EV Cold Weather Performance
The cluster discusses electric vehicle (EV) performance in cold weather, comparing range loss, battery heating, starting reliability, and cabin heating to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, which face similar winter challenges like reduced efficiency and starting issues.
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Isn't this a problem for gasoline cars too? Hence battery heaters?
in my experience (we've gotten down to about -15C this week) it's a non-issue. Even on a regular 120v outlet. Car is preconditioned, warm, and has a full tank (battery) when I hop in
With an ICE car, if you park regularly in very cold weather, your car can fail randomly for an obscure reason and it can take a long time to figure it out or you will need a trip to the mechanic. Or you may need a massive and expensive repair.Remember that a lot of people have to spend 10-15 minutes warming up their cars before they drive them in cold weather.I do not want to go into details, better car mechanics than me should, but there is all kind of chaos that can happen if your engine
Range drops while driving uphill, when in cold weather, and when using juice for heating. Winter driving is one of the unspoken issues with EVs.
Many electric cars have limitations on acceleration when the battery is cold.
This is about all auto. Or you thing that EV won't experience cold climate?
Takes literally 3 minutes on my car at -10C. If you have issues with cold climates maybe buy a car built in and for cold climates. Like Swedish cars.
How much range do you lose when it's 15 degrees and you have to park outside? And you need to heat the interior?
But......EVs do work in cold weather? You lose a bit of range, but so what? My ICE car also gets worse mileage in winter.And if you're talking about extremes - then there's a reason why block heaters with external power connections are very common in certain places - even the best ICE struggles to start in -40C or less.
It is my understanding they are insulated and heated/cooled as needed; the performance loss from being cold is much larger than the energy expenditure to heat the cells to an optimum temperature.Around where I live, we have several weeks of -15C - -25C (5F - -13F) every winter. No worries for the EV owners, they just need to charge a bit more often as they need to heat the interior of the car, too... (Not being afforded the dubious luxury of simply utilizing the waste heat from the engin