Electric Cars - Batteries don't like cold.

[island911]

Seems rather Well Duh but here it is...

The average EV battery range in AAA’s test was 105 miles at 75 degrees but dropped 57% to just 43 miles at 20 degrees.

Electric cars can go only half as far in freezing weather, AAA finds - latimes.com

I expect that range drops even lower if cold, and having to drive thru snow. ...with the heat on. (just a guess)

[speeder]

Without a doubt, their performance would suffer. And 20 above is a warm day in MN. in the winter. People don't wear gloves or a hat.

They work pretty great here in SoCal, though. I'm seeing lots of new plug-in hybrids and Teslas are everywhere.

[techweenie]

Yes, it got really cold here in LA -- 44, I think. Didn't see a degraded range effect, though. Guess it needs to get colder.

[GWN7]

I was on a mailing list for Zenn electric cars. I kept sending them emails asking how far could I travel in their car when it was -40. They never replied. They went out of business in 2009 when the government wouldn't certify them as safe for highway use.

[porwolf]

Well, isn't the electric vehicles big disadvantage that the car's heating system has run on electricity that consumes a lot of electric energy which is limited anyway. For combustion cars the heat comes free. Equally if a lot of air conditioning is neded it will severely reduce the electric vehicles range. So, their optimal use is primarily in Southern California, I guess.

[Brando]

Their optimal use is in metropolitan areas with temperate climate.

Try going coast to coast in a electric vehicle. No dice (yet). Not enough charging stations.

[Jim Richards]

You know, I don't like cold either.

[hardflex]

actually you can make it across country now in an electric car in 76 hours, which would be fast enough for me .


Coast to coast in a Tesla Model S, using only free Superchargers - San Jose Mercury News

[porwolf]

Originally Posted by hardflex

actually you can make it across country now in an electric car in 76 hours, which would be fast enough for me .


Coast to coast in a Tesla Model S, using only free Superchargers - San Jose Mercury News

But for a full charge you have to wait for an hour there:

"Really in a hurry? Stop at a Tesla Supercharger station and you can top off the tank with 300 miles of range in just an hour, as long as your Model S is configured with Supercharger capability "

How Quickly Does the Tesla Model S' Battery Charge? - KickingTires

[legion]

It's my understanding that routinely using "fast" charging stations can cut battery life in half.

[dafischer]

Originally Posted by hardflex

actually you can make it across country now in an electric car in 76 hours, which would be fast enough for me .


Coast to coast in a Tesla Model S, using only free Superchargers - San Jose Mercury News

Which, I suppose, is just the cat's ass...if you can afford a Tesla.

[M.D. Holloway]

so much for keep'n them in the fridge to preserve freshness...

[island911]

Originally Posted by dafischer

Which, I suppose, is just the cat's ass...if you can afford a Tesla.

Ha! ...because flying is so expensive. -Thanks.

Maybe flying will become cheaper when Tesla develops an electric turbine engine. ...call it E-Ram.

Originally Posted by legion

It's my understanding that routinely using "fast" charging stations can cut battery life in half.

n'no, that's not how you play 'Battery cars are the future.' What you're supposed to do is take every BEST metric achievable, under optimal conditions - tout those as unwavering greatness- and ignore all of the negative trade offs. . . .say that any negatives don't matter anyway because you live in the land of milk and honeys.

The Electrics ideology certainly is an interesting one. I can't help but think of how my decades old 911 still has the original (inexpensive) fuel tank, which fast-fills in minutes w/o degradation . .. but only starts on a battery of a few year old - max. ...and that battery is baby-sat with a smart battery tender. - fussy chem batteries.

[island911]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Seems like the PNW would be the perfect place for electric. Never too cold or too hot.
.

The climate is tempered by all the water. The electrics are all over here. But likely has more to do with Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon... Lot's of 'toy' cars up here. You'll have to make a trip to Redmond on a summer-ish Saturday.

[island911]

Originally Posted by porwolf

Well, isn't the electric vehicles big disadvantage that the car's heating system has run on electricity that consumes a lot of electric energy which is limited anyway. ...

Heating the cabin takes some energy, but no where on the order of what it take to push a 4000+ lb car down the road at 60 mph.

It would be interesting to know if the testing had any in-cabin climate control going... All they said was that the vehicles were tested on a dynamometer in a climate-controlled room. I would expect that warming of the batteries would help the chemistry / eek out some more juice.

Sheesh, dropping average range from 105 miles to just 43 miles (@ 20F) ...That is having only 41% of average range. ...41% !

How many people here feel good about having just two gallons of gas in their car when their is snow on the ground/forecast? Yikes! And we have gas stations everywhere.

[john70t]

You could stick a lawnmower engine in the trunk, couple of clamps, and/or pull over to recharge.
Same as the Volt basically.

[p911dad]

In 2000 my employer assigned our region a Ford EV, which was a Ford Ranger pickup with battery power only. It was some kind of fleet operation experiment. The vehicle was impractical in the cold NY winters because the range was drastically shortened by the cold weather. The truck spent its days making local only trips because no one trusted it beyond about 10 miles in any one direction. The employees developed a "range anxiety" about the truck and no one wanted to use it.
This is of course ancient history and I was surprised reading this post that over all these years the range problem still hasn't been engineered out of these systems.

[petrolhead611]

There was a very small electric car sold here, I think called Reva, which had heated seats rather than trying to warm the cabin air.Not sure if its still available. It lacked the safety features of conventional cars as well apparently.

[jschmidt63]

seeing lots of Tesla, a few Volts and one Fisher. Live in an area of money, milder temps. and some "look at me I am Green". I like these because they are performance electrics but the masses of local Prius hybrids make me want to....

[Aurel]

Batteries rely on ionic conductivity of their electrolyte, which is temperature dependent. There is no way around that, and Li-ion electrolytes do worse than aqueous, because they start at lower conductivity. Less conductivity in the electrolyte means voltage drops faster, ie autonomy drops.