Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClearScience.com,
There are now an estimated 1.7 million electric vehicles (EVs) on U.S. roads, compared to roughly 400,000 in spring 2018. That means that a lot more Americans are experiencing the joys and pitfalls of EV ownership, from silent, swift acceleration and emission-free driving on the positive side to slower fueling times and shorter driving ranges on the negative side.
More Americans are also learning that frigid temperatures affect EVs differently than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, chiefly by cutting into their driving range to a greater extent. While a typical ICE vehicle might have its range reduced by 15% to 25% in below-freezing temperatures, an EV’s range will be slashed 20% to 50% depending upon driving speed, temperature, and interior climate preferences. Combustion reactions occur more inefficiently at colder temperatures, accounting for the range decline in ICE vehicles. But cold slows the physical and chemical reactions in EV batteries to a larger degree, limiting the energy and power the battery can deliver to the motors. Moreover, while ICE vehicles utilize otherwise wasted heat from the engine to warm car interiors in winter, EVs use electric heaters to perform much of the climate control, further draining the already hamstrung battery.
The Arctic blast that chilled much of the “Lower 48” last week showcased the EV range hit to more Americans than ever, and also yielded a few more lessons.
EV owners sounded off about their experiences on social media and subreddits. Here are a few of the takeaways:
1. EVs are not ready for frigid road trips.
I warned about this in August: Driving an EV on the highway in extreme cold will produce a range loss of 40% or more. EV owners of various brands traveling for the holidays shared numerous stories verifying this annoying (and potentially dangerous) reality. Drivers traveling in temperatures at or around zero with a headwind could go only 100 to 150 miles before needing to stop and recharge, depending upon the car, significantly increasing travel time. When they did charge, they had to deal with another disconcerting problem with EVs and winter…
2. EV fast-chargers operate much more slowly in extreme cold, if they work at all.
The colder the EV battery, the slower the rate of charge that it will accept, making “fast-charging” in subzero temperatures a potentially miserable and plodding experience. Think a 45 to 60 minute charge instead of a 25 to 35 minute one. To top it off, users reported that fast-charging equipment, particularly from Electrify America, often just didn’t work in temperatures below -10 °F. Tesla’s proprietary Superchargers didn’t seem to have the same reliability issues. The generally sorry state of charging infrastructure shed light on another takeaway…
3. EVs driven in regions with a cold winter need to be charged at home.
Preferably with a garage. Owners simply can’t rely on public infrastructure in its present state with current battery technology. However, this situation could easily change in five to ten years with novel batteries that suffer less range loss and more widely available chargers, preferably housed indoor.
4. Aside from range issues, EVs handled the Arctic air well.
Owners reported that their cars started without issue, drove well (albeit with slightly reduced power), and heated quickly thanks to their fast-acting electric heaters. For drivers who didn’t need to worry about traveling long distances, their EVs were functional, comfortable, and relatively untroubled by the cold.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
While living in Colorado Springs we had a two week period where the highest recorded temperature was 0°. Most of it was about 20 ° below with wind chill taking it to 45-55° below. New batteries, every fall, only from Sears. EVs are interesting but not practical with existing infrastructure. God bless Texas.
No worries……….these jackoff ev owners look cool to fellow democrats………its all that matters.
“while their children are sleepin’, their puppies are crappin’ ”
Flakes
[youtube
One Two Three Four !
Stopped reading at “emissions-free driving”.
“Coal powered vehicles” is far more accurate. Something the railroads figured out when Stephenson built the Rocket back in 1825.
Indeed … maybe the author meant ‘NIMBY emissions’ …
Wait for 3-5 years when these people have to change the batteries. LMAO They will be giving these POS away.
They won’t even be able to do that!
I’m thinking the same thing. The batteries are the killer. If you think about it, these cars are not recyclable or re-sellable. When the 8 year window of dwindling battery life has crept in, these cars are scrap. No one is going to buy a used EV that needs a $30K battery. The junk yards will be full of these POS cars.
$26,000 today. By then, I suspect it will be twice as much because of raw material shortages.
.
Why no natural gas vehicles… Probably because they would solve the problem, which they have no desire to do.
The problem with natural gas is the average “below average mentality” driver. Think about it. These morons text while pretending to drive. Do you want them blowing things up while fueling at a convenience store’s fuel island? Unlike gasoline or diesel, natural gas is pressurized. One spark and boom.
Never mind. Now that I think about it, natural gas fuel pumps might clean up the gene pool.
As for natural gas engines, they exist. Minneapolis Moline was building compressed natural gas and LP gas powered tractors during and after WWII because nobody had a use for the stuff while gasoline was rationed. But farmers are much more mechanically inclined with far more common sense than today’s mentally declined snowflake failure. No farmer ever blew himself away while fueling one of those tractors. Another advantage for the farmers was they were already using compressed natural gas and LP gas to heat their homes. Handling the fuel was not new for them.
