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The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

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Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#81

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

simfree wrote: post #46
gambiting wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. EV driving can be more efficient if you don't let your battery cold soak for hours, or equally inefficient if you do leave your car unplugged overnight.

Got it. So just make sure your vehicle is constantly consuming energy and you'll never have an issue... unless the power is out for an extended period of time.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#82

Post by gambiting »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #81
simfree wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. EV driving can be more efficient if you don't let your battery cold soak for hours, or equally inefficient if you do leave your car unplugged overnight.

Got it. So just make sure your vehicle is constantly consuming energy and you'll never have an issue... unless the power is out for an extended period of time.

You never started your car and just let it warm up before setting off in winter? How much energy do you think that uses?

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#83

Post by gocartStatue »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #77

Living in a region were you need to warm up car for 5 minutes to stop it being an unwelcoming block of ice, and experiencing frequent failures to get the starter running due to discharged battery due to cold, I always wondered how much cold affects battery performance and his much the heating costs in miles. Tesla's figures look unbelievably good, and I think they don't account for heating. In -20° you'd need at leas…

Luckily the engines still generate plenty of heat and EVs use modern heat pumps.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#84

Post by Gigachad »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #68
Enginerrrd wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the biggest thing EV proponents seem to miss is that you don't need to force it to be 100% for everyone. Confine any mandates to urban centers where it makes sense, you can get buy in from everyone and solve 95% of the problem. At that point there will be lower hanging fruits than the last 5% or w/e.

Chargers are a problem for apartments in urban centers though.

It’s not a technical problem, it’s just an effort and cost thing. As soon as people start demanding it, the problem will be solved pretty quick.

I’ve seen new developments advertising electric car chargers already.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#85

Post by MBCook »

rtkwe wrote: post #43
brianglick wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't really need a heated garage (at home, anyway) if you had a 220 volt charger. That should be able to overcome any charging challenges in extreme cold, anyway. Relatively easy to get that into your garage. Also - if you arrive at your friend's place in the winter and park overnight, you won't lose a ton overnight if the car's just parked there.

Check their post again their car lost loads of charge over a very short range because of the cold so in effect it was losing range overnight. It lost 15 miles over 1 mile of driving and another ~15-20 on the next mile driving back.

But it was on level one charging (110v). A level two charger, even a slow one, should be able provide enough current to heat the battery and still charge the battery at the same time.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#86

Post by olivermarks »

hristov wrote: post #74
GalenErso wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, with an ICE car, you don't need to worry about having a garage, nevermind a heated one; the right charger, warming a pack, losing fuel overnight, or taking three hours to fully charge. I can pull up to any gas station and fill my tank in 2 minutes. And my gas isn't magically evaporating if it's a little chilly. The 30 different requirements for EVs to work in cold weather are too complex and prohibitively…

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 t…

'all kind of chaos that can happen if your engine freezes and you try to drive it immediately.' the coolant in ICE vehicles is called antifreeze, only an idiot would substitute H20 for that in cold weather, or any other time for that matter as it is designed to help protect the interior of the engine.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#87

Post by midasuni »

simfree wrote: post #46
gambiting wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. EV driving can be more efficient if you don't let your battery cold soak for hours, or equally inefficient if you do leave your car unplugged overnight.

18mpg is 21mpg with U.K. gallons. My fairly large Skoda gets 45-50 in the real world, maybe dropping to 42 if I’m pushing it to 85mph on the motorway.

Even back when I owned a mid 80s Nissan around 2000 I was getting 25mpg (us gallon).

Why is US mileage so awful?

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#88

Post by bch »

gambiting wrote: post #71
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in place that routinely goes below freezing in winter. I’ve never noticed gas mileage change because of temperature. I would definitely notice a difference of 8 MPG. Where do you get that info? Is it personal experience? If so, where do you live?

I easily notice the difference in my car, it goes from about 8L/100km in summer to 10L/100km in winter. That's on the same tyres in both seasons.

Driving through snow?

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#89

Post by thinking4real »

marvin wrote: post #61
vanous wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am all for EV, but if besides needing to take care that I plug my phone and my watch every night I must also not forget to plug in the car and if I forget, I must apologize at work for not coming in, or my kids cannot go to school... just because it easily can get to -15°C here... then it feels like a technology issue and not like me doing the worse thing possible...

Regular EV user here - plugging it in is something you do every time you park, the way you lock your doors. It takes five seconds. Press the «open charge port» button on the charging cable and stick it in the charging socket. Done.

I’m cracking up that you’re making this sound so simple and matter of fact, but reading this description of how one is “supposed” to charge their EV makes me realize i’m many years from wanting one.

Honestly, it’s kind of a joke how badly people want to defend the tech despite its current shortcomings.

Re: The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

#90

Post by micromacrofoot »

GalenErso wrote: post #32
brianglick wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't really need a heated garage (at home, anyway) if you had a 220 volt charger. That should be able to overcome any charging challenges in extreme cold, anyway. Relatively easy to get that into your garage. Also - if you arrive at your friend's place in the winter and park overnight, you won't lose a ton overnight if the car's just parked there.

Meanwhile, with an ICE car, you don't need to worry about having a garage, nevermind a heated one; the right charger, warming a pack, losing fuel overnight, or taking three hours to fully charge. I can pull up to any gas station and fill my tank in 2 minutes. And my gas isn't magically evaporating if it's a little chilly. The 30 different requirements for EVs to work in cold weather are too complex and prohibitively…

The majority of the country doesn't live in an area that regularly gets extremely cold and even fewer people drive 100 miles every other day. EVs are always getting better, and they’re already good enough for most people.

I live in an area that does get below freezing, and my car preheats the battery before I unplug it to go somewhere while the cabin warms.

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