Efficiency of EV’s in the Winter Season is a key concern for the car manufacturer or consumer. As it is not hidden that cold weather reduces the EV range’s efficiency, but the range at which loss occurs might be differ in cars. Some Ev’s perform better than others due to its recycled waste heat, pre-condition battery and minimise range loss.
Reason for Battery Efficiency Concern
- Cold Temperatures inhibit the chemical reactions of the battery that create resistance. Result of that is that the physical process of the battery slows down. This reduces the EVs available power.
- Main reason for battery loss is due to cabin heating. In an internal combustion engine, the waste heat generated by the engine is used to keep the car warm for driver or passengers. But in EVS the car cabin gets warm through the energy from the high voltage battery, which reduces the battery efficiency for driving.
- These chemical and physical reactions also shorten the lifespan of the EVs.
Recent study conducted by the battery health and data startup Recurrent gives data during 2022-2023. They conduct the test with 10,000 EVs to analyze how the driving range gets affected by freezing temperatures. In it 18 popular EV models across the U.S. get analyze.
The study shows that after taking all factors in real world variables like climate, uneven terrain and driving pattern, vehicles battery life the average range observed is 70.3% of their normal range in winter.
Without going deep down in the statistics of study, EVs model that perform best is Audi E-Torn, which had the lowest range drop of 16% compared to normal. Due to its converting waste heat from motor, heat pump technology.
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Teslas’ Model Y, Model 3 and Model X each show the same loss of 24% range in winter. Makes it one of the winter leaders due to its pretty impressive thermal management model. The 2019 Nissan Leaf also a one of small range degradation EVs as it lost 23% of it’s range.
