by kublikhan » Sat 20 Jan 2024, 14:24:27
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'A')verage temperatures across the Chicago metro area plunged below zero this week. Resulting in a double whammy for electric vehicle owners: paralyzed charging networks and battery degradation because of the cold blast.
There are tens of thousands of people up there bitterly regretting they were suckered into an EV. But that's always the way with Beta testers. You take your lumps.
Growing pains. Many are not yet used to driving their EVs in the winter. Just like with ICE, you need to make certain precautions for winter. Tesla recommends not letting battery charge fall below 20% in the winter. Yet some of these people had single digits of charge left. This is not unlike the recommendation to keep a full tank of gas in the winter months for ICE vehicles. Tesla also recommends to start pre-conditioning(heating) the battery on your drive to the charging station. It will even do this automatically if you are using a navigation system to get there. Yet not everyone did this. Then they were surprised when they had to sit and wait half an hour for the battery to warm up before they could even start charging. This is not necessarily their fault. Tesla might not have communicated clearly to do this. Again, this is not unlike the fact that many people in cold climates have a block heater in their ICE car and don't use it. I wouldn't be surprised if many didn't even know they had a block heater in their car or even what it was.
Norway has colder temperatures than Chicago, more EVs, and had them for longer. Yet they get by just fine through harsh Norway winters.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')anuary 17, 2024 - With a cold snap causing below-zero temperatures across Chicago, electric vehicle drivers there have been struggling with charging issues, reduced battery life, and plummeting range. It’s part of the learning curve of adapting to EVs, but drivers could look to Norway, the Scandinavian country that’s a leader in electric vehicle adoption, for reassurance that their battery-powered cars can handle freezing weather.
That cold temperatures affect an electric vehicle’s range isn’t new information; experts have been studying this effect for years. Cold temperatures actually make gas combustion cars less efficient, too, reducing the amount of mileage they get out of a gallon. But EVs are especially affected thanks to their reliance on the battery for both mileage and features like heating and defrosting.
Norway, which tested how the cold impacts EV range, is a leader in terms of global EV adoption; in 2022, all-electric vehicles made up 80% of passenger vehicle sales there, and in October 2023, EVs hit a 91.3% share of auto registrations (84% of which were full electric vehicles). The country’s winter temperatures—which average around -6.8 degrees Celsius, or around 19 degrees Fahrenheit, but can reach as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit—have also been a test for the technology. So far, EVs have largely passed—as long as drivers are prepared. Ståle Frydenlund, test manager for the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, told the Globe and Mail in 2023 that EVs are “quite able to cope with winter if you know what you’re doing.”
HOW CAN EV DRIVERS PROTECT THEIR CAR’S BATTERIES FROM THE COLD?Drivers of gas cars have likely heard that they shouldn’t let their gas tank get dangerously low in freezing temperatures—more air in your tank, experts say, means more moisture that could condense and freeze, blocking fuel from flowing. Similarly, EV drivers are having to learn how to protect their vehicles against winter weather.
In a blog post on an Audi dealership site, one Norwegian family shared tips for using their Audi EV in the winter, like pre-heating the car while it’s still plugged into their home charging (this is also called preconditioning), or using just the steering wheel or seat heating as a way to stay warm, and save range, on short trips. (These types of heating use less energy than warming up the entire car’s cabin.)
Just like with internal combustion cars, you should also check the tire pressure, which may drop in the cold.
EV drivers should also keep an eye on their battery level and ensure it doesn’t get too low, as bringing it back to a full charge will take longer in the cold (many EVs actually limit charging speeds when the battery is cold, in order to protect it from extreme temperature fluctuations). Home chargers are helpful for this as drivers can keep their EV plugged in overnight (with a maximum charge setting around 70%), which will keep the battery at a warm temperature.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')any of those who think their cars won't charge are new to EVs and don't know how to “precondition” their batteries, said Westlake, who has two Teslas. “They're just learning,” he said. “And Tesla isn't very good at explaining some things.” In frigid temperatures, it can take a half hour to warm the battery so it's ready to charge, Westlake said. Preconditioning the battery does cost some range, although it's usually only a few miles, he said.
Bansal, who has had her Tesla for only a week, didn't know about preconditioning the car before charging, but she does now. A few stalls away from her, Kim Burney's Tesla Model 3 was charging just a little slower than it does in normal temperatures. She had driven farther than she thought on a trip to her dentist in Ann Arbor Wednesday morning and wanted to get close to a full charge for the rest of the day's travels. So she told the car she was going to the charging station and it was ready by the time she arrived and plugged in.
In the short run, automakers are likely to come up with better ways to protect battery life and warm them for charging, Dasgupta said. And there are new battery chemistries in development that are more resilient in cold weather.
In the short term, Dasgupta said that as more mainstream consumers buy EVs, and as more automakers enter the market, they'll develop models using existing lithium-ion chemistry that are tailored to colder climates. In some cases overall range might have to be sacrificed a little to get better cold-weather performance, he said.
Millions are being invested in new battery technology that performs better in the cold that will find its way from military, aerospace and undersea applications into electric vehicles, Dasgupta said.
“You can be an EV driver in a cold-weather climate,” he said. “Be optimistic and excited about what the future holds because it's only going to get better from here.”