An electric vehicle (EV) is a type of car that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. This makes them better for the environment and often cheaper to operate.
Car
Kia E-Niro
The Kia E-Niro is a type of electric car that is known for being efficient and having a good driving range. It's popular because it can travel a long distance on a single charge, making it suitable for daily use.
Battery range is how far an electric car can go before it needs to be recharged. Things like how you drive and the weather can change how far you can go on one charge.
Rapid charging means charging an electric car's battery very quickly, so you don't have to wait long to get back on the road. It's like using a fast charger for your phone instead of a regular one.
An electrolyte helps batteries work by allowing electricity to flow through them. It's like a special liquid that helps move energy around inside the battery.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of power and is fun to drive, but it also has space for passengers and luggage, making it a good choice for families.
The Polestar 2 is a fully electric car that offers a stylish design and modern technology. It's known for being eco-friendly and has a good driving range.
The four-stroke cycle is how many car engines work. It has four steps: taking in air and fuel, compressing it, igniting it to create power, and then getting rid of the exhaust gases.
An internal combustion engine is a common type of engine found in most cars. It works by burning fuel to create small explosions that power the vehicle, but this process can waste a lot of energy.
A heat pump is a system that helps warm up the inside of your car by moving heat instead of creating it from scratch. This can save battery power compared to regular heaters.
The Kia Soul is a small car with a distinctive shape that makes it stand out. It's roomy inside and comes with different types of engines, including one that runs on electricity.
Battery chemistry is about what a battery is made of and how it works. Different types of batteries behave differently, which can affect how long they last and how well they perform.
Heated accessories are things in your car that can warm you up, like heated seats or steering wheels. They make driving in cold weather more comfortable but can use up battery power.
The Chevy Silverado EV is a fully electric truck made by Chevrolet. It's designed to be powerful and efficient, just like traditional trucks but without using gasoline.
A kilowatt is a way to measure how much electricity is being used or produced. For electric cars, it tells you how fast the car's battery can charge.
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Hi, I'm Gary, and this is EV Musings, a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles, and things
that are interesting to electric vehicle owners.
And on the show today, we'll be looking at driving your EV in the cold weather.
The EV Musings podcast is sponsored by Zatmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find
and pay for public charging with confidence.
This episode of the EV Musings podcast is sponsored by Global Women in EV Day, a new international
movement that's founded on the belief that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity
to build a fairer and more inclusive industry.
Changing globally on the 10th of February, Global Women in EV Day is about visibility, momentum,
and action.
It's about celebrating the amazing achievements of women across immobility, and it's about
inspiring the next generation of women into the industry and helping them feel that they
belong here too.
Now our main topic of discussion today is the weather.
It's fact of life, especially amongst the English, that the weather is a topic of conversation
in just about any circumstance.
It's a neutral topic that can be broached by anyone, and with anyone.
A bit windy today, Vika, sun's cracking the flags where I am mum.
I wouldn't say it was cold your majesty, but I saw a couple of brass monkeys walking
around looking for spot welders.
That sort of thing.
But if you've got an electric vehicle, the weather is one of those topics that opens
up a whole can of worms.
And that's what we're going to be discussing today.
In particular we're going to be discussing the cold weather and what that does to electric
vehicles.
One of the best little EVs out there at the moment is the Kia E-Niro, friends of
the podcast you'll know, Warren Phillips and Andrew Till, all drive them, and one
of the reasons they like them is because in the height of summer with a bit of judicious
driving, they can cover 300 miles from a reasonably small battery.
Now that's phenomenal efficiency and if you're looking for a second hand EV, an
E-Niro can't be beat.
But once the temperature drops, that range can disappear quite quickly.
It can drop down to 230 or 250 miles.
So why does cold weather do that to an EV?
That's what we'll be looking at today.
We'll cover a little bit about battery chemistry and what the cold does to it.
And then we'll move on to cover tips and tricks for extending your range in an EV in
the cold, time for a little science.
A battery basically consists of three different parts, the anode and the cathode,
which are the positive and negative terminals, and the electrolyte, which is the
bit that sits between the two.
Now electrons pass from one terminal to another via the electrolyte.
Usually the anode and cathode are made of something nice and solid, such as
carbon or iron or manganese and cobalt.
The electrolyte is a soup of chemicals, which is almost literally liquid.
And we all know what happens to liquids when they get cold.
That's right, they freeze.
Now the chemistry behind that is somewhat more complicated than I've said here.
If you want a more detailed discussion, then call on a battery
electrochemist, Dr. Eul McTurt next time you see him and ask him about it
and you'll get chapter and verse on it.
