this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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Electric Vehicles
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They include climates in the study but only hot climates and temperate climates. Temperate climates perform the best of course, but that’s expected given the narrower temperature ranges.
I would like to see studies for cold climates. Here in Canada we have freezing temperatures for about half the year and sweltering temperatures for a quarter. The shoulder seasons bring lots of rain and temperature fluctuations. This mix of always changing temperatures and humidity (along with all the salt used to de-ice roads) is absolute havoc for ICE cars. It tends to rust them out a decades before the engines give out.
On the other hand, freezing temperatures are brutal on batteries (I know this from how my phone responds to the cold). I do know that a freezing cold battery needs a ton of extra energy to heat up before it can even begin charging. Having an EV in Canada without an indoor parking space for it is not a great experience.
Almost all new cars in Norway are electric, so it seems they do really well in the cold
Norway may be farther north than where a lot of Canadians live but it’s not colder. Where I live (Southern Ontario), it gets quite a bit colder than Oslo, despite being one of the warmer areas in Canada apart from the coastal regions.
I've had my EV for 5 years in Minnesota where our weather is worse than you down south. Other than shorter ranges in the really cold days, no problems with the battery. It's been driven and actually parked outside as low as -25F (real temp not a windchill)
Parked for how long though? Overnight or during the day? My belief is that an EV will perform much better in cold climates if you have access to indoor parking overnight, such as a residential garage or underground parking at an apartment complex. If you have to park overnight fully exposed to the outdoors with deep freeze overnight temperatures it’s going to be awfully tough on the battery.
But people are saying these batteries have built in heaters, so that’s pretty cool. I wonder how much power they’d use in that worst case scenario outdoor overnight freeze? Especially if you don’t have access to charging overnight and need to charge during the day at work.
All day ever day when I was working in an office and when it was -27F out, my son didn't listen and when to his hotel without charging first. Even at close to zero, the car ran fine and he got to the charger. However, the battery was so cold soaked that it had to heat the battery for a long time before it could charge.
Actually heat is much harder on the battery than cold. Different manufacturers have their own battery management systems and they aren't equal.
A battery also needs a ton of energy to become cold. It’s like 300-500kg of mass you need to freeze. Most cars automatically warm up the battery.
I’ve had an EV in Finland for 4 years now and it’s the best winter car I’ve had. -30 C outside and it’s literally T-Shirt weather inside the car within 10 minutes. Zero issues starting after it’s been sitting outside for a few days either.
How does heat work in EVs?
In ICE cars it's waste heat generated by the engine, carried via antifreeze to the heater core, which air then passes through. Basically, a radiator.
Where does the waste heat come from? Or is it resistive or a heat pump or something?
Yes.
Heat pump is more efficient, but resistive works fine.
And seat heaters and heated steering wheel are super efficient to keep you warm.
Very true. I used to think seat warmers and heated steering wheels were like...obscene-tier creature comforts.
Nah. They're damn near necessities once you have it.
I just got back from Quebec and vas surprised to see a ton of electric cars- like California levels of full electric cars on the road. I have to assume that most of them have made it through the winter alright, otherwise we'd be hearing about it. They do test these things in very cold climates before they sell them.
Iirc most modern EVs have passive climate control for the battery, even when the car is "off". So for cold weather that would be trace heaters or equivalent