(It's not a big deal, eh?) https://swiftcurrentonline.com/local/how-do-electric-vehicles-deal-with-the-deep-cold How Do Electric Vehicles Deal with the Deep Cold? 26 January 2020 Paul Figueiredo
[image https://swiftcurrentonline.com/images/stories/2020/IMG_20200125_135912.jpg superEVSE ] Frigid winters are hard on all vehicles. How do electric vehicles compare? Range anxiety is a phrase that has become more prevalent as electric vehicles become more popular on southwest Saskatchewan [.ca] roads. Defined as the worry on the part of a person driving an electric car that the battery will run out of power before the destination or a suitable charging point is reached, it is largely considered to be one of the major barriers to the large scale adoption of all-electric vehicles. While an increasing number of charging stations have begun to pop up, somewhat mitigating that fear, what is harder to combat is the question of how an electric vehicle, or more specifically it's batteries, can handle the occasional deep freezes like those recently experienced in the southwest. Critics of EVs in cold weather argue that the issue is just a matter of science; batteries operate at peak efficiency between fifteen to twenty-six degrees Celcius. Anything below zero can dramatically reduce the amount of power it can supply. When you combine that with an electric heater drawing power to heat the interior since EVs do not have the benefit of heated air from a running engine, the effective range of a standard electric vehicle can reportedly drop forty or even fifty percent. Lloyd Fehr, a local Tesla owner, says that while that is technically correct, it hardly matters in real-world usage since most electric vehicle drivers have the wiring set up to charge from home overnight. "Every day I start with a full 'tank', per se, and I just use it for the whole day. I can still make Moose Jaw, Regina or Medicine Hat even in forty below weather [map https://goo.gl/maps/hwRxJcmuRhLxTSER8 ]. It just takes a little bit longer to charge because it's so cold out. It's not a big deal." He says that even with the range penalty in cold weather, his vehicle will still get more than three hundred kilometres of range. As for his Tesla's performance in the cold, Fehr says that it out-performs the gas-powered vehicle he came from previously. "It handles great in winter. The low centre of gravity (because) the batteries are sitting low. It corners amazingly." He goes on the explain that the advantages of his vehicle in winter more than make up for his drop in range on the coldest days. Because the interior heater of an EV doesn't rely on the excess heat of an internal combustion engine, his Tesla heater comes on instantly, for example. That as well as the relatively fewer moving parts of an electric engine keeping his maintenance costs to a minimum; reportedly spending only forty dollars in maintenance in the four years that he's owned it, means that Fehr has been nothing but satisfied with his EV purchase. When asked about the new EV charging stations that have been set up around Swift Current, he says that they are a wonderful thing for the EV community for both tourism and awareness, but that it's not the residents that will be primarily using it, as they can simply charge from home. "It's for the people in Regina and Medicine Hat that actually are going to use the ones in Swift Current. People will come, stay for twenty or thirty minutes and then get in and go. That's what it's designed for. And people in Swift Current, now that they see the chargers will maybe think 'hey...I can still get to Regina or clear across Canada because of the Petro-Canada or the Canadian Tire network.' It definitely adds-up for people wanting to buy the car." The date for the opening of the Canadian Tire charging station has not been announced. [© swiftcurrentonline.com] + https://www.just-auto.com/news/canadian-tire-to-host-90-ev-stations-by-end-2020_id193222.aspx Canadian Tire to host 90 EV stations by end 2020 22 January 2020 The stations will make CTC one of the largest retail networks of EV fast charging stations in the country. Working together with FLO (North American charging ... https://media.electrify-canada.ca/en-ca/releases/9 For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
