for example. You can't safely, effectively navigate Winter weather in NYC in a vehicle like the Chery QQ Ice Cream. At best it'd be good ~2/3 of the year.

Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by murderfs on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:55PM (#28570218)
> These small, lightweight, weak EVs are a bad joke in that context, they'd be useless.

[citation needed]

Power is not the limiting factor in icy road conditions, traction is. While a heavier car is easier to get moving due to increased normal force, it's equally harder to stop. The actual difference makers are snow tires so you have more traction, and electronic stability control/antilock brakes so you never lose traction.

Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by com2kid on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:39PM (#28570054)
From what I understand, upgrading a 2 wheel drive EV to a 4 wheel EV isn't a horribly hard thing to do.

Driving on snow/iced doesn't require power, it requires good tires and an understanding of how to drive on snow and ice.

I do wonder if the engine in it could get up Seattle hills though, my family's old Geo Metro had problems, so something with a fraction of the power could prove problematic.

Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by autoliteInline on Friday September 17, 2021 @04:20PM (#28570447)
You do have to wonder how people drove around when scarcely any vehicle was AWD/4WD.

Having said that, good snow tires are magic.

Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by germ on Friday September 17, 2021 @06:26PM (#28571606)
This. Regulating seasonal snow tire/chain usage in areas with lots of snow/ice is imperative to reducing collisions and improving safety. That and decent infrastructure for clearing snow in a fairly timely manner.

All seasons can't and _wont_ cut it in some areas, and having tires that only work 3/4s of the year for traction is dicey at best.

Source: I drive a Miata in winter up in Saskatchewan

Re:Chery QQ Ice Cream goes on sale in China – a modern elect... by autoliteInline on Saturday September 18, 2021 @04:31PM (#28579045)
'round these parts (which is hilly and has wet snow), the limiting factor (given decent snow tires) doesn't tend to be traction, it's high centering.