The range of electric vehicles can decrease by 30 percent in winter!

The range of electric vehicles can decrease by 30 percent in winter!

• By Krishna Shrestha
• 2024-01-16 16:41:10

Electric vehicles do not perform as well in extreme temperatures. Because the minimum temperature affects the chemistry of the battery, while under optimal conditions energy flows freely.
But not all electric vehicles are created equal. In temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, some battery-powered cars will give only 80 percent of their actual range, while others will drop the battery after half of the advertised EPA range.

With the help of Diagnostic Dongol, Recurrent Auto has analyzed 10,000 EVs in the US. From that, it can be easy to get some idea of what we can expect from electric vehicles in very cold weather.
Recurrent's main table (which is below) shows how much range a popular 10 battery-powered car loses in freezing temperatures compared to ideal temperatures. However, the highest range shown in yellow is not the official EPA rating.

Rather, it is the highest average driving range for each specific model collected by drivers belonging to the recurrent community at normal temperatures. In this comparative study, the range of the Volkswagen ID4 is seen to decrease by 46 percent in winter, which is 209 km less than the claimed range on a full charge.

But the Audi e-tron has lost only 16 percent of its range at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Tesla Model Y, Model 3 and Model X lost 24 percent of range, while the range of Model S decreased by 28 percent in cold weather.

But since this data is based on US weather and roads, it is not certain that the same result will be obtained in the case of Nepal. The 2022-2021 Hyundai Kona Electric is one of the models covered by Recurrent.

In cold weather, the vehicle's range without a heat pump drops to 84 percent of the EPA range.