Are heat pumps worth extra cost it EV Cars

Rodders53

Check out EV specific forums as well as here (quite a few here may use them)...  EVSpeak is an example.  Users there may also have an opinion.  Vehicle-specific forums, too if you have a short-list of vehicles under active consideration.

My new to me EV has one.  We mainly just leave the car to do its job.  Heated seats swmbo dislikes, although ours has them for four occupants.  My first heated steering wheel gets to hot for my taste (or should that be touch) and I was so looking forward to it.  I have missed the ventilated seats we had in the Galaxy for cooling.

The remote pre-heat / pre-cool works well. Nice to climb into an already cool vehicle when out and about.  Ours seems to heat up/cool down pretty quickly even when we forget / the app fails to connect to the car (have more experience of the cooling than heating since we only got it in February).

NB conventional aircon in other EVs still uses a compressor and gasses and heat exchangers... but can't be 'reversed' like heat pumps to heat cabin (and battery) as well as cool it... Not sure the technology is especially complicated (millions in use worldwide in building HVAC systems and I have them in the home) so no need to avoid on that basis alone... many such use a 3-pipe refrigerant circuit so can heat one area and cool a different at the same time (and recovering heat from one to give to the other).

From my research consensus was that they are a nice to have feature than can help with winter range especially.  Although we have opening windows and sunroof we rarely if ever use them, hay fever/allergy reasons so those EV users who run with then open to cool seem "just weird", in the nicest possible way .

born_again

Mine has heat pump & range is not much difference from summer. Less that 30 miles at 100%. Over same normal usage.
So for me it's a winner. 

Demisting is part of preheating the car. Not forgetting pre cooling as well given the high temps we have had of late. 

Would it be worth the extra cost for one, jury is really out on that. But it is up near the top of a must have for me. So a car that has one as a optional extra is bumped down the list.

Vegastare

Thanks everyone....EV Speaks is my next port of call.

Rather mixed views.  300 miles from home at 7am on a frosty January morning in hotel carpark, not sure a warm backside and hands would keep going, find it irrating with car I have already.

Still shall see

redped

@Vegastare - do you know what car you'll be getting, or is that still to be decided?  I've got a BMW i4 which has a heat pump as standard, and the few times I've pre-heated the car I've found it really useful.

ThorOdinson

They aren't worth much. 5% more range if running continually. Personally I don't like it too hot anyway.

MeteredOut

Vegastare said:

Thanks everyone....EV Speaks is my next port of call.

Rather mixed views.  300 miles from home at 7am on a frosty January morning in hotel carpark, not sure a warm backside and hands would keep going, find it irrating with car I have already.

Still shall see

You don't need a heat pump in an EV to pre-heat (or pre-cool) the car, it should just use less battery energy to do so.

uknick

MeteredOut said:

uknick said:

Heat pumps are generally factory fit.  I would have said always, but I don't know if there are companies that now retrofit them as after market..

Are they worth it?  I can only speak for the BMW i3, I don't see why it should be significantly different for other cars, but the general view in the Facebook group was they gave about 10% extra in range.

With regard to using the heat pump, the benefits you mention, heated seats and heating the car before you use it, won't make use of the heat pump.  And, they should be standard functions on most EVs.

The heat pump is purely used to heat/cool the cabin air when driving. 

Not pre-heating the battery before driving? Or are you referring to the i3's heat pump here?

They are not (yet) standard on most EVs.

The i3 heat pump was an option on the pure BEV cars only.  My car is a REX and can't have an heat pump fitted due to the REX location.  Therefore, all preconditioning must be done by the standard fit heating/cooling system.

born_again

Vegastare said:

Thanks everyone....EV Speaks is my next port of call.

Rather mixed views.  300 miles from home at 7am on a frosty January morning in hotel carpark, not sure a warm backside and hands would keep going, find it irrating with car I have already.

Still shall see

Pre heating a car does not need a heat pump. Any EV will do that. APP makes it easy to pre heat car while laid in bed, or pre cool while still in pub 😜

recordplayer

I've driven an EV for 8 years, My Wife and I both drive EV's, me a Tesla and she drives a Leaf (newer model). My car had no heat pump option, hers did. Neither of our cars have heat pumps.

If offered as an option, heat pumps tend to be expensive. The main reason to have one is to extend range in Winter, a time when you're probably already seeing a 25% - 30% loss of range in real World usage. If you drive a long distance and want the extra range regularly, then yes, a heat pump is worth it. If you commute and charge car regularly on cheap rate power at home, then I'd not bother as you will not see an ROI on your initial investment.

Hope this helps.

ididgetwhereiamtoday

Was the heatpump not standard on the mark 2 leaf?