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Winter conditions can reduce the range of a battery electric vehicle by up to 40%, the Optimise Prime EV trial has found.
The Ofgem-funded programme is the world’s largest commercial EV project and aims to discover how the UK’s electricity infrastructure will cope with the mass adoption of EVs, as well as how businesses can accelerate their transition.
It features three fleet partners – Royal Mail, Centrica and Uber – who each have different operating modes, as well as Hitachi and electricity distribution networks UK Power Network and Scottish and Southern Electricity networks.
James Rooney, fleet engineer at Centrica, said: “In 2014, we took on some Nissan eNV200s and they were a really good van in the summer, not so good in the winter.
““Bearing in mind this is old tech, we could get 70 miles out of them in the summer but in winter that could be down to 40 miles with a mix of what the cold does to the battery in terms of potency as well as the driver using the heaters.
“It’s less of a problem now with battery preconditioning and liquid-cooled batteries, but we certainly see a seasonal disparity.”
Royal Mail has had a similar experience. “We introduced our first 100 EVs throughout 2018/19 so we’ve had them for a couple of winters now,” says Anna Pearson, fleet innovation and environment manager at Royal Mail.
“The colder and darker conditions means we have to use the heaters and lights more, and we have seen a drop in range.
“We’ve probably seen a drop of about 25% to 30%, definitely. That obviously depends on how the vehicle is being driven as well.”
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.
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There’s a few YouTube videos from Norway on the subject which seem to bear out these results on new EVs.
This from the Citroen e-C4 blurb:
Real Range Estimation between 175 – 375 km
City – Cold Weather *
250 km
Highway – Cold Weather *
175 km
Combined – Cold Weather *
210 km
City – Mild Weather *
375 km
Highway – Mild Weather *
225 km
Combined – Mild Weather *
285 km
Indication of real-world range in several situations. Cold weather: ‘worst-case’ based on -10°C and use of heating. Mild weather: ‘best-case’ based on 23°C and no use of A/C. The actual range will depend on speed, style of driving, weather and route conditions.Until I can be sure to do a 200 mile round trip under any conditions without stopping to recharge or refuel, I’ll have to keep waiting.
I managed to get my range down from the advertised 193 miles to just 99 miles from a full charge indicated by the GoM. Real range was about 125 miles that day.
Sub zero weather and motorway speeds kill the batteries performance and range. But how often do we get sub zero conditions in the UK….. Not very often thankfully!!
It also gets dark earlier and I bet on a hot day when using air con it hits the range hard as well.. Plus as we head into the next iceage, what then?
These are the limitation of using just electric. The more you need the more it will drain and the more power you need the heavier the weight of the batteries and that cost’s you more to pull away everytime..
Normally 50% of my driving is on the motorway at 70 mph most of the time and i often drive late at night to avoid traffic jams. In an ice car it’s no issue at all but in a ev it’s a huge issue imo and I won’t be tempted because of the impracticalities mentioned.
That’s how I stand too, Rox. I’m looking towards series hybrids like the range extender version of the MX-30 due out in 2022. I need 200 miles range guaranteed.
Last week very rarely went above -2 and was as low as -5 where i live and i still managed a range of 220m from the published 280m, depends how much you use the heating, it also helps having a heat pump. You also need to remember that the heating is almost instant not like having to wait until your dinosaur breaks into a sweat to get some heat in the cabin lol so its on for a shorter period of time as are the heated seats and steering wheel.
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Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
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Scale modeller in my spare time
----------------------------It’s been hovering around freezing or below for over a week where I live, My car puts out heat in less than half a mile and I didn’t notice a 25% drop in fuel economy during the cold weather!
Stuart, what was the use of your car that got you 220 miles? I need to do 200 mile round trip airport runs being almost all 70 mph on motorways.
Stuart, what was the use of your car that got you 220 miles? I need to do 200 mile round trip airport runs being almost all 70 mph on motorways.
Had the car a week now and my aim in the first week was to drive it exactly as i would have my Tiguan so its been in normal mode, i have used the heating and everything else as i would have and driven it like i would have. So far i have managed 220 which has been a mix of urban short runs and some motorway, im confident that i can get over 200 miles choose how i drive it tbh, just in one week its given me more confidence to just treat it like any other car really.
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Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
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Scale modeller in my spare time
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