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Autoweek (and other car news outlets) summarize some independent testing: https://autoweek.com/article/green-cars/how-much-does-cold-weather-cut-electric-vehicle-range-quite-bit-aaa-study-finds
AAA partnered with the Automotive Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center for its tests, which allowed it to run drive-simulating dynamometer tests in 20-, 75- and 95-degree Fahrenheit temperatures in a controlled laboratory setting. This is way more scientific than anything we'd be able to achieve toodling around in an EV in Detroit the next time a polar vortex hits.
A handful of key points pulled from the report:
- The increased use of HVAC systems in extreme temperatures has a bigger impact on EV range than decreases in battery pack efficiency caused by the temperatures themselves.
- Moreover, while both extremely hot and extremely cold temperatures affect range, you'll incur a significantly larger penalty when heating up a cabin than you will cooling one down. Compare that 41 percent decrease at 20 F to a mere 17 percent decrease at 95 F.
- The BMW i3s saw the biggest reductions in range in both hot and cold conditions, losing 50 and 21 percent of range in cold and hot conditions, respectively.
- The Nissan Leaf was the most versatile, losing 31 and 11 percent of range in cold and hot conditions, respectively.
The other test cars, Tesla S, eGolf and Chevy Bolt fell between these extremes. The article includes a link (pdf) to the original report with many more details. Worth reading if you live outside southern CA and are considering an electric car.
This AC is considering an electric car, and I'm fortunate enough to have an attached garage to keep it warm-ish, probably above freezing, even if the outside temp gets down to 0F (-18C) which is a typical low for my location. That means that any trip will start with a cool (not cold) battery & cabin...but after parking outdoors at my destination(s), I'll have a reduced range for the trip home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16 2019, @06:11PM (3 children)
Thanks for finding this. I read the summary, the initial pages with the above info, read a bunch of pages after, and tried to scan for "temp patterns" in the rest.
Guess I missed this. At least we know it's 72F, and I don't know anyone that sets their car to 72F, when it's the winter. Only exclusion is if one is going to be driving for 10 hours or some such, and you might take your coat off.
But most people don't take their winter coat off, to drive even a few hours. Why bother? So I wish they'd have redone the test at cooler temps internally :(
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday May 17 2019, @05:44AM (2 children)
I see lots of people wearing fuck all in the winter here in Canada. They're nuts as all it takes is a break down or snow bank on the road and they'll freeze. Now this is the warm part of Canada, but minus 10C is still cold enough to freeze.
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Friday May 17 2019, @03:20PM (1 child)
I often don't wear a jacket in the car, or walking from my car to whatever building I'm going into, etc. I park my car in the garage, so why would I put on a coat? I do, however, carry safety gear in the car, so in an emergency, if I'm not wearing a coat, I'll just pull it out of the back of the vehicle.
While I agree many people drive without safety gear, just because you don't see them wearing it in the car, it doesn't mean they don't have it.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday May 17 2019, @03:30PM
The other year, a bunch of traffic got trapped by a snowbank, couple of dozen vehicles. There were 2 people who were prepared, and one was a cop. They were lucky a farmer took them in.