Guest Post by Eric Peters
There’s only so much lipstick you can put on a pig. Eventually, even Stevie Wonder can tell what it is – if only by feel.
Well, some EV owners were feeling mighty cold last week. Nervous, too. About the effect of cold weather on their electric cars. Apparently, no one told them that using electrically powered accessories – like the heater – draws power from the battery which propels the electric car.
Resulting in it being propelled less far.
Nor that batteries suffer a kind of erectile dysfunction in cold weather. They become flaccid, sooner.
Less range, again.
But – for the very first time – the general press actually reported this.
CNBC headlined their story with the news that “Electric car owners have discovered cold weather saps batteries faster.” This being news right up there with the Flash bell-ringer that running the air conditioner in July will increase your power bill.
The CNBC story quotes a study done by the American Automobile Association on the effect of cold weather on electric car performance. Several models were tested, including the Tesla 3, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt, VW eGolf and BMW i3.
AAA found that, on average, when the outside air temperature falls to 20 degrees, the advertised best-case range of these EVs fell by 41 percent.
Some by half.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it (here).
This is even worse than it sounds, actually – because EVs start out with best-case ranges that are far less than those of almost any non-electric car.
Especially the lower-cost models.
For example, the Nissan Leaf – at $30,000, it’s the lowest priced EV on the market – touts a best-case range of 150 miles.
This is already less than half the range of any non-electric car. For an economy car, it’s pitiful. The Nissan Versa – similar to the Leaf in size but about half the price – averages 34 MPG and has a 10.8 gallon tank. Thus, it can travel about 340 miles before it runs dry – no matter how cold it is outside.
The Leaf’s range less 41 percent is about a fourth the range of almost any non-electric car.
Which is a problem compounded by the recharge problem.
An EV like the Leaf that’s had its range almost cut in half by cold weather can only recover a portion of that range at a “fast” charger – so about 80 percent of the 40-something percent. This because of the way EV batteries charge; or rather, the precautions during recharging at a “fast” charger, which are necessary to avoid damaging the battery, or shortening its useful life.
There is a rough analogy, if you’re familiar with propane gas tanks – such as used by people in the country to power house heaters and such. The tanks can only be refilled to 80 percent, too. So, a tank that could physically hold 100 gallons actually only holds 80.
The difference is the propane truck can refill the tank to 80 percent full in just a few minutes, regardless of the weather.
Recharging the electric car at a “fast” charger requires cooling your heels for at least 30-45 minutes.
In the cold, remember.
Most “fast” chargers are not located inside.
And because the charge/range of other EVs will also have been gimped by the cold, there are likely to be lines at these “fast” chargers (see my piece here about the issue of EV charging station throughput).
There are nowhere near enough “fast” chargers in existence to accommodate the number of EVs already out there under “best case” conditions. The ratio of cars needing to charge up vs. the number of available places to charge up will increase in cold weather.
So, just think:
Your electric car – which has had its best-case range of 150 miles reduced by cold weather to 70 or 80 miles (better turn down the heat) will need to find a place to recharge 40-50 percent sooner – and when you do find it, you’ll wait at least 30-45 minutes (assuming you find a spot not already in use by another EV) to recover about 80 percent of the 70-80 miles’ cold-gimped range.
Which means you can go about 50 miles before you’ll need to plug in . . . again.
This isn’t just a hassle. It’s potentially lethal.
What if you find yourself stuck in gridlocked traffic because of weather – or an accident? It’s true EVs use less power when not moving, but the heater is an energy hog. It’s also essential to life when it’s minus 10 degrees outside. What do you do? Turn off the heat to preserve battery charge – at the expense of preserving your life?
You can use an IC car as a life preserver if you find yourself immobilized by a blizzard; even with a half-full tank, you can stay warm for a day or more. And you can also creep/crawl in gridlocked traffic for hours without worrying about the car leaving you – literally – out in the cold.
AAA found that “just turning on” an EV when the air temperature is 20 degrees reduced the range of the EVs they studied by 12 percent on average. Use of the heater – and defroster – compounded that. These cars often have heated seats, but best not to use them much, if it’s cold out. Which rather defeats the purpose of having them in the first place.
These are things people ought to be told about.
AAA’s director of automotive engineering Greg Bannon agrees. He says these inconvenient truths may “surprise” people who buy an EV without having been told about them prior to their purchase.
They may also be “surprised” to discover that hot is also a battery-range gimper. Use of the air conditioner in the summer has the same effect as using the heater in winter.
Because AC (like the heater and defroster) uses electricity in an EV. Lots of it.
Of course, you could always just do without. For most people, sweating is just miserable – not lethal.
America is being gulled into electrified Yugos – which haven’t even got the upside of being cheap to buy. And while the Yugo itself may not have worked that well, at least the heater usually did.