But basically one of the issues with cold is that it makes the electrolyte
hard to pass the electrons through and this reduces your power,
which reduces your efficiency, which reduces your range.
And it's a simple link between the three.
So how do you stop this happening?
Well the short answer is to warm the battery and the easiest way to do that
is to precondition the car by either getting in and switching it on,
using the app if you've got one, or letting the inbuilt timer warm the
car depending on which option your vehicle has.
Now this sucks energy from the battery and it starts the process of warming it up.
It won't heat it up a lot, but it will do enough to offset some of the impact
of the cold weather.
Now some vehicles such as the Teslas and some of the newer Kears
have a battery precondition function.
This specifically warms the battery up.
Ostensibly it sets it up for maximum charge speed.
But it warms the battery as a result, which achieves the desired effect.
Another way to warm the battery is to actually charge it,
especially if you can rapidly charge it at a high kilowatt rate.
This heats up the battery, it gets the electrolyte moving,
so plug it into a nearby charger for a few moments
and enjoy what happens to your range.
Now the third way to heat it up is to actually drive it.
Now I did a journey recently in my Polestar 2,
leaving home with a temperature around minus 3 Celsius,
which is 28 Fahrenheit.
And as I left, the range of the car was about 160 miles
with the state of charge I had.
Now I wasn't at 100%, nowhere near.
And the efficiency was showing
to put around 1.8 miles per kilowatt hour.
Now as I drove it and the battery warmed,
the efficiency started to increase.
And within about five miles,
it was up to three miles per kilowatt hour.
The range was still around 160 miles,
even though I'd driven some distance.
But by far the biggest drain on your battery
and hence your range while cold is switching on the heating,
which is kind of required
when you're driving somewhere in the cold, am I right?
But why is that?
I mean, it doesn't drain the range
in an internal combustion engine car.
What is it about an EV that causes cold weather heating
to be an issue?
Well, it's all about efficiency.
Now let's go back and look
at the internal combustion engine for a moment.
As Roger Atkins is fond of saying,
the four stroke cycle of suck, squeeze, bang and blow
has been around for ages.
Air and petrol mixes sucked into the cylinder.
It squeezed together to increase the density.
The spark ignites pushing the cylinder back down
and the exhaust gases are sucked out
as the cycle starts again.
Now the key thing about these exhaust gases
is that they're actually quite hot
as is the rest of the engine
with these little explosions going on
hundreds or thousands of times per second.
This is all contributing to the inefficiency
of the internal combustion engine.
If you're very lucky and everything's well oiled,
well sealed and brand new,
you might get an efficiency of around 25%.
In other words, every pound of petrol
that goes into the engine,
only 25 pence is actually used to push the car forward.
The rest is lost in noise and heat.
But the good news for ICE cars
is that this waste heat can be harvested,
passed through a fan and piped in the car
to warm it up.
So the inefficiency of the internal combustion engine
is actually the one and only benefit
of an internal combustion engine,
meaning you can leverage the waste heat
to make the car warm.
Because the electric motor is far more efficient,
there's very little energy lost to heat,
which means to heat up an EV,
you physically need to create that heat somehow.
And this is generally done in one of two ways.
Firstly, you use a resistive heater
and take energy from the traction battery
to warm it up.
Think of this as a more efficient type
of one of those old one or two bioelectric heaters
that your grandma used to have.
The battery warms the heater
and the heat is passed into the car.
Now the other way is via a heat pump.
Now heat pumps are like little miracles in modern science.
They can take a small amount of energy
and convert it into a much larger amount of heat.
As an example, one kilowatt hour of electric energy
pushed into a resistive heater
will result in around 0.85 kilowatt hours
of heat being produced.
The rest is lost to inefficiencies in the system.
But one kilowatt hour of electricity used in a heat pump
can create three or four kilowatt hours of heat
because it's much more efficient.
As a result, heating a car with a heat pump
uses less energy than heating the same car
with a resistive heater.
Now, quick sidebar, a heat pump feels like a magic.
But in reality, it's not.
With a resistive heating,
you're physically creating heat
from electricity and electrical resistance.
With a heat pump, all you're doing
is taking heat that's already in the air
and there's always heat,
unless the temperature is absolutely zero,
and using electricity to gather that
and compress it down to the point
where there's enough to warm the car.
What's worth remembering is that
if your car has a resistive heater like mine,
you'll lose more range when you turn it on
than if you're in a car with a heat pump
like the top model in Eero's.
The difference can be quite stunning.
And my old ID3 did not have a heat pump installed.
