EV range and heat?

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Thought I would revive this thread.

A UK-based publication tested the range of three different EVs in extreme heat in southern Spain.
The peak temperature during the drive was 111°F (44°C) and the cars were driven at highway speed.

Electric vehicles have a narrow window of ideal temperature where they operate at their most efficient. This is dictated by their lithium-ion battery packs, which are happiest at between 68°F and 77°F (20°C and 25°C), depending on their chemistry, and an EV’s range will take a noticeable dive if the ambient temperature drifts too far from this ideal window.

We’ve seen many tests looking at what effects very low temperatures have on EV range, and in extreme winter conditions with heating on inside the cabin and open-road driving, an EV will struggle to go much further than half its claimed range. But what happens in extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 104°F (40°C) and even going up to 111°F (44°C)?

three vehicles tested.
Citroen e-C3 its range was cut 28.7%
Kia EV3 its range was cut 32%
Tesla Model 3 long range dual motor its range was cut 44%
Both the Kia and Tesla have a liquid thermal management system for their batteries as well as heat pumps.

No matter their power source, all cars perform differently in the cold. The EPA estimates that “a conventional gasoline car’s gas mileage is roughly 15% lower at 20°F than it would be at 77°F.” But owners rarely notice much difference because we’re all accustomed to finding gas stations easily and refueling quickly.

Range loss is a significant concern for electric vehicle (EV) owners.

How much more? A new study says the percentage depends on the model. Some EVs lose as little as 3% of their driving range in cold weather. Others see it fall by nearly a third.

The study comes from Recurrent, a company that tracks EV battery life and uses machine learning to help owners care for their car’s batteries.

Tesla Model 3 lost 17% of its range.
Nissan Leaf lost 21% of its range
Hyundai Kona lost 19% of its range
Ford Mustang Mach E lost 30% of its range
Volkswagen ID.4 lost 30% of its range
Chevrolet Bolt lost 30% of its range

A different more up to date study:

In Buffalo, Green Bay, Detroit or Duluth EVs lost 25 to 30 percent of their range heat pump or no heat pump.

Good information for potential EV buyers. In extended extreme temperatures-heat or cold-one will be charging more often. Not a big problem as fast charging stations have been built throughout the US. And more are being built today and planned for future construction. And if using a Tesla charger the odds are over 90% that it will be working. Unfortunately other operators have much higher rates of non working chargers. Those poor performing operators will either improve or go out of business. It will take more time until charging stations become as ubiquitous as gas stations. And Tesla development of the new MultiPass app will make it easier for future EV owners to charge at any charging station. The EV transition will occur; just not as fast as some think it should occur.

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In all fairness they ARE improving. New hardware installed by Electrify America, EVgo, Ionna etc. have very high reliability ratings. It’s the older existing HW of those networks that is the problem. Fortunately they are being changed out, though maybe not as fast as we’d like. But the new stations are reliable, and those networks are still growing pretty fast.

Multi-pass is a great idea. It’s a shame that it’s an idea that needed to happen though. If chargers simply took credit cards, like gas pumps did, it wouldn’t be necessary. One app is better than multiple apps. But no app is better still. One thing I hate is getting a new app for some obscure network I’m only going to use once, but in that moment I need to use them… I’m looking at you, Texas A&M parking garage…

(I have ChargePoint and Electrify America cards loaded into Apple Wallet. When I need to charge there I simply tap the phone, the phone pulls up the correct card from my Wallet, and voila).

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The best idea I heard of is that at a charging location where there may be 4, 8 or even dozens of chargers they install just 2 (or more if lots of chargers) credit card payment stations. You park your car, tap your card, pick your station. Plug in…Done.

You don’t have a card reader at each station to keep costs down and prevent reader failure from disabling that station. You have at least 2 card reader stations in case of failure of one of them.

The card readers can be located in a more sheltered location. Normal Tesla drive up and plug in ignores all this as it does now.

Mike

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I can plug-and-charge at EVgo in my ZDX, just like you can with a Tesla at a SuperCharger, or a Ford at Electrify America. You’re missing the point though. You can’t always go to SuperChargers, or EVgo, or EA. I wanted to charge up at A&M in their parking garage, some rinky dink charging network that required an app, which required an account, just to L2 charge. (why didn’t they use ChargePoint, which everyone has…) Don’t require me to download an app, create an account, load a credit card number, just to buy your electricity. It’s one of the many good things about the NEVI program - you want funds, your charger must accept a credit card. (it must also charge any EV, and a few other nice things). This is not rocket science. Low margin gasoline is sold this way at every station, even the rinky dink stations.

Notice gas stations never had to do this whole “1 or 2 readers to service 8 pumps” and I’ve never had a failed CC reader when buying gasoline.

Plug and charge is a bit of a mess though. Between ISO 15118 (EA’s Plug&Charge), the Tesla standard, and autocharge+ (EVgo) there is not one standard for how to do this.

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i agree that it is dumb to need to download an app to use a basic L2 charger. But the additional cost compared to the cost of a charger with WiFi is significant, probably. When you look at the cost of a gas pump the extra cost for a cc reader is probably small.

Note that even rinky dink gas pumps can usually be remotely enabled with $X from the cashier in the booth or minimart.

Doubtful that very many Nevi funds will go for L2 chargers in parking garages.

Mike

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Yeah. I just brought up the L2 nightmare because I’m still p*ssed about it a few months later. :smiley: That charger network was odd (Liberty Hydra). Aside from a clunky hard to use app, you had to pre-pay your session based on time - how long did you want to charge? And of course, I had to guess, and picked 2 hours. We were there a little over an hour. No refund for what you didn’t use.