No biggie – on your cross-country travels you can just spend more time sitting in your car, charging, during the winter – because your time does not matter. What a strange take.
Based on 35,000 data points from 521 Ford Mustang Mach-E trips and 65,000 data points from 486 Volkswagen ID.4 trips, Recurrent found that the distance driven between charging sessions drops significantly along with outside temperature, and at a greater rate than the depth of battery discharge.
EV drivers self-reported an average 30% range loss in winter, and 60% of those drivers said they charged “a little” or “a lot” more when it’s cold. Those who reported charging a lot more are mostly from states with particularly cold winter temperatures, including Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Idaho.
Source: What cold weather means to most EV drivers: More charging
Wow – who saw that coming? Drivers in states with cold winters spend more time charging when it’s cold. Astounding finding.
FYI that batteries have lower capacity in cold temperatures is basic chemistry. Some EVs do better than others in keeping the battery warmer in cold weather. GM says their future Ultium platform EVs will use a small heat pump to keep the battery warmer and this will improve the cold weather capacity significantly.
