Cold weather affects all kinds of vehicles: Mileage on my Prius drops about 10% between summer and winter, and mileage on plain old gasoline cars also falls, although most people don’t notice because they don’t keep track.
Electric vehicles owners definitely keep track since they can’t (usually) zip off the highway at the next exit and fill up again. But few keep track as carefully as a friend of mine, who analyzed the battery performance of his EV vs. air temperature during his commute. His conclusion: “I lose about 174 feet of range per kwh for every 1 degree F. drop in temperature” – and at minus 100 F his car will not move. Nor, he notes, will he.
Note: It’s downhill to his work.
Return to the Concord Monitor