Stereotypical images of Canada abroad will inevitably have a 'winter wonderland' scene. There is a reason why stereotypes are stereotypes. Can battery-powered electric vehicles stand up to our rigorous climate stereotype?
Reduced autonomy but guaranteed start-up
Your car's engine does not fear winter, and will faithfully crank up no matter how cold. Where things get tricky is when you need to count on the remaining battery power in sub-zero weather.
The energy-consuming monster in your electric vehicle is its heating and cooling system. Welcome to Canada, where the combination of reduced re-charging and increased discharging that cold weather produces has a major impact on the autonomy of your electric vehicle.
Fleetcarma is a North-American electric vehicle fleet management company that used the January cold spell to install their own system to capture data from, and produce a chart for, the average-use data (not maximal use) of the Nissan LEAF. This chart, which is not an official OEM report, is the most complete to date. Fleetcarma is sharing this data, which was collected in weather as low as -25 °C, versus the -10 °C that Nissan considers extreme cold.
According to the Fleetcarma chart, at -25 °C the average autonomy of the Nissan LEAF is 60 kilometres, without factoring in driving or heating use habits. At an average temperature of +25 °C, this number doubles.
Finding reliable cold-weather EV autonomy data is not an easy task. Most tests peg extreme weather at -10 °C, while in France -5 °C is the absolute coldest weather used in most online discussions.
Charging capacity
Obviously it's reduced. Basic physics easily explains this reality. The colder it gets, the slower particles move: heat is energy, the more energy particles have, the more they move. While water freezes in these conditions, batteries take longer to recharge. You could say that the ions are like bees, they get lazy in cold weather.
This will result in a 20% reduction in charging capacity.
Heating...
Definitely wasteful, heating the passenger compartment will consume a substantial amount of the available battery power. During the EV road tests that were part of the 2013 Montreal International Auto Show, where temperatures plummeted to -28 °C, I noticed that the LEAF set aside 35% of the available battery power to heat the car.
Energy-saving tips
First, go easy on the heating. Easier said than done during our frigid winters. It's good to know that the heated steering wheel and seats consume less energy than the climate control system. Maintain just enough ventilation to prevent window fogging.
Keep your vehicle plugged in until the last possible moment. Your vehicle has a pre-programmed heating feature that you need to take advantage of while the vehicle remains plugged!
***
First-hand account (a La Presse subscriber writes in response to an online article following the January 2013 cold spell)
''Summertime, 150-170 km autonomy according to gauge.
Last week, 85-95 km.
"I must admit that every morning I set the heating to 'broil' while unplugged. Heated seats are great, but they don't do a thing for the kids sitting in the unheated rear seats.
"My car overnights in my garage that I heat to 15°C, and is always plugged in. Every morning I take off with a 100% charge, drop off one of my kids at school and the other at daycare, and leave it parked in the street at work. Evenings, same route, in reverse. I launch the Climate Control with my smartphone at every stop, so that the heating is at full blast while I pick up my kids. I also used the Climate Control approximately 5-15 minutes before leaving work every day last week.
"My daily commute is quite short, so I can afford the added luxury of reducing the autonomy so as to remove my tuque and my gloves when I get in the car. This provided great comfort on those days when a short 3-minute walk had me uttering unprintable words!"
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| Some snow (Photo: Daimler) |
Reduced autonomy but guaranteed start-up
Your car's engine does not fear winter, and will faithfully crank up no matter how cold. Where things get tricky is when you need to count on the remaining battery power in sub-zero weather.
The energy-consuming monster in your electric vehicle is its heating and cooling system. Welcome to Canada, where the combination of reduced re-charging and increased discharging that cold weather produces has a major impact on the autonomy of your electric vehicle.
Fleetcarma is a North-American electric vehicle fleet management company that used the January cold spell to install their own system to capture data from, and produce a chart for, the average-use data (not maximal use) of the Nissan LEAF. This chart, which is not an official OEM report, is the most complete to date. Fleetcarma is sharing this data, which was collected in weather as low as -25 °C, versus the -10 °C that Nissan considers extreme cold.
 |
| Nissan Leaf (Photo: Nissan) |
According to the Fleetcarma chart, at -25 °C the average autonomy of the Nissan LEAF is 60 kilometres, without factoring in driving or heating use habits. At an average temperature of +25 °C, this number doubles.
Finding reliable cold-weather EV autonomy data is not an easy task. Most tests peg extreme weather at -10 °C, while in France -5 °C is the absolute coldest weather used in most online discussions.
Charging capacity
Obviously it's reduced. Basic physics easily explains this reality. The colder it gets, the slower particles move: heat is energy, the more energy particles have, the more they move. While water freezes in these conditions, batteries take longer to recharge. You could say that the ions are like bees, they get lazy in cold weather.
This will result in a 20% reduction in charging capacity.
Heating...
Definitely wasteful, heating the passenger compartment will consume a substantial amount of the available battery power. During the EV road tests that were part of the 2013 Montreal International Auto Show, where temperatures plummeted to -28 °C, I noticed that the LEAF set aside 35% of the available battery power to heat the car.
Energy-saving tips
First, go easy on the heating. Easier said than done during our frigid winters. It's good to know that the heated steering wheel and seats consume less energy than the climate control system. Maintain just enough ventilation to prevent window fogging.
Keep your vehicle plugged in until the last possible moment. Your vehicle has a pre-programmed heating feature that you need to take advantage of while the vehicle remains plugged!
***
First-hand account (a La Presse subscriber writes in response to an online article following the January 2013 cold spell)
''Summertime, 150-170 km autonomy according to gauge.
Last week, 85-95 km.
"I must admit that every morning I set the heating to 'broil' while unplugged. Heated seats are great, but they don't do a thing for the kids sitting in the unheated rear seats.
"My car overnights in my garage that I heat to 15°C, and is always plugged in. Every morning I take off with a 100% charge, drop off one of my kids at school and the other at daycare, and leave it parked in the street at work. Evenings, same route, in reverse. I launch the Climate Control with my smartphone at every stop, so that the heating is at full blast while I pick up my kids. I also used the Climate Control approximately 5-15 minutes before leaving work every day last week.
"My daily commute is quite short, so I can afford the added luxury of reducing the autonomy so as to remove my tuque and my gloves when I get in the car. This provided great comfort on those days when a short 3-minute walk had me uttering unprintable words!"
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