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Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

recurrentauto.com

61–70 of 332 posts

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#61
post #42

As a Minnesotan with an unheated detached garage, I’d be very interested to know about -40°F performance. We get a couple of those days every year. I have been looking at my next car potentially being an EV and am really curious about the extremes.

A lot of ICE cars won't even start at 40 below. Those cases should count as zero mile range

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#62
post #25

I 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.

Does the nav system do a good job of compensating? The "normal" display on the 3 is based on the EPA rating and is always wrong, but when I navigate, I find the trip range thing to be quite accurate -- even factoring in upcoming hills and traffic.

It may be better, but I generally look at my current Wh/km usage for an estimate of my remaining range.

Average over 130000km (3y) is 191Wh/km

Winter can be as bad as 330Wh/km (-30C 110km/h)

Summer can be good, but I've never seen a 100km trip better than 145Wh/km.

Generally the lower the remaining range, the better the EPA range (estimate) is.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#63
post #42

As a Minnesotan with an unheated detached garage, I’d be very interested to know about -40°F performance. We get a couple of those days every year. I have been looking at my next car potentially being an EV and am really curious about the extremes.

I would not buy an EV where you are. Also I wonder how fast it will charge when it is very cold outside. I heard Toyota has some kind of hydrogen car, maybe that would be better ?

I live in the north and I will not by an EV until the range reaches Gas Autos when the Temp is below 0F with the heat blasting. Getting caught in the cold without fuel is not good. And I wonder if Wind Chill can decrease range even more.

I fully believe all EVs are tested and developed for the Southwest US, ignoring real conditions many people encounter.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#64

Wait, judging from some comments people actually take heating and winter tires into consideration when calculating differences in mileage? But I have to disagree. You have to use heating and winter tires during winter. The correct calculation should be take that out first and then compare the numbers. For example if heating and winter tires take say 100 miles, full mileage says 500, but car stops around 300 miles, th…

Uh, you don't loose range to heating in an ICE engine. The heater is just a secondary radiator, so it actually improves engine efficiency. Old trick for driving an under-powered car over the Rockies in the summer: open the windows and turn the heater on.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#65

My fuel economy drops about 20% on my petrol car in cold weather city driving. I don't know what causes the difference, perhaps waiting for the car to warm up and windows to defrost.

EVs upsides and downsides should be considered without it needing to be a comparison to ICE. But, yes, running the heater will use fuel. In this case EVs with "250 miles" range are losing 30%~ of that range for three months of the year and a further 20% over the first three years of their life, making them reliably closer to a 140-mile vehicle. People who are planning round-trip travel or commuting need to know this…

> for three months

Many places in the US, it is more than 3 months :)

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#66

Interesting data, but for the Model 3, I think an important piece is missing: model year. Around 2021 they switched out the resistive cabin heating for heat pump heating, which had a positive impact on cold weather range. Anecdotally speaking, my 2020 Model 3 gets between a 30-40% range hit in the winter.

This article is about battery capacity loss due to cold weather (either directly or due to use of battery-heaters). Cabin heating is over and above the loss discussed here.

The article explicitly compares real-world data as experienced during on-road usage, showing how EVs with more efficient cabin heating (heat pump e.g.) lose less range in the cold.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#68
post #42

As a Minnesotan with an unheated detached garage, I’d be very interested to know about -40°F performance. We get a couple of those days every year. I have been looking at my next car potentially being an EV and am really curious about the extremes.

A lot of ICE cars won't even start at 40 below. Those cases should count as zero mile range

cold batts always get worse range got to plug it in and have a batt warmer (like Tesla).

not such a foreign idea when you have to do that for Diesel to get them to start in the cold.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#69

My fuel economy drops about 20% on my petrol car in cold weather city driving. I don't know what causes the difference, perhaps waiting for the car to warm up and windows to defrost.

Winter tire (if you have them) and heating are the likely culprits!

Heating would have no real impact, ICE cars are heated using the heat their engines naturally produce.

Winter tyres though and winter fuel mixes? Those definitely have an effect.

Re: Winter & Cold Weather EV Range Loss in 7,000 Cars

#70

I find it strange that the charts only go down to 20°F, when for example at the moment I write this comment, it's -5°F (-21°C) in Bismarck, North Dakota. And sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures are pretty common in the winter across the Northeast, especially at night. "Normal" driving conditions extend way below just 20°F.

It’s probably due to lack of data. To some extent, the further the temp is from the mean, the harder it is to find a time and place to test.
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