Electric cars question
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Heating - quite a lot in winter. When starting from cold, my i3 loses about 10 miles range on a possible 60 when it's below about 5 degrees and the heating is set to 22 degrees in the car.. But, once the car has warmed up this drops to no loss in range. However, this can take about 30 minutes.
Air con - hardly any even when it's 30 degrees outside.0 -
Don't notice any difference. But then I rarely do journeys that would use the entire range of the car.
I have 150 (on average over the year) to play with, and my journeys rarely go above 60miles round trip, so I have 90miles worth of energy spare for things like heaters and Aircon...
The real affect is temperature on the battery chemistry. When temperatures drop they effectively reduce the overall capacity of the battery by about 30% when you start getting below 0°C. This effect is often confused with the use of a heater or lights, as it correlates with low temperatures.0 -
A strong case for garageing these cars then? It's a pity everyone in Britain has felt the need to convert their garage into a spare room!0
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Still be cold when they come out of the garage0
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coffeehound wrote: »A strong case for garageing these cars then? It's a pity every builder in Britain has felt the need to contsruct garages that are too small for peoples’ cars!
Just corrected that for you:)0 -
So using, say a Hyundai Kona - what would the TRUE range be in cold weather ?
Also - when does the "memory effect" start to kick in - in terms of battery charge ?0 -
I would say that the impact of heating is more or less a fixed amount of energy (assuming all cars are roughly the same size). Thus, the percentage reduction in range depends on the battery size. In other words, you'll notice it more in something with a 50 mile range compared with a 200 range.
In our Leaf the heating only makes a difference of a few miles - the outside temp is a much more significant effect, in part due to the lack of active battery temperature management. I would say this effect is about 10-20% of range depending if it is cold (<10C or very cold <3C).0 -
It will depend on how cold and the thermal management of the car's battery.So using, say a Hyundai Kona - what would the TRUE range be in cold weather ?
Lithium batteries (all electric cars have lithium batteries) don't have a memory effect. They do degrade over time which means the capacity will go down. The degradation is dependant on how often they are charged and how fast they are charged.Also - when does the "memory effect" start to kick in - in terms of battery charge ?
Battery degradation for things like phones is often measured in charging cycles. One cycle is one charge to full and deplete. Charge to 50% and it will be half a cycle.
For electric cars manufacturers will state how much the capacity will go down over a certain period of time (like five years).0 -
Don't forget that you can pre-heat the car when it is plugged in to the mains so that it is nice and toasty when you drive off.I used to think that good grammar is important, but now I know that good wine is importanter.0
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iolanthe07 wrote: »Don't forget that you can pre-heat the car when it is plugged in to the mains so that it is nice and toasty when you drive off.
Yes - if the range is so poor that it needs plugging in every day ?0
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