As for regular cars, synthetic motor oil and block heaters have rendered starting reliable to -35 and colder. Once running, I have had very few problems in the last 100,000 miles, with a variety of vehicles from a 1975 full sized chevy van (350 V8, 4 bbl carb) to a 1990 Dodge caravan (fuel injected 3.3 liter).
Did the electrics make the 260 mile round trip to the next major town at -30, busting snow drifts and keeping the cabin temperature above freezing, and do it in the roughly 5 hours a gasoline vehicle will, with enough 'fuel' left to keep the lights on (so you don't get hit by another vehicle and can be seen) and keep the occupants warm for a few hours if you end up in the ditch?
Or were they tested in a controlled environment?
Otherwise, they are a deathtrap.
Many of the smaller cars cannot handle the road conditions alone for lack of ground clearance, and they lack the mass (which translates to momentum) to bust drifts.
This is an excellent post, and should be read by everyone who lives in a cold weather area. If those folks have thoughts about buying any electric car, they better DEMAND that they get PROPER information about those scenarios from the company and anyone else promoting that they buy electric. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that those cars have the “stuff” to be safe in a cold, rural environment.