The next generation of electric cars

In reply to EvanR:

I wonder when roadside assistance trucks start carrying quick-chargers for this purpose. So far I haven't seen a dead Tesla or Leaf on the side of the road, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Forgive me if I missed it somewhere in the discussion, but can any EV owners comment on loss of range in winter? I'm talking -30°F when battery capacity may be diminished and some auxiliary electric heater is likely being used. I don't recall that I have ever seen it addressed in marketing literature by any manufacturer.

pushrod36 wrote: Forgive me if I missed it somewhere in the discussion, but can any EV owners comment on loss of range in winter? I'm talking -30°F when battery capacity may be diminished and some auxiliary electric heater is likely being used. I don't recall that I have ever seen it addressed in marketing literature by any manufacturer.

Roughly half if you were running the heater to make you super comfy. If you dealt with just using the seat heaters and wore a coat, it was more like 20-30% loss.

Big, but it was totally fine for me 30 mile round trip commute.

pushrod36 wrote: Forgive me if I missed it somewhere in the discussion, but can any EV owners comment on loss of range in winter? I'm talking -30°F when battery capacity may be diminished and some auxiliary electric heater is likely being used. I don't recall that I have ever seen it addressed in marketing literature by any manufacturer.

One other cold weather related issue I saw on an acquaintance's Model S was that he wasn't getting the kind of regen braking he expected when the car was cold soaked.

It turns out that the battery temperature has to come up a bit before you can recover dump energy into like you could when it was warm.

Remember the days when you're ICE didn't run well when cold? The future may be that while the drivetrain runs fine, your braking is different until warmed up.

Karacticus wrote: Remember the days when you're ICE didn't run well when cold? The future may be that while the drivetrain runs fine, your braking is different until warmed up.

My '64 Mini doesn't like cold temps. At all. My '79 Spitfire needs a good 5 minutes of running before it's happy about leaving the garage. I don't have to remember.

To me, this is all another reason to lease new rather than own used. In less than a decade these issues will get solved. Buying a used off-lease EV on the cheap would limit the benefits of an EV. At least until the rate of improvements in range and usability is less dramatic.

You probably will see some tow-trucks with PTO-driven quick chargers, but EVs running out of charge seems to be a rare problem so I don't think anyone will get rich doing just that. People don't run out of gas on the road that often either.

In reply to Ian F:

The issue of range loss with HVAC use is going to be difficult if not impossible to solve. The biggest issue in the winter is using the heater in below zero temps, which lessens range by about half.

An EV has to get by with an electric heater and heat pump, which are energy intensive devices. I can get by a little bit with heated seats and a blanket, but then the windows ice up.

It seems like having a battery too cold to accept regen represents a perfect opportunity to route the regen into the cabin heater or the battery heater, or both. Does anyone do this?

In reply to ProDarwin:

In addition to your reply to Alfa (don't want to copy that whole thing), we don't run out of juice in our phones after the first couple times, we adapt. Same thing here; we will get in the habit of just doing when we have the opportunity rather than what we do now when the gas light comes on or crosses some arbitrary mark on the gauge. Whenever you are near a charging station you will plug up. Humans are adaptive and this is coming soon

bastomatic wrote: In reply to Ian F: The issue of range loss with HVAC use is going to be difficult if not impossible to solve. The biggest issue in the winter is using the heater in below zero temps, which lessens range by about half. An EV has to get by with an electric heater and heat pump, which are energy intensive devices. I can get by a little bit with heated seats and a blanket, but then the windows ice up.

windows icing up can be solved. Either through a defogging solution used for diving like this Absolutely Clear Defog

Or like my Landrover which has very tiny defogging wires built into the windshield.. you can barely see them, but they do wonders

Hook up to 480-volt DC using the SAE combo plug (compatible with the standard J1772 plug) and Chevy says you can grab 90 miles of range in a half hour.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/watts-news-2017-chevrolet-bolt-powertrain-detailed/