Optimizing EV Performance in Extreme Weather Conditions width
6 Tips For Optimizing EV Range In Cold Weather
6 Tips For Optimizing EV Range In Cold Weather
There's been a massive push for electric vehicles, andmore and more people are going the electric route with a Tesla, Prius, or one of the other popular EV models on the market. Thanks to perks like lower fuel costs, zero emissions, and vastly improved cruising ranges, modern-day EVs are a practical solution for many car buyers. But while there's a lot that electric vehicles get right, the one thing that you'll need to be prepared for with an EV is that cold weather can significantly impact your car's range.
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While this isn't surprising all cars lose some efficiency in the cold it can be a cause for concern with EVs because lower efficiency means lower range. In fact, a recent study byConsumer Reports indicated that an EV's range could drop between 25% and 50% based on the driving conditions and heating preferences.
While there's no way to avoid this if you live in a cold region, the good news is that any range loss is temporary. Additionally, there are multiple things you can do to make this range loss less extreme. Here's a look at a few ways to optimize your EV's range in cold weather.
Preheat while you're plugged in
In the winter, you can't drive comfortably unless you have your heater turned on. But this isn't the most energy-efficient way to heat your electric car. Since your EV draws energy from the battery to keep the interiors warm, the range takes a beating.
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If you want to avoid draining the battery before you're too far along in your journey, the best thing to do is to preheat your car while it's plugged into a charger at home. This way, the power is drawn from the charger rather than your EV's battery, which, in turn, means a better range for you.
Your car likely has a preheat function that you can use through the associated EV app. Turn on the preheat function about 15 minutes before you need to leaveso your car is sufficiently warm. While the most obvious advantage to doing this is that your cabin is at a comfortable temperature before you get in, preheating your car also allows the battery to warm up and come to an ideal temperature as well.
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Use the seat heater
When it's cold, you want nothing more than to drive in a warm car. But if you're relying solely on the car's cabin heating system to warm the entire vehicle, you'll drain the battery pretty quickly, especially if it's a long road trip.
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A far more efficient way to keep the interior warm is by using the seat heaters. You and your co-passengers are unlikely to notice a big change when you make this swap, but your battery will. Although heated seats use energy as well, they don't drain the battery as fast as the heater. So, turn the seat heaters on and set your primary cabin heater to a lower temperature to save energy and conserve the range.
This isn't the most foolproof hack, given that some EV models only have heated seats in the front and not in the back rows. Still, if you can take advantage of the heated seats (like when you're driving with just one other person), you should.You could also consider using a portable car heater while the seat heating is turned on for some additional heat.
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Go at a steady pace
When you drive your EV at a higher speed, you're using up more energy, which, in turn, reduces your electric car's range. Sudden braking and acceleration can affect your car's efficiency as well.
While there's never a good time to speed, it's all the more important to drive at a steady pace in the winter months. Be sure to also accelerate, brake, and turn corners gentlyso you don't strain the battery unnecessarily. Not only will this prevent range loss, but it'll also keep you safe while driving on icy roads.
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If driving your car at a slower pace is proving to be tricky, try using your car's eco-mode. Most EVs come with it, and using this driving mode increases energy efficiency, giving you a better range. While this will mean having to make small changes to your driving habits and may take some getting used to, the improved range may make it well worth the effort.
Keep it plugged in
Most EV manufacturers recommend maintaining a 30% to 80% battery charge.Not only is this optimal for your battery's health, but it also ensures that you have enough range to get you places. You can do this by regularly connecting to a charger so your battery never drains out completely.
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While it's easy enough to plug into the charging system at home so you're starting your day with enough charge, it's best to make a note of charging points along your route before you hit the road. This way, if you're on a longer road trip or you've forgotten to charge your EV the night before, you'll be able to stop and plug in to maintain sufficient charge for the road.
Apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps can help you spot charging stations along your route. This may seem like a small step, but being prepared will ensure that your car never runs out of battery at an inopportune time.
Purchase winter tires
If you live in an area that gets snowed in often during the winter, you shouldn't rely on all-weather tires. You'll find that switching to winter tires or snow tires can benefit you significantly in the colder months. Winter tires, as the name suggests, are designed to offer better traction, superior handling, and enhanced performance. Not only does this keep you safe on the road, but it can also actually have a positive effect on your car's range.
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Remember that the more work your EV has to do, the less efficient it's going to be and the less range it will ultimately have. Driving with the wrong set of tires on slippery roads reduces the overall grip, and your car will have to work a lot harder to maintain traction. This drains the battery quicker, which leaves your car with less cruising range. Swapping your tires for winter or snow tires can keep your car from using that much-needed battery power to maintain stability.
Just remember to change your tires once the cold months have passed. Like how you wouldn't drive with summer tires during winter, it's best not to drive in the summer with winter tires.
Park indoors and travel light
If you need to keep your vehicle parked for a few hours, it's best to do it in a covered parking spot or a garage. When it's cold, the efficiency of the battery decreases, which, in turn, affects the range.
