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Electric engine performance drop at low temperatures is less steep than for gas engines. It’s just that people generally don’t monitor it for ICE: you have to f
by bertil 3y ago
Electric engine performance drop at low temperatures is less steep than for gas engines. It’s just that people generally don’t monitor it for ICE: you have to fill up more often, but individual drivers don’t realize it. Managed fleets do, though but they don’t mind because that usually matches the Christmas season.
- justinator 3y agoWhen you say engine performance, does that factor in drop in battery capacity? I know diesels also have problems running (and getting up and running) cold.
- bertil 3y agoCurrent batteries maintain themselves warm with a heat pump to avoid that degradation. The drop is mainly the energy of activating that pump. If you have a Tesla, that’s the fridge-like noise you hear when you warm it up. Diesel engines typically run (inefficiently) to warm themselves up and be efficient, but that is a larger energy cost, mainly because that process captures a fraction of the heat from the combustion.
- olivermarks 3y agoDiesel engines have electric preheaters. Electric battery warmers have to use battery power...
- bertil 3y agoWhere does that electricity come from? An inefficient Diesel engine driving the dynamo.
- gamblor956 3y agoYou have it backwards. Gas engines have a significantly less steep drop in performance than do electric engines, since gas engines generate lots of heat, and electric engines do not. A gas engine might lose 10% range at 0 degrees F with most of that related to getting the engine up to proper operating temperature, but once up to temperature a gas engine can maintain that temperature with a small hit to performance efficiency. In contrast, an EV will lose over 20%+ range at the same temperature (and can lose as much as 40% of their range at sub-zero temperatures.)