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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 lentilla on Friday May 17 2019, @05:24AM (3 children)

    by lentilla (1770) on Friday May 17 2019, @05:24AM (#844613)

    Now I realise this might be politically difficult but what about putting a kerosene (diesel) heater in electric cars? On really cold days, instead of using an electric heater, you just fire up the kero burner and the cabin stays toasty warm. It shouldn't take up too much space - a burner, an air-exchange unit, a fan and a few litres of fuel.

    Perhaps somebody could make a back-of-the-napkin calculation/guess as to how much fuel this would burn per hour? A number of people on this thread have suggested they want to heat from 0°F (ambient) to 32°F (cabin), so that sounds like a reasonable place to start. I am guessing (and of course I may be very wrong) that the amount of fuel used to heat the cabin would be a single digit percentage of what would have been used as fuel to power an internal combustion engine.

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 17 2019, @01:43PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday May 17 2019, @01:43PM (#844695) Journal

    We solved that issue out West 30 years ago. battery powered socks, thermal underwear, and a thermos of hot coffee.more than enough to keep a driver warm. And when you get out of the car, you are still just as warm.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:54PM (#844720)

    Pick a better fuel--gasoline or diesel fuel don't burn very cleanly (thus emission control systems on cars). Someone earlier mentioned alcohol which might be a good choice, propane would be another good choice.

    Years ago a friend added a gasoline heater to his original VW Beetle (air cooled engine). The heater was in the front trunk and the exhaust out the side of the car was pretty smoky, it ran very rich (fuel:air ratio) for some reason we never figured out. Kept the car warm all right. The gas came from the main tank (also in front) and it did cut into gas mileage noticeably.

  • (Score: 2) by aclarke on Friday May 17 2019, @03:33PM

    by aclarke (2049) on Friday May 17 2019, @03:33PM (#844741) Homepage

    Interesting idea. You could put one of these in a BEV I suppose: https://www.webasto-comfort.com/int/heating/car-parking-heater/ [webasto-comfort.com] . My car's a PHEV though so I sort of have that built in.

    I've always wanted a Webasto or Eberspacher diesel-fired heater in my classic Land Rover though. I just never wanted to spend the huge amount of money it was going to cost.