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18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. EV driving can be more efficient if you don't let your battery cold soak for hours, or equally inef
by simfree 4y ago
18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. EV driving can be more efficient if you don't let your battery cold soak for hours, or equally inefficient if you do leave your car unplugged overnight.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoI live in place that routinely goes below freezing in winter. I’ve never noticed gas mileage change because of temperature. I would definitely notice a difference of 8 MPG. Where do you get that info? Is it personal experience? If so, where do you live?
- simfree 4y agoHere in the Pacific Northwest, driving both last winter in BC and currently in the mix of snow, freezing rain and slush. I'm using the same three peaks rated all season tires as I was using in the summer, and driving the same routes as well.
- gambiting 4y agoI easily notice the difference in my car, it goes from about 8L/100km in summer to 10L/100km in winter. That's on the same tyres in both seasons.
- bch 4y agoDriving through snow?
- gambiting 4y agoNo, just driving on the motorway, at a solid 140km/h. Did the exact same drive in winter and in the summer just this year and that was the difference in consumption(I want to add that I can see the difference in daily use too, but I just happened to do the exact same 700km drive where the only different factor was the season of the year, so it gave me a very good reference point for specific numbers).
- adrianN 4y agoIt's even worse for city drivers doing short trips. The engine doesn't have time to heat up properly before you reached your goal. Fuel efficiency is abysmal and the exhaust treatment systems barely work.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoCold air is denser. Pushing it out of the way saps more energy and drops the effective work done. You're oblivious to it because a motor vehicle has so much available power on tap. It is very noticeable on a bicycle at high speeds. Conversely. Sailboats get more efficient in cold temperatures because more energy is imparted on the sail.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago> Cold air is denser. Pushing it out of the way saps more energy and drops the effective work done. That makes absolutely no difference at all.
- sokoloff 4y ago> That makes absolutely no difference at all. That would be very surprising if it were true, given the very large effect density altitude has on airplane performance (engine and wing).
- maxerickson 4y agoIt's gonna make some difference, but air resistance goes with square of speed and the change in density due to temperature isn't that large.
- sokoloff 4y agoIt’s about -3% change in drag force per +10°C change in temp.
- maxerickson 4y agoWhich is like the same as 60 mph vs 59 mph.
- sokoloff 4y agoIn drag force, yes, but in this case, you are taking the 3% penalty and aren't getting the partially offsetting 1.7% increase in distance per unit time that 60 gives you over 59. Note that it's 3% per 10°C delta so, for a 40°C swing (say 30°C/86°F summer to -10°C/14°F winter), that's a 12% difference in aero drag force.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoIn colder climates, it's common to have an engine block heater, which to some extent mitigates this. A significant chunk of the lost "mileage" is from cold starts.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoGot it. So just make sure your vehicle is constantly consuming energy and you'll never have an issue... unless the power is out for an extended period of time.
- gambiting 4y agoYou never started your car and just let it warm up before setting off in winter? How much energy do you think that uses?
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoNo. That's a waste of a useful resource. It's also illegal in various places.
- gambiting 4y agoWell, I envy wherever you live then, must be nice in winter!
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoIt's 13F right now. I can afford clothing.
- simfree 4y agoDriving with an iced over window impairing visibility is illegal in most places, you have to address this with defrosting and perhaps scraping before moving the vehicle. Idling combustion vehicles is bad, but sometimes it's a necessary evil to ensure visibility so the driver can avoid harming other road users.
- avar 4y ago> Idling combustion vehicles is bad. Not really, you're spending a fraction of the fuel you'd use per minute if you were driving. So, in terms of pollution it's no worse than taking a short detour to wherever you were going.
- midasuni 4y ago18mpg is 21mpg with U.K. gallons. My fairly large Skoda gets 45-50 in the real world, maybe dropping to 42 if I’m pushing it to 85mph on the motorway. Even back when I owned a mid 80s Nissan around 2000 I was getting 25mpg (us gallon). Why is US mileage so awful?
- simfree 4y agoLarge SUVs with overcooked engines to meet emissions requirements (lower PM2.5 emissions at the cost of slightly worse fuel economy) get bad mileage. Having all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive, high ground clearance, a poor aerodynamic design (driving 70mph or 80mph sounds bad in many of these cars) also hurts efficiency.
- Scoundreller 4y agoEven when it comes to cars, often the US base model has a larger engine than the EU base model. No idea why: speed limits are often higher in EU and often with more hills.
- avar 4y agoIt's because in addition to fuel being cheaper in the US, many EU countries tax you on engine displacement, CO2 emissions, fuel economy etc.
- gambiting 4y agoWell yes, but watching American car reviews(as European) leaves me puzzled - reviewers often describing 3.0L V6, 200bhp engine as small and low power, and discussing if it's not dangerous to merge on the highway with it, while over here you get a 1.0L 110bhp engine in a large family SUV and it isn't even brought up as an issue. In my last car the base option was 90bhp, and the "high performance" model was 160bhp. I guess in US that would be described as a horse cart. That's despite the fact that even the 90bhp model had no issue keeping up with 80mph traffic.
- 4y ago
- skhr0680 4y agoIn city driving my ICE gets 6-8km/L in summer and 8-10 in winter. On the highway it gets 10-12 in either season
- BenjiWiebe 4y agoSomething must be wrong with your vehicle. I've tracked every tank of fuel I've put in either of my vehicles, and the efficiency does drop in the winter, but nowhere near that amount. I actually just looked at my economy graph, and I can't tell how much winter affects it. The variance is less than the variance of my driving habits. So less than 20%.
- jhoechtl 4y agoYeah additional electric heaters and stiff oil reduce mileage but Nowhere in that range. Your car must be faulty.
- lelanthran 4y ago> 18Mpg becomes 10Mpg or worse in the winter in my experience. That sounds like nonsense. What were you driving that had such a reduced mileage?