About 10 years ago, a few big truck manufacturers converted a few of theirs over to run on compressed natural gas and leased them to a few of the big trucking companies. A few problems were found. First, engine life. A typical diesel can easily go over a million miles. That is not a typo. A natural gas engine was worn out by 200,000 miles doing the same work. A diesel truck can go 1500 miles between fuel stops, more or less, depending on the load, traffic, and terrain. More in Kansas and Nebraska. Far less in California, Colorado, and taking a load from Maine to Florida. The same natural gas truck can only go about 250 miles between fuel stops. The infrastructure just isn’t in place for natural gas in the less populated parts of the country. For local deliveries, it works. For long-haul, over the road, not so much.
Wrong… The problem with natural gas vehicles has nothing to do with safety. The systems are well designed and no more dangerous than gasoline vehicles. Gasoline under the right circumstances also explodes.
The problem that killed natural gas vehicles was pollution. Because natural gas has a much higher octane than gasoline, it increases the combustion temperatures and produces much more oxides of nitrogen. (NOX) which is a particularly nasty pollutant.
These emissions could not be reduced to meet standards with existing pollution control systems and would have required expensive new systems that would have driven the cost of the vehicles much higher. That combined with the inherent lower mileage of CNG made them noncompetitive against gasoline or diesel powered vehicles.
Want to piss off an EV clown? Drive past one, dead in the parking lot at the grocery store, because it can’t make it that last few miles to the charging station, with your 20-year-old pickup truck, while the thermometer says -5F, with both side windows open and the heater blasting away.
To add insult to injury, a diesel-powered flatbed tow truck shows up to deal with the situation.
I drove diesels for several decades and there was only one time when the beast didn’t start because I went home for 5 days after 6 weeks on the road doing 48 states and the company’s apprentice mechanic was supposed to go around and start the trucks to idle them for several hours every day. He didn’t do that. No idea why. The reason for this, despite the power plug-ins for the engine heaters, was the snowflake generation snowplow driver. The idiot boy ran over the shed that contained the circuit breaker panel for all the truck engine heater outlets.
Given how America is being over-run by the worthless snowflake generation, many hitting age 40 this year, there is no hope for the country. Enjoy the downhill run to the bottom followed by total disaster. With any luck, I will die of old age before it happens.
Owned a ’74 240D & an ’84 300. Drove both 275K miles but you needed a block heater plugged in all nightwhen it gopt below 35º or so. It got to -5º one night, covered the hood w/ a tarp and ran a kero torpedo heater for 15 min. to get it to start. Gave my older grandson our old 2014 Jetta TDI Wagon, it’s going strong at 300K.
Bought a 2014 Cayenne diesel 3 yrs. ago. It had no problems starting last week in 20º weather, which is 25º below normal. Ssme for our 2019 Sprinter Van.
Getting rid of inexpensive diesel cars was a WEF Plan, IMO.
Uncle Sam’s EPA (now there’s another one of those oxymorons) really bent VW over the sawhorse and shoved it to them … and I wonder how many concessions VW had to make to keep selling cars here.
VW’s push with its ‘IQ.drive’ seems like a Trojan horse of sorts … to enable vehicles to be controlled by those other than the drive — and, what with the 5G and future 6G, that seems to be a big part of ‘their’ plans for US …
I take issue with the statement ‘typical internal combustion engine powered vehicle has a range reduction of 15 to 25% in sub zero temps’. I’d like to see the writer’s data supporting this as I’ve not had this experience. Anyone else noticed such a drastic loss of driving range of their gas powered car or truck when cold?
First thing I thought of too. The only difference that IC engines see is the ‘winter blend” which may give a few percent lower mpg….
That’s because refiners alter their gasoline and diesel formulations depending on the seasons, and summer gasoline contains about 1.7 percent increased energy than winter-blend gas.
Not in my 59+ years of driving ICE cars …
It’s curious — the acronym that the leftists use — ‘ICE’ … which in other contexts also refers to the White race … the ‘ice people’, as opposed to the ‘sun people’ — the black folks … with ‘ice people’ being used pejoratively …
There is definitely some reduction of fuel economy at cold temperatures. My trip to visit wife’s family in Texas – usual highway MPG for my mid-sized sedan is around 32, but was only around 26 in weather with average temps of 25 degrees. And this was without accompanying snow or ice (thank god, or I would not have gone).
The author of this article does not know a damn thing about an internal combustion engine if he thinks they are more inefficient in cold weather.
Cold air is condensed and contains more oxygen than warm air, and oxygen is the main factor in the combustion process. ICE’s run more efficiently and make more horsepower and torque in cold weather than in warm weather. Ever performance engine builder strives to reduce the temperature of the air/fuel mixture as much as possible to make more horsepower.
Just what does the author consider to be ’emission-free driving’?
Where does he think the electricity originates — in the clouds?
Also — on the subject of car batteries generally: two friends of mine own ’17 VW Golf Alltracks … no key ignition or door opening.
Both of them had to replace the factory batteries after just over 4.5 years … which seemed awfully strange to me since my ’07 VW Rabbit battery lasted more than 12 years.
The service agent at the VW dealership said that these newer cars — the ones without any key functionality — are, like cell phones, always ‘on’ … looking for a signal from the fob — thus they run down more quickly.
Change is inevitable … growth (progress) is totally optional …