And in winter, when I switched the heating on,
the range on the gond, the gasometer,
would drop by 12 or 15 miles instantly.
But the car I had prior to that,
the Kia Soul, did have a heat pump.
And turning on the heating would only drop
around four miles off the range.
I granted these vehicles
had complete the different size batteries and ranges,
but the difference could be quite startling.
Now, this is no different to
if you wanted to heat your home using electric heaters.
They're quick and they produce a lot of heat
from a small unit, but they're less than 100% efficient
and they'll take a lot of energy
to heat that air by using electrical resistance.
I'm adding a link to a site that has run tests
on various EVs to see how the range is altered
when the heating is turned off.
Check that out in the show notes.
But it's worth remembering that the loss you'll experience
is related to the battery chemistry,
the efficiency and the type of heater,
the temperature you set your car to
and the length of time you keep the heat on.
But to close, those I want to give you a few trips
to minimize the drain on your battery
from heating the car.
And these hints come in the form of two words,
heated accessories.
Now I've been driving for over 40 years
and none of the cars that I previously drove
had the ability to eat the steering wheel.
The first electric car I got,
the aforementioned Kia Soul had both of these
and I realized immediately that these are lifesavers
and I now won't consider an EV
unless it has heated seats and a heated steering wheel.
In fact, I found out recently that the Polestar model
I drive has heated seats both front and back,
which is very nice.
My nephews and niece appreciated that immensely.
Now the reason I like these is that you can switch them on
and you can use the localized heating
to keep yourself warm.
If you're in the car by yourself,
this is often all you need unless it's really, really cold.
But ideally you need to couple that with something
we've already talked about, which is preheating.
Before you get into the car,
ideally while it's still hooked up to a charger,
set the car to preheat.
This will heat the car up before you get in
and if you're on a charger,
it will do so without draining any power from your battery.
When you get into the car,
you'll find it's nice and warm
and you can keep your body and hands warm
using the heated accessories we've already discussed.
Now, another side note here I learned recently
that there are cars out there or vehicles out there
that can either charge your car or run the heating
while you're at a rapid charger.
The example I learned about was the Chevy Silverado EV truck
in the States for a huge battery.
It charges it over, well almost 300 kilowatts
and unless you turn on the heater or air conditioning
and then it drops the charge speed right the way down
to around 40 kilowatts.
So keep an eye out on your car
to see if the charge speed is affected
by heating or air conditioning.
The vast majority of them will be fine
but occasionally you'll find one that isn't.
So that's driving the EV in cold weather.
Did you learn anything you didn't know?
Did anything surprise you?
If it did, leave a comment if you're watching on YouTube
or send me an email info at evmuseans.com.
I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show.
One of the shorter ones, I think you'll agree.
The Evmuseans podcast is sponsored by Zatmap,
the go-to app for EV drivers,
helping you find and pay for public charging
with confidence.
Zatmap is free to download and use
with subscription plans for enhanced features
such as using Zatmap in car on CarPlay or Android Auto
and discounted charging across thousands of charge points.
If you have any thoughts, comments, criticisms
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And on the socials, I'm on blue sky
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Now I know you're probably driving
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Thanks for listening.
Bye-bye.
About this episode
Cold weather poses unique challenges for electric vehicle (EV) drivers, significantly impacting battery performance and range. This episode delves into how low temperatures affect battery chemistry, leading to reduced efficiency and range. Listeners will learn practical tips for extending EV range in winter, including preconditioning the battery and utilizing heated accessories like seats and steering wheels. The discussion also highlights the advantages of heat pumps over resistive heaters for maintaining warmth without draining the battery excessively. Insights from personal experiences with various EV models add a relatable touch to the technical details.
In this episode of The EV Musings Podcast, Gary discusses the impact of cold weather on electric vehicles, focusing on battery performance, heating solutions, and practical tips for driving in winter conditions.
He explains how cold temperatures affect battery chemistry, leading to reduced range, and offers insights into efficient heating methods, including the use of heat pumps and heated accessories.
The episode concludes with essential tips for maximising EV performance in cold weather.
The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence.
The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence. Zapmap is free to download and use, with subscription plans for enhanced features such as using Zapmap in-car on CarPlay or Android Auto, and discounted charging across thousands of charge points.
Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store or find out more at www.zapmap.com.
This episode is supported by Global Women in EV Day, an international movement founded by Gill Nowell to celebrate and accelerate the women driving the EV transition. Launching globally on 10 February 2026, the campaign brings the sector together around visibility, equity and action.
More info: [email protected]