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Parking your car in a heated garage will ensure that the battery remains warm, keeping you from having to run the battery heating system. More importantly, your car battery won't die or lose charge from the cold weather. If you're unable to access a heated garage, an unheated, covered parking spot is the next best alternative. Even a spot that's just a few degrees warmer can keep your car from losing range.
Another thing that's worth doing iskeeping your car as light as possible. The heavier your EV is, the more energy it's going to use up. So, if you're trying to increase the range, remove any heavy cargo and accessories from the car and make it a habit to travel light.
Screen Rant
A recent study has revealed that while electric vehicles lose a considerable amount of range in cold weather, some models do better than others. The topic of how much range EVs lose in extreme weather has been hotly contested. As more drivers transition to electric mobility, there's been an increased interest in how to optimize vehicle performance in various conditions. BMW provides some best practices for getting the most range from its electric models. Range anxiety is starting to reduce thanks to the growing number of charging stations and the use of energy-efficient battery technologies as seen in the case of General Motors's Ultium.
A study by Recurrent Auto on how EV batteries perform in cold weather confirms the theory that range is lost as temperatures dip. But then, some models are better equipped to handle extreme weather conditions than others. For example, the Audi e-tron lost 8 percent of range when tested at freezing temperatures. This is paltry compared to the whopping 30 percent that the Volkswagen ID.4 lost in the same test. The Jaguar I-Pace performed the best, losing just 3 percent of range, while the worst performer was the Chevy Bolt, with 32 percent of range lost. Tesla EVs weren't among the best performers, but didn't fare too badly either. The Model 3 lost 17 percent of range, while the Model S lost 19 percent. The Model X and Model Y, on the other hand, lost 15 percent of range.
Related: Jaguar I-Pace: How Much Range Does It Offer?
Why EVs Lose Range In Cold Weather
While there are tips for optimizing EV range during cold weather, why can't EVs perform the way they do in sunny conditions? The main factor is that the battery experiences fewer chemical and physical reactions in freezing weather which negatively impacts the cars power. EVs are also designed to be highly efficient, depending on electric motors which generate less heat than their gasoline counterparts. The downside of this is that the majority of heat produced goes into warming the battery and cabin in cold weather, depleting the available range in the process.
To reduce the likelihood of winter range loss, users can precondition their cars cabins and batteries before driving. Fortunately, technology now allows this to be done using a vehicles smartphone app. Vehicle owners should also avoid regenerative braking since cold weather may affect the car batterys ability to recover energy. Using seat and wheel warmers requires less energy which comes in handy for optimizing range. However, with automakers prioritizing range efficiency and equipping new EVs with improved battery platforms, drivers may soon be able to confidently travel in cold weather.
More: Thousands More EV Chargers Are About To Be Installed Across The U.S.
Source: Recurrent Auto
Electric cars vs winter: the truth about EVs' range in cold weather
Electric cars versus winterHow EVs perform in cold weatherLower battery range and more
Winter has officially hit the UK and the plummeting temperatures have also come with a nasty side effect for electric cars. Many EV owners are realising that their batteries performance and driving range is suffering in the cold weather.Something thats backed up by the annual NAF winter range test; we have details of the 2023 results below.
Also on this page well explain what low temperatures mean for EV range, why its such a problem for EVs rather than combustion cars and a few tips on how to eke out a few extra miles from your electric vehicle.
How does cold weather affect electric cars?
Just like the battery in your smartphone or laptop, the batteries in electric cars are controlled chemical reactions designed to produce electricity and like all chemical reactions theyre also sensitive to temperature. Get an EV battery outside its optimum operating temperature, and itll be less efficient and produce less electricity as a result.
Most EVs warm up their cars battery to the correct temperature, but this also consumes precious energy. The end result? When the mercury plummets, so does EV battery efficiency and available range.
More heating, more problems
Cold weather also brings different habits from passengers; often well request more power from EVs than in sunnier times. For example, a cold snap will probably have you reaching for the heater, heated seats and heated steering wheel; all features that make us toasty but draw more power from the already affected battery. Once again, the range takes a hit.
CAR magazine has lived with enough EVs in winter to experience the fall in performance first-hand. Read on for what weve learned about the range of electric cars in cold temperatures and a few tips on how you can boost your mileage on each charge.
Electric cars in winter: what does happen to range in cold weather?
Our experience suggests that extremely cold weather will typically trim somewhere between 10-15% off the range of your EV and sometimes significantly more. It affects every electric vehicle, but some seem better able to cope with snow and ice than others.
When we lived with a Honda E city car (above), its tiny 35kWh lithium-ion battery could only muster a claimed 125 miles, according to the official WLTP claim; in practice, that meant 100 miles of usable range in the summer, plunging to 80-90 in wintry months. This significantly restricted its viability, in our experience.
Similarly, we ran a Tesla Model S long-term test and the 85kWh-batteried saloon never showed a range below 250 miles in winter, compared with 265 miles in more clement temperatures. Its worth pointing out this was an approved used, 65-reg example.
Our digital editor Curtis Moldrich, ran a nippy 77kWh Cupra Born (above), but found his range severely affected by the cold snap. During summer the Born could easily extend its range to over two hundred miles, regularly estimating around 270. Fast forward to the ice age of 2023, and the estimated range frequently dropped close to 180. Thats a loss of around a third!