Still, it’s nice that the inconvenient truth about EVs – some of them at least – are finally getting a little traction in the general press.
Maybe it’s not be too late to stop this crazy train.
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If the Dems get back into power, they’ll likely criminalize the making of anti-EV statements – such as stating facts about range in cold weather, and so on – under their presumably titled Protecting Free Speech Act of 202X.
Perhaps they will make it illegal for the batteries to perform differently if it’s hot or cold, in what should be called the Temperature Equality Act?
Yea but if you could see the Big Picture (like all the Dems)…….you would know that getting rid of ALL fossil fuel vehicles will ‘normalize’ global temperatures and there will be no need for heat or A/C in the future EVs we will all be driving! Everyone will be saved!!
(Still waiting for the Storm)
After burning fossil fuels to charge up yo ‘lectrick ca, the electrons just disappear on cold days. What do they do… E-vaporate?
Here in Minneapolis it was -27 two mornings in a row. I have a heated garage – but after car sits our for 8 hours in the parking lot at work – it’s bone chilling cold.
My Outback has remote start. Before I turn the car off, I set the climate control to 80, fan high, and seat heat on high. I remote start at 3:45 – and drive home in a warm car.
Last winter, it was 3 Degrees F when I arose in the morning. So, I called an 80 year old farmer I know up in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. Told me we got some North Dakota weather. He replied that the temperature was -30 F and the wind was howling when he went out to feed the cows. I said, OK, OK, you win.
This winter, the temperature was -3F one morning. I had learned my lesson, so I checked the temperature in Fargo before I called. It was -35F and being ND, the wind was probably howling.
What are the farmers around here supposed to do when we go all electric? Electric tractors? Electric combines? Some of those tractors have engines rated at 300 HP up to 450 HP. There are windows of time like planting and harvest when the tractors and/or combines run almost 24 hours a day. The farmers try to get as much done as they can in each day, before the weather stops cooperating.
At – 35 or even – 3 you’re not running diesel equipment either. The fuel gels. Cold weather is tough on everything
Wrong. You can just add kerosene to the diesel fuel to thin it and it works fine. Bus drivers and truck drivers do it all the time when they travel to places that are much colder than where they started from with a full tank.
Most of the truck stops and farm Coops sell some anti-gel liquid in one-gallon and 5-gallon jugs. The mix ratio is about 1 gallon of deicer for 100 gallons of fuel.
The farmers around here will not plant corn and soybeans until the ground temperature is above 65 Degrees F, which means they plant in May. Harvest starts in early September and runs through the middle of November. The biggest problem usually involves rain turning the ground into boggy mud, just when they want to get into the fields.
Electric cars for short commutes of 20 miles maximum makes sense during spring, summer, and fall. I wouldn’t mind having one if I could get it cheap.
Heavy farm equipment is a different situation. A farmer who needs to run a tractor 16 hours a day to stay ahead of the weather can’t stop for several hours to recharge his batteries.
Winter diesel. Used to run my Jetta diesel at -40 C regularly. The block heater had to be plugged in while it wasn’t running however.
Food comes from Supermarkets according to liberals. No worries about farmers. LOL.
I know all this, and still want one. Well not the current offerings but a cheap one, preferably a ev mini truck or at least a wagon. You can put a 5000 watt solar system on your place for 3500-5000$ if your handy. I can get the seconds for much less. Prices have collapsed. The prospect of producing my own power for all my power needs is just too American to resist. Transport is the last hurdle, I have looked into doing myself but yeah, a bit much on the plate for that, so wishing upon a star…
I need 300 mile rating so i least get 180 or so, I can charge at home every night.
20k price tag
front wheel drive
mini truck or wagon
c’mon South Korea, you can do it! (wish someone here would, but all we got was that highfalutin fuck stick building pretentious pieces of shit for pretentious pieces of shit)
Sorry to bust your bubble, but if you go solar, you’ll have to replace your panels before you recoup your cost. The only time they are worth the price of purchase is if you have no other access to the grid.
EV’s are only about 80% as efficient as a combustion engine taking everything into consideration. Hell, according to this article, in hot AND cold weather that goes down to what? 50%? That sounds about on par with AOC’s green deal for morons.
Here is a pic of “Hotlanta” during the “snowmageddon” of 2014:
I had a co-worker tell me that it took her 16 hours to get home that night. When these cars and trucks run out of fuel, a few dozen “HERO” trucks (roving rescue trucks that patrol the freeways of Atlanta) with gallons of gas or diesel for the trucks, could get cars/trucks going if they ran out of fuel. How long an extension cord would you need if all of these cars were electric – and stuck???
St. Louis had same experience this year.
I thought the article from a few days ago on THIS EXACT SAME TOPIC covered things quite well in about 3 paragraphs.
Just say no to FATWAH entering common English parlance.