Img source: cleancities.energy.gov

Do Low Temperatures Have Impact on Electric Vehicles?

Do you have experience of your car’s electric freezing during the winter? It is a common thing in parts of the world that have heavy and long winters. It is a common sense that low temperature can have an impact on your machine, but do you know what happens to electric cars? According to the Cara Clairman, the CEO and president of Plug’n Drive, electric cars don`t have that kind of issues.

Also, she says that her organization doesn`t have any information about drivers of electric vehicle that have a problem with their machines during the winter. The reason is that electric vehicles are using their electricity to keep the battery warm while the machine is not working. The driver can select an option of warming the interior of the car, and by doing that making more power for moving the car later.

Img source: electrek.co

Keeping the Car Warm

Clairman is a resident of Toronto, Canada. In the interview we are talking about, she used her hometown as an example. She said that most of the residents that are driving electric vehicles are plugging their cars at night, so they can keep an optimal temperature in them. However, extreme temperatures still have an impact on EV`s.

We are talking about the dropping of range by 40%. That means that batteries are less effective in lower temperatures. Because of that, the car must draw the power to keep the battery and the cabin. That will make the distance you can drive lower than usual.

Img source: cottagelife.com

Keeping It Running

She is saying that the residents of Ontario have found the solution to this problem. They are buying a steering wheel and seat heaters, so they can substitute the warming of the whole cabin, and reducing the distance their car can cover. Normally, when we are talking about the whole Ontario traffic, we can say that there is a problem with it during the winter.

Nadia Mato from Canadian Automobile Association says that you can`t boost an electric battery and that EV doesn`t need to be boosted, it needs to be charged. You can do the boosting only if you have an electric hybrid vehicle. In the end, she says that the Canadian Automobile Associations doesn`t have a category for the EVs and electric hybrid vehicles.