“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.
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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