Electric vehicle batteries are a lot like people, in one important respect: They’re most comfortable in temperatures around 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the weather gets much colder or hotter than that, a battery works less efficiently. It has to work harder, too, to keep the vehicle’s cabin comfortable for its equally picky human occupants.
The result? Electric vehicles can’t drive as far or as efficiently in extremely hot or cold weather.
AAA has been testing exactly how big an effect temperatures have on modern EV batteries. In its latest research, shared exclusively with NPR, it found that hot temperatures reduced range by an average of 8.5%. Cold weather cut vehicles’ range by a whopping 39%.
The model 3 is approximately 50kWH standard range. Roughly 221,000btu, which is roughly 7L of gasoline for about 300mi range estimated. Even cutting that range in half, it’s a lot of distance compared to a ICE.
Calculator
The relative drop in range for an EV vs ICE is significantly dampened by the efficiency of each. The ICE is just so wasteful that it’s much more noticeable when the weather hit happens. It’s why drag coefficient and tyre friction matter much more in EVs.