Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
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Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
1–10 of 332 posts
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#2Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#3Yup my wife just almost got stranded in her Mach-e. Fantastic car but cold weather battery is noticeably worse than our Model 3’s. Something to keep in mind.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#4Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
> thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible
Might pose a problem during heavy discharge with 105F ambient temps?
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#5Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
I wonder though if there would have to be a balance, as you wouldn't want it to over-heat when charging during an Arizona summer.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#6The data in their nicely colored graph is wildly inaccurate. I have a long range Tesla model 3 (in Alaska) and the range is over 290 miles (it says 310 miles when full, but doesn’t quite get that, even in the summer). This is information you can trivially look up…
I know Tesla gets a lot of flak, but it’s batteries outperform most of the other cars that are listed.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#7Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
Some do; the article lists some of them in the lower car-specific section. Mine [Nissan LEAF] runs an electric heater when the battery is below -20°C [-4°F], which is slightly different than the article [article says -1°F].
The problem with thermal insulation of the battery enclosure is that you want the battery to cool towards ambient in most conditions, so if you use ambient air cooling only [as the LEAF does], you probably don't want to do much thermal insulation for the rare times when it's below -20°C. Most EVs have a more active cooling solution, which could allow for thermal insulation of the pack while still having adequate cooling via a water/coolant loop.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#8Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
I wonder though if there would have to be a balance, as you wouldn't want it to over-heat when charging during an Arizona summer.
Insulation also works to keep heat out.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#9I make sure the displayed range on the M3 is double for the distance I want to travel.
Winter tires, snow and ice sticking to the car, and -15C are quite normal occurrences here, and range display is pretty consistently half of what to expect.
Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars
#10Do EV's keep their batteries warm electrically? I know some RV LiPo batteries have integrated heaters to keep the batteries from going below freezing. I suspect that's an acceptable tradeoff in cold climates. Ideally you would keep the battery warm while charging since it's more or less free power when tethered, and thermally insulate the battery enclosure to try to retain that heat as long as possible.
That doesn't sound very practical; keeping the batteries of all cars warm 24/7 would require immense amounts of electricity on a country-wide scale. It's not like everyone have heated garages, and outdoor temperatures often reach -30c or below in arctic climates.