Cold weather and snow and mountains (oh my!) What has been your EV experience?

So, as I've said elsewhere, I had a 2013 Nissan Leaf with heat pump and battery heater and 11 out of 12 battery bars, and at -15 to -17 °F, I started with a full charge, and started on a 70 mile trip. About 30 miles out there is a hill climb that goes up about 1,000 ft, and the car's battery died trying to go up it. This was with the heater off and trying to creep up slowly at around 20mph to keep the charge gauge from falling as fast as it was.

Anyhow, malfunction or not, the cold and snow are concerns for me buying another EV.

One suggestion from @bwilson4web is the BMW i3-REx. But researching the i3 it doesn't seem like it would do much better.

BMW i3 - Winter Range Reduction & Tips For Offsetting Cold Weather Impact

I'm not sure all years, but it seems the REx version doesn't have a heat pump whereas the non-REx version does. Range is also greatly reduced in the cold. One guy from Quebec commented that at -20 °C his i3-REx had about an 80km battery range and 50km gas range. This was posted 9 years ago, so likely a 2014 or 2015 model. Mind you that the total range of that year i3-REx equates to around 80 miles, and where I live the route south gets me to the first gas station in 70 miles and the first quick charge station in over 90 miles.

How does the BMW i3 handle in winter? (bmwblog.com)

The question I have is what experience have others had with the cold in their EV's. Do any live in the mountains with distances of 60 to 90 miles between charging stations and elevation changes of up to 4,000 ft or more between those? Do any live where it may get down to -40 °F (-40 °C) with sub 0 °F (-18 °C) being common? Do any have to trudge through snow with snow chains on their EV?

Maybe the right EV for me doesn't exist now, but if I don't keep an eye out for it I may not notice its existance even if it's right under my nose.

 

This is very interesting. I'll be checking back on or after the 15th to see what they end up publishing.

In Boulder, the same town where I both bought and ended up selling my Leaf. That town is basically Colorado's EV town. They have more charging stations than gasoline stations, and IIRC it's several times more.

But alas, they don't have much info in their YouTube videos on cold or driving in the snow. Their main points are buy an EV with heated seats and steering wheel if you can. In Colorado there's the Eastern planes, where Boulder is, that isn't that cold, although sometimes they get a bit of snow. Then you have the Mountains, which are more like the artic tundra of Colorado and can vary a lot from town to town in terms of snowfall and temperatures, and then you go back down into the warmer Western Slope where far enough out there are places where, when it snows, it usually melts off in a day or two.

The Nissan Leaf was my wife's favorite car. I think the main reason was the heated seats all the way around and the heated steering wheel. She also loves those Leaf headlights (and says she hates how they changed the 2nd gen Leaf because the lights are different). I didn't like how snow would get on them and wouldn't fall off making me pull over to dust off my headlights while it's snowing.

 

Ignore this rant, skip to next:
True. The rest of the world gets all the good cars. In the USA all there is are grey Suburbans and grey Suburban wannabes, with the exception of a few light grey ones that people here fondly call "silver" instead of what it actually is: light grey. Everything here is an SUV. Not that people can't have an SUV if they want one, but I'd prefer a vehicle that is more car-like. Then again, with crossovers there is a lot of, well, "crossover" between vehicle styles.

My favorite looks is the VW Beetle, mainly the classic Beetle, but the 3rd gen Beetle was alright on the outside. Bring it back and make it an EV with a front trunk, like the original Beetle, with spare tire and all, and I'd be all over it.

For practicality a 4 door sedan or maybe station wagon. And I mean a real station wagon, not the SUV style Subaru Outback, but more along the lines of the ol' VW Golf Sportwagon, or the ol' Mazda 6 Wagon, although a sedan is more appealing in some areas, not as much in others.

The important point is down here:
But at any rate, there should be some cars available in the USA in that list. Hopefully there is at least one (if not more or all) of those that gets an excelent winter driving score and hopefully it's affordable or will be affordable some day on the used market.

 

Follow These Electric Vehicle Cold Weather Tips From Ford And You'll Be Fine (youtube.com)

So, battery preconditioning is something that's quite important. Warm battery, better range.

I don't think the Nissan Leaf I had had a very good battery warming system. One benefit (pain to do) on the Leaf is that it is possible to drop the battery and wrap it in an insulating layer. I'm not sure if that's possible on other EV's.

 

Ya, in the winter my return ambient temp would be below freezing. Some days it never gets above 0 °F all day.

I did notice that between Alamosa and Santa fe there are some 145 miles between quick charging stations, with the exception of one that's going to be coming up at a resort. But there is a public level 2 that's a tad over 90 miles from Alamosa (in Ojo Caliente). This is part of the route I driver regularly to visit the inlaws. So two 90 mile legs, although, I guess alternative routes in the winter would be possible, albeit longer. But if I'm buying an EV, road trips are already going to be longer, even during the summer, so I should stop complaining.

 

If the battery is water cooled there are ways of adding a preconditioning heater to it. On many of my engines in the past I've added a circulating block heater that sits on the outside and circulates heated water into the engine. The difference would be adding a lower temperature thermostat as a battery isn't going to like +150 °F water temps.

 

Did you have any mechanical problems with your i3-REx? Would you recommend taking it to a dealership instead of an independent EV mechanic, or does it matter? How hard would it be to repair by DIY in the driveway?

It looks like the closest BMW dealership is about 200 miles away from me. So is the closest independent EV repair shop.

 

A Canadian news report on charging and driving EV's in the cold: