Performance Of Electric Cars In Cold Weather

December 1 2019 according to recent studies cold temperatures significantly reduce the performance of electric cars especially when it comes to battery life.

Performance of electric cars in cold weather.

A cold battery using the. When colder temperatures hit ev owners have. New research from aaa reveals that when the mercury dips to 20 degrees fahrenheit the average driving range of an electric car decreases by 41 percent. The south korean car the testers noted delivered almost as much effective range in cold weather as the new generation nissan leaf despite the difference in their epa rated ranges.

Electric cars in winter have shorter range. Typically an ev will cover around 20 percent fewer miles in cold weather versus beach weather. Greg brannon aaa s director of automotive engineering said in a statement we found that the impact of temperature on evs is significantly more than we expected. With temperatures dropping well below zero in many parts of the country this week electric car owners are experiencing the most dramatic real world cold weather test of evs since mass market battery powered cars were introduced three years ago.

Compared with the 102 mpge we recorded in a 2017 bolt in 56 degree weather nearly ideal conditions that s a 19 percent drop in fuel economy. Calculating the ev range based on battery capacity. According to a recent study by aaa a 20 degree drop in weather can decrease the performance of electric vehicles by an average of 41 percent. For example using high efficiency heat pumps can provide cabin heating with much less drain on the battery than a resistive heater.

On really cold days the loss can be up to 40 percent especially when running the heater. When it comes to putting electrons into the battery freezing weather hurts in two regards. One study by aaa suggested that cold temperatures can reduce the range of the batteries in most electric cars by over 40 percent. Electric vehicles are also getting better at cold temperature performance.