CARs sister website Parkers.co.uk lived with a Mazda MX-30 electric car for half a year and found that, when fully charged, the range showed 90 miles instead of 110 in warmer months. Its battery capacity was 35kWh, similar to the Honda Es.
The trend is clear: cold weather = less range. Check out also Citroens official range calculator, which shows the e-C4s range as follows in different temperatures:
- Electric range, 20C: 217 miles
- Electric range, 10C: 194 miles
- Electric range, 0C: 175 miles
- Electric range, -10C: 141 miles
Using Citroens official data, that suggests a significant fall in performance in freezing conditions: a whopping 76 miles less, or a drop of 35% if taken well below freezing.
NAF winter range test results 2023
This is a topic the Norwegian Automobile Federation (NAF) is particularly interested in Norway is a huge consumer of electric cars and also a very cold country, so every year an electric vehicle winter range test is held to see how manufacturer claims stack up to real-world conditions.
In 2023, the event set a new winter driving range record with a standard Tesla Model S, which managed 329 miles in conditions between 0 degrees C and -19 degrees C before conking out. This beat the previous record of 324 miles, set in slightly warmer conditions by a Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor in 2022.
However, even that Tesla Model S performance represented 16.4 per cent reduction versus the official WLTP claim of 394 miles. As such the actual winner of the 2023 event yes, it is competitive was the relatively obscure Maxus Euniq6.
While this Chinese MPV (smaller sibling to the Maxus MIFA 9 thats set to be sold in the UK) may have managed only 197 miles in total, the result was just 10.45 per cent shy of the official 220-mile claim. Which NAF holds up as an outstanding result.
So Tesla was beaten by a Chinese people carrier?
Yes, but thats not the really interesting news. What youre probably better focusing on is how some other, more familiar carmakers fared which is to say, rather badly.
For instance, the Mercedes EQE 300 and Skoda Enyaq Coupe RS fell over 33 per cent short of their official driving range claims thats a third and the BMW i7 xDrive60 and Volkswagen ID.5 Pro both came up over 28 per cent lacking.
However it was the Toyota b4ZX which has already faced criticism for misleading range claims that came dead last, managing 200 miles versus a claim of 312, a short fall of 35.79 per cent according to NAF
How to maximise range of electric cars in winter
There are a few handy tips to extend the range of your electric car in cold weather. Be sure to charge up your EV at home, if you have charging facilities available. That way, youll start most journeys with a full charge.
Many EVs have a pre-heating function. On some models this is only available when the car is plugged in its a great benefit to have, deicing windows and warming the cabin to make driving in cold conditions quicker and comfier. We recommend using this function when plugged in, so you dont eat in to your range before youve even left home.
Be careful, too, with which accessories you use when youre driving. Heating, seat warmers and other ancillaries (see Tesla Model S, above) will all draw charge and reduce your range. Dont believe us? Try flicking the climate control off and on in most EVs; it can often grant you an extra 10 or 20 miles of range (a useful get-out-of-jail card for extending your range when youre nursing a car low on charge).
Tesla fined in South Korea for inaccurate range claims in cold temperatures
Tesla fell foul of the authorities in South Korea for exaggerating what its cars are capable of in colder weather in winter 2022-23. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) fined the manufacturer 2.85 billion won (1.9 million at the time) for failing to fully inform customers about the range potential of the cars in cold temperatures.
Although claimed battery ranges were calculated by official WLTP testers, they didnt factor in really cold weather, and certainly not every variation of wintry temperatures, prosecutors found. The KFTC said that Tesla had exaggerated the driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles as well as the performance of its Superchargers on its official local website since August 2019 until recently.
According to the KFTC, Teslas range drops by as much as 50% in extreme cold weather.
Can tech help solve the problem?
Better, more efficient batteries that are less susceptible to cold are being developed all the time. For instance, battery tech company StoreDot has come up with a new type of battery cell that it claims can still deliver 70% of its charge in temperatures of -20 degrees C colder than the conditions during the NAF test a loss of 30%. At -10 degrees C, range drops by 15%.
Its also worth noting that electric car batteries can struggle to fully recharge in very cold temperatures. StoreDot claims its latest XFC battery cells can recharge up to 80% of their capacity at -10 degrees C.
Anything else to know about EVs in winter?
Apart from energy conservation, electric cars are subject to the usual rules of motoring in winter. For example, we strongly recommend winter or all-seasons tyres like the Bridgestone Blizzak or Michelin CrossClimates to keep you going in cold or slippery conditions.
Our guide to the best winter tyres
Winter tyres provide a specific compound high in silica and tread pattern developed to give better traction in cold conditions. In our opinion, they are more useful to keep you motoring in snow and ice than all-wheel drive.
Note also that many electric cars have pop-out door handles for their aerodynamic benefits; these can freeze shut in icy weather, as happened in our Honda E (above).
Its all good intel to have, so youre not surprised when your EV plays up in cold weather. After all, anyone coming from a petrol or diesel car wont expect their range to shrink during a snow flurry.
Got any tips on maximising the range on electric cars? Be sure to sound off in the comments below
