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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday May 16 2019, @04:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the your-mileage-may-vary dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Thursday May 16 2019, @07:40PM

    by KilroySmith (2113) on Thursday May 16 2019, @07:40PM (#844427)

    I can't imagine that the lifecycle costs (both $$ and, for example, CO2) would ever favor the second car. There's a lot of energy involved in building a car.

    That said, choosing the right EV means you don't need the second car. Tesla is the only manufacturer who provides that right now, but companies like VW are likely to get there in a few years. I own a Tesla Model 3, and it's great in town. I wake up every morning with a full "tank", and have no issues doing all the driving I need to do in a day before plugging in again at night. That would apply to a number of other attractive EVs today also - the Bolt, i3, Leaf (with the big battery), etc. However, it's also great when I want to drive 350 miles to SoCal or Page from Phoenix; I'd also have no problem if I needed to drive to Orlando tomorrow. Tesla is the only manufacturer who has solved the long distance travel issue with it's network of Superchargers - for everyone else, charging is seen as "Someone Else's Problem". Even if the manufacturer builds fast charging capabilities into the car, they certainly haven't done any work to assure that you can use that capability on a road trip.

    As a point of reference, the Cannonball Run (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash) takes about 30 hours in a prepared car (60 gallons of fuel, radar detectors and jammers, relief drivers, etc) (https://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837), about 40 hours in a stock ICE vehicle, and about 50 hours in a stock Tesla Model 3 (https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/17312/tesla-model-3-sets-new-ev-cannonball-run-record-of-50-hours-16-minutes). So, there's a time penalty to be paid for using an EV currently, but it's not nearly as bad as people believe. I'm still waiting for someone in a Chevy or BMW or Jaguar or Audi or VW EV to even be able to make the run.
     

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