Since Friday night, temperatures have been at -40°C or lower here in central Alberta, even reaching -48°C. I've had to charge up to 100% overnight to manage a one-way 90km commute to Edmonton and am keeping several sleeping bags in the car, just in case, as one layer would not suffice in an emergency. Yesterday, I heard about a guy living on an acreage whose car broke down. He didn't have anything with him, not even a cell phone, and had to run home in those temperatures. He survived but is now in the hospital. AMA waiting times seem to be over 24 hours. The energy consumption is easily 30 - 40 kWh per 100 km. I'm using 'winter mode preheating' to keep the battery as warm as possible. However, one heat pump is not enough to heat the car and prevent the front windshield from freezing at highway speeds. At -40°C, the thermal losses are extreme, and with the wind chill at those speeds, it might feel like -80°C or lower. Over the past four winters, the range loss was around 50% when temperatures were between -20°C and -30°C, but at these extreme temperatures, it appears to be 60 - 70%. Based on my experience, to feel safe and comfortable and achieve a decent range under these conditions, I would need a battery of around 150 kWh instead of the current 64 kWh. The distances in the Prairies are vast, as seen by the 230,000 km on the odometer. At these temperatures, I do not get more than a 25 kW peak charging speed from a 50 kW fast charger, likely because the BMS is throttling the speed to protect the battery.
At temperatures below -40°C, the range is 131 km with the SOC at 95%. It's going to be one more night and one more day like this. I'm looking forward to temperatures getting back to between -20°C and -30°C, when the range will be around 200 km (compared to the official range of 415 km).
My second winter I ran a range test on my MINI Cooper SE in -3 ºF and found I was getting near summer-like range (4.84 mi/kWh, best in summer is a bit over 6 mi/kWh) with absolutely no heat turned on. The SE heat pump doesn't do any good below about 30 ºF. Just today in my Lightning F-150 I drove about 80 miles in -5º F and found the Lightning provides a breakdown of battery usage, and it said 20% of the usage was due to cabin heating. I think that's a neat feature the Lightning has.
Fortunately since I am only 1.5kms to work, losing range does not effect me too much. When it was only-10C , range was not affected too much. But now with -20C it loses 8% overnight parked. I started plugging in overnight ( as charger locked while charging ) Also noticed on app car charging a couple times of times to maintain 90% during the night. Nice to use preconditioning in the morning. Dan Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Yes it sucks to have this kind of range reduction and slow charging in extreme cold days. But days of extreme cold and days when I road trip rarely coincide. When they do it's annoying, but I won't quit a car that works so well otherwise which is about 99+% of the time. On the plus side the EV starts just like turning on a light switch even during extreme cold while ICE cars struggle. And I never see an EV stranded on the side of the road with the hood up - just ICE cars. Regardless of what you drive you need to wear your woolies (aka long gitch if you're from Winnipeg) at those temperatures to keep warm while driving whether it's ICE or EV. My thoughts after a 3 day road trip in last January's cold snap. When I start out in brutally cold temperatures I see the remaining range stay constant or actually increase for the first 45ish minutes I drive and the battery warms. Same on less cold days but not as dramatic. If you live in a place that gets real winter like I do and the OP does, do your homework on which EVs perform better in the cold. Kona seems to be one of the better ones. I drive one too, and it is better than my previous Bolt in the winter for range and charging speeds. So it could be worse, George, even if that thought is only cold comfort.
