Featured Snow job about EV range in heat and cold

i wonder if it's even possible to make a blanket statement about all ev's in general, or if different chemistries and conditioning systems affects the percentage

i'm down about 30%, 7 year old car that is charged in an unheated attached garage. that may have some effect, idk.

 

Nobody talks about the cabin temperature, what it's set to, and how long.

My car fogs up if I turn the heat off too long, so I'm forced to reduce the range.

 

Living in NH gives one a better understanding of the effect cold air has on auto travel, bearings are affected, air pressure in tires is affected, and...my prime range changes, during the summer it's 32-33 miles, today it's 21.1, one third less electric range.
That 21.1 miles is also effected, the computer thinks it's going to go 21.1, in actuality, the cold is going to make that range less.

Using the battery to warm the battery?

The ability to control the temp of the liquid circulating to cool the battery would be good, getting the sucker up to 100 degrees on a 20 degree day would be helpful.

 

It has little to do with battery chemistry and more to do with physics.
Any vehicle will use more energy in winter.
The exact amount can vary. We lost about 20% efficiency in our Prii and about 30% in our EVs.

ICE cars have the “advantage” of having readily available heat. However, they produce more heat than you need year round.
As a friend of mine once said, ICE cars are great heaters, that produce a bit of motive power as a side affect.

 

Back in the 80s, the Nissan / Datsun (whatever it was called back in those days) near the Canadian / Washington / Idaho border, the car that we drove there in was so cold soaked, it wouldn't even start. I wonder why the authors of this kind of Claptrap won't write up this kind of scenario in order to set my hair on fire. After all .... those are much more frequently experienced scenarios. Oh! I know... is it because that's so ubiquitous? Like gasoline cars catching on fire? By the way, to my knowledge, despite all the model 3 vehicles running around nowadays, there have been no fires . That's truly got to gaul the opposition / haters / drama queens.

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it is true that gasoline engines are not as efficient in the cold either. and of course, the rest of the mechanicals in the car, as well as friction loss

 

Seat heaters have a hard time keeping the windows clear.

 

The typical gas car has enough fuel to move the car 1500 miles.
2/3rds of that is wasted as heat all the time...except in winter when you want the heat.

Mike

 

Haven't read any of report yet. But n=5 is such a small sample.

 

Minor note. It would me more accurate to say 'except in winter when you want some of the heat.

 

On the Model 3 forums, some of those in the northern US and Canada reported that at 20F (IIRC the AAA temp) they were seeing about a 20% loss. At -15F they were seeing the 40% loss reported by AAA.

 

I think most EV owners (BEV and PHEV) already know the effect of cold on EV range and how to deal with it. All they need is n=1 sample to conceive the effect. The big question is would this type of information keeps those who have never driven EV to stay away from EV entirely? Those people who never learned to turn down the thermostat setting in the middle of winter may never adapt. sigh

 

iirc - the pip won't run ev mode that low .... whereas the soon-to-be-no-longer-produced 2019 Volt will run EV mode until it's cold soaked to around -13°f.
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Most EV owners, but not all. At the Chevy dealer where I bought the Volt, a Bolt owner came in, complaining how the range is only 150 miles. The tech told me when he checked it out, the seat heaters were on, the heated steering was on and the heater was set to 85 degrees. They tried explaining the problem to the customer, but the guy wouldn't believe them.

 

I bet he has his house heat set at 85F all winter long and sleep naked with no blanket. lol

 

Exaggeration serves no purpose.

Here's PiP driving in EV without engine warm-up at -2°F

Remember, the purpose of using the engine is for the best balance of available resources... something Volt did not do. Why carry an engine, then go to extremes to avoid ever using it?

In other words, EV driving is possible, just not the best overall choice.

 

i never intended anyone to presume there is a low point best used for ev vs ICE .... & if ther is .... i never presumed to hint ibknow what it is - rather the fact remains both have diffetentvliw temps that require ICE running. If - 2° versus -13° is better, for one or worse for the other? Please State why that is or isn't the best efficiency, because I don't know - other than that's what each does.
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