Winter Blues

[Grego]

So OK maybe not a "real" Canadian Winter. But I live in Richmond BC and drive to PortK daily(50km each way) plus whatever around town. This morning woke up to a few inches of snow and I must say the Kona handled it pretty well. Traction wasn't an issue seems everything went well. Except for the fact that my battery went from 100% to 62% for a distance of 125km drive today. That was a shocker as normally I'm in the 78-80% range. Didn't think winter driving would take that big of a bite from the battery.

Also when I looked under the hood to refill my Windshield fluid I noticed a nice buildup of snow. Seemed excessive considering there is no similar air intake at the front as an ICE vehicle. Also my charging door froze and once I opened it up was jam packed with snow.

See below. Now how wa s your winter driving been so far?

 

[Fastnf]

Seemed excessive considering there is no similar air intake at the front as an ICE vehicle. Also my charging door froze and once I opened it up was jam packed with snow.

There is no build up on an ICE vehicle because the heat from the engine melts and evaporates it. The Kona does not produce that kind of heat in the motor compartment.

While I occasionally get snow in the mountains of California I don't drive the Kona in the snow and it is garaged. The energy use is definitely higher in the winter. I get about 3.3 miles/kwh in the winter compared to 4.8 m/kwh in the summer. I work from home and only drive to go in to town run errands. Over Christmas we had 18 inches of snow. I just didn't bother to go any where if I didn't have to. On those occasions I need to go in to town I take the my F250 4x4 that I drive only when it is snowing or or the creek is up over a foot at the ford. It gets driven about a half dozen times a year

 

[electriceddy]

So OK maybe not a "real" Canadian Winter. But I live in Richmond BC and drive to PortK daily(50km each way) plus whatever around town. This morning woke up to a few inches of snow and I must say the Kona handled it pretty well. Traction wasn't an issue seems everything went well. Except for the fact that my battery went from 100% to 62% for a distance of 125km drive today. That was a shocker as normally I'm in the 78-80% range. Didn't think winter driving would take that big of a bite from the battery.

Also when I looked under the hood to refill my Windshield fluid I noticed a nice buildup of snow. Seemed excessive considering there is no similar air intake at the front as an ICE vehicle. Also my charging door froze and once I opened it up was jam packed with snow.

See below. Now how waView attachment 7165 View attachment 7165 View attachment 7166 View attachment 7167 View attachment 7168 s your winter driving been so far?

Well at least you don't have to worry about any critters hibernating in there.
This might work for the charge port:
https://insideevsforum.com/communit...difications-and-tweaks.5009/page-3#post-54890
Just curious, are you driving with the factory supplied Nexans?

 

[apu]

Its been snowing for seemingly ages in central Canada, no big 1-2 foot dumps yet but its been enough to get the snowblower out a few times. Its a bit nippy out right now. Note quite Alberta bad, but its -25C currently with a drop to -32C by my morning commute. GOM show 318 km on 90% charge but the moment you turn on the heat it drops to 210 km, ugh.

 

[Jgood]

This might work for the charge port:
https://insideevsforum.com/communit...difications-and-tweaks.5009/page-3#post-54890

I did this too and it's been quite effective at keeping the charging port clean and dry.

 

[apu]

Got as low as -31C on my drive this morning, car did fine other than there is not much dampening in the shocks at this temperature. Had to hit the cabin pre heat on blue link a couple of times before departure. A single 10 minutes session was not enough. As you can see in the lower picture of torque pro app winter mode engaged the battery heater, not sure when but the battery pack was a balmy +10C with an inlet temperature at 27C before I started my drive this morning. Pretty impressive that the little 2kwh battery heater can keep up a 60C temperature differential. The onboard climate heater was chugging along at 5.9 kwh for my entire trip, at times climate was using more power than the traction system. My trip consumption was a paltry 2.8 km/kwh but is got me to work safely and in comfort.