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I am curious how well the batteries do in the cold temperatures. Though maybe it's only people in the south driving one ?

magicalhippo 7y ago
Depends on what you mean by cold. Well below freezing they're not very happy and have significantly reduced range and power delivery until they heat up. This issue can be solved by pre-heating the batteries prior to driving. With a Tesla you can trigger the heating from the Tesla app on your phone. With the BMW i3 you can plan a departure time, and if it's plugged in it will make sure the car is charged and batteries are heated if needed (Tesla has no such plugged-in restriction). Other cars may have similar systems. Winters in Norway are usually quite cold, below -15C is common in the capital which also has the majority of the EVs. So this is something to keep in mind, but is usually not an issue once you get used to it.
- alltakendamned 7y ago
  Thanks for your insights. Winters here can get down to around -25C and I'm curious what the real world performance is in such a case. Even though I'll need to look out for a new car in the next 18 months, I fear it's a bit too early for a Tesla in these conditions.
  - magicalhippo 7y ago
    My 2018 model BMW i3 reported about half the normal range when we drove it during -20C without pre-heating it this winter. When pre-heated the range reduction is primarily due to the occupants using electricity to heat up the cabin. But, as mentioned that doesn't mean half the range is gone, after a while the batteries heat up and you get more available range. But it can take about an hour or more, depending on driving, so you're looking at a fairly substantial hit regardless. Another point is that the car won't supercharge if the batteries are too cold. If you regularly see -15C or below, you might want to consider a car which allows you to remote start the heating and run the battery heater from the batteries themselves, like Tesla does.
NickM 7y ago
Generally you get a big drop in efficiency on short trips, but once the car heats up it's not such a big difference. This means that in practice, cold is not usually a big problem: if you're going on short trips you have plenty of extra battery capacity anyway since you're not driving that far, so the efficiency drop doesn't matter so much, and if you're going on a long trip then most of your driving time will happen after the car has warmed up, so the average loss in efficiency over the total duration of the trip is not that big.
maxsilver 7y ago
My EV has always done fine through northern Michigan winters. Range does decrease due to temp -- but it's only temporary, you get that range back in the spring when the weather warms up again. And normal car stuff works with EVs. (Every EV can pre-condition, which is effectively equivalent to a block heater, already built into it by default so you can pre-heat your car in the winter while it's still charging, to get some extra range).
flurdy 7y ago
TeslaBjørn to the rescue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsLMlozXjhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsLMlozXjhk He reckons there is about 20% performance hit during the winter. Ps. his channel over the years is quite informative (and funny)

magicalhippo 7y ago

Depends on what you mean by cold. Well below freezing they're not very happy and have significantly reduced range and power delivery until they heat up. This issue can be solved by pre-heating the batteries prior to driving. With a Tesla you can trigger the heating from the Tesla app on your phone. With the BMW i3 you can plan a departure time, and if it's plugged in it will make sure the car is charged and batteries are heated if needed (Tesla has no such plugged-in restriction). Other cars may have similar systems. Winters in Norway are usually quite cold, below -15C is common in the capital which also has the majority of the EVs. So this is something to keep in mind, but is usually not an issue once you get used to it.

alltakendamned 7y ago
Thanks for your insights. Winters here can get down to around -25C and I'm curious what the real world performance is in such a case. Even though I'll need to look out for a new car in the next 18 months, I fear it's a bit too early for a Tesla in these conditions.
- magicalhippo 7y ago
  My 2018 model BMW i3 reported about half the normal range when we drove it during -20C without pre-heating it this winter. When pre-heated the range reduction is primarily due to the occupants using electricity to heat up the cabin. But, as mentioned that doesn't mean half the range is gone, after a while the batteries heat up and you get more available range. But it can take about an hour or more, depending on driving, so you're looking at a fairly substantial hit regardless. Another point is that the car won't supercharge if the batteries are too cold. If you regularly see -15C or below, you might want to consider a car which allows you to remote start the heating and run the battery heater from the batteries themselves, like Tesla does.

NickM 7y ago

Generally you get a big drop in efficiency on short trips, but once the car heats up it's not such a big difference. This means that in practice, cold is not usually a big problem: if you're going on short trips you have plenty of extra battery capacity anyway since you're not driving that far, so the efficiency drop doesn't matter so much, and if you're going on a long trip then most of your driving time will happen after the car has warmed up, so the average loss in efficiency over the total duration of the trip is not that big.

maxsilver 7y ago

My EV has always done fine through northern Michigan winters. Range does decrease due to temp -- but it's only temporary, you get that range back in the spring when the weather warms up again. And normal car stuff works with EVs. (Every EV can pre-condition, which is effectively equivalent to a block heater, already built into it by default so you can pre-heat your car in the winter while it's still charging, to get some extra range).

flurdy 7y ago

TeslaBjørn to the rescue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsLMlozXjhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsLMlozXjhk He reckons there is about 20% performance hit during the winter. Ps. his channel over the years is quite informative (and funny)