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AAA: Cold weather can cut electric car range over 40 percent
Associated Press ^ | February 7, 2019 | Tom Krisher

Posted on 02/06/2019 10:36:58 PM PST by Olog-hai

Cold temperatures can sap electric car batteries, temporarily reducing their range by more than 40 percent when interior heaters are used, a new study found.

The study of five electric vehicles by AAA also found that high temperatures can cut into battery range, but not nearly as much as the cold. The range returns to normal in more comfortable temperatures. […]

AAA tested the BMW i3s, Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf from the 2018 model year, and the 2017 Tesla Model S 75D and Volkswagen e-Golf. All have a range of at least 100 miles per charge. They were tested on a dynamometer, which is like a treadmill, in a climate-controlled cell. […]

At 20 degrees, the average driving range fell by 12 percent when the car’s cabin heater was not used. When the heater was turned on, the range dropped by 41 percent, AAA said.

At 95 degrees, range dropped 4 percent without use of air conditioning, and fell by 17 percent when the cabin was cooled, the study found. …

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel; Weather
KEYWORDS: bmwi3; chevybolt; coldweather; electriccarrange; electriccars; nissanleaf; volkswagenegolf; winterweather
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1 posted on 02/06/2019 10:36:58 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai
If you want to make it home, isn't the solution obvious?

...plus...


2 posted on 02/06/2019 10:40:08 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Olog-hai

Goes to show, that electric cars still have problems which traditional gas powered cars don’t .


3 posted on 02/06/2019 10:42:29 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Cities like San Francisco still have a lot of trolleybus routes. If e-cars got popular there, they’d be begging to use the trolley wires if they had a cold spell.


4 posted on 02/06/2019 10:46:15 PM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

You also can only convert solar into electric, on average, about 10 hours per day in the US - it’s too dark at night. Not enough sunlight.


5 posted on 02/06/2019 10:47:43 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

You are simply swapping one problem for another. I will guarantee you that none of the battery-car makers have tested their cars in Tucson, in mid-summer. With maximum AC on, I’ll bet you lose a quarter of your capability on each charge.


6 posted on 02/06/2019 10:54:46 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: Olog-hai

Also, battery lifespan is reduced by many years when it is exposed to multiple months per year of freezing temperatures, as anyone who grew up in Canada or the rust belt already knew.

But you can’t tell the geniuses of silicon valley that - they are the smartest engineers in the world. Just ask them !


7 posted on 02/06/2019 11:00:27 PM PST by Reverend Wright (TAX the WOKE !)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

AOC has come up with a solution for that... simply shine bright lights onto the solar panels at night to keep charging them.


8 posted on 02/06/2019 11:02:30 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: Reverend Wright

Funny how they haven’t come up with any serious improvement over this century-old technology.


9 posted on 02/06/2019 11:05:01 PM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: pepsionice

I’ve had car batteries crap out on me in the middle of summer. Extreme temps, hot or cold have a negative impact on electronics.


10 posted on 02/06/2019 11:12:13 PM PST by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: Cementjungle
She is the cutting edge of the modern democrat.

I don’t know whose idea it was, but somebody suggested Trump announce he is installing solar panels all along the US border, about 40 feet in elevation order to minimize tampering. I could go for that compromise. And we could use all the collected electricity to recharge the sensors and the killer drone squadron the democrats have been pushing.

11 posted on 02/06/2019 11:25:23 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves.)
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To: Impala64ssa

Cold weather kills batteries. Hot weather can too.

But generally it really has the best chance to do this if the battery is weak and in the process of getting weaker and seriously requiring replacement.


12 posted on 02/06/2019 11:38:20 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Cementjungle; Sgt_Schultze
AOC has come up with a solution for that... simply shine bright lights onto the solar panels at night to keep charging them.

She would simply be inventing technology that hasn't been invented yet. This would be self contained within a feedback loop. Probably feature a discombobulator to work more efficiently.

13 posted on 02/06/2019 11:45:52 PM PST by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: Reverend Wright

The GlowBull Alarmists should be wanting more SUV’s to warm the planet, so that their Tesla’s batteries don’t die.


14 posted on 02/06/2019 11:48:25 PM PST by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: Cementjungle

Did she really say that, because I can believe she would have said it.


15 posted on 02/06/2019 11:53:04 PM PST by FrdmLvr (They never thought she would lose.)
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To: Impala64ssa

“Extreme temps, hot or cold have a negative impact on batteries.”
And that is why you do not store your small appliance batteries in the freezer!
I’m shocked when I find some people who think the place to store AA, AAA
and 9V batteries is in the freezer! I don’t know where this theory came from but many believe it to be true!


16 posted on 02/06/2019 11:58:42 PM PST by 9422WMR
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To: Olog-hai

Kind of makes one wish there was such a thing as an internal combustion engine. /sarc

JoMa


17 posted on 02/07/2019 1:46:34 AM PST by joma89
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To: Olog-hai

Are used batteries a problem for the environment? I have problems with the disposal of standard batteries for my tractors, mowers, trucks, motorcycles, and cars. I can get some payback at the recycling center but those cars have many batteries.


18 posted on 02/07/2019 2:37:30 AM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: Impala64ssa

Batteries last about 2 years in SW Az. It is the heat.


19 posted on 02/07/2019 2:43:59 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Dilbert San Diego; All
"Goes to show, that electric cars still have problems which traditional gas powered cars don’t."

That is true, and is of course true in the other direction as well...

Better batteries are needed. Personally I'm rooting for the new Goodenough (not a joke) battery. In addition to the things mentioned below (sodium!) it can be recharged something like hundreds of times more than LiON batteries, and they work much better in cold temperatures.

Over 80 companies are evaluating this battery for production. Any licensing of the patents will be non-exclusive.

A very good overall description from here:

Goodenough, who had moved to the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, when he was 64, made two important advancements in the mid-nineties. Still, a battery’s life cycle remains limited, and to deliver the range that electric car drivers want, they must be linked together. A Tesla, for example, has some seven thousand battery cells, which allow the car to travel as far as 265 miles without recharging. Stringing so many batteries together gets pricey: in a typical electric car, the batteries can account for more than $20,000 of the cost.

To resolve these issues, most researchers focused on building better anodes and cathodes. All of them, though, assumed they needed liquid electrolytes, as all batteries have. Several years ago, Goodenough began to question that prevailing wisdom. “I’ve always believed you have to challenge assumptions,” he says.

In 2015, he heard about the research of Maria Braga, a Portuguese physicist who had developed a type of glass that could be infused with lithium, replacing the need for liquid electrolytes. (Braga has since joined his team at UT, and she was the lead author of the research published in December.) “Most people who criticized us said, ‘Goodenough’s gone mad,’ ” he says. The glass gives the battery greater storage capacity, and it charges in minutes rather than hours. And by eliminating the liquid electrolytes, Goodenough dodged the pesky “explosions and fires” problem.

Since the glass can be made of sodium, the cost of the battery is reduced, and the increased storage capacity means the same amount of energy can be stored in fewer batteries. As a result, these batteries could enable electric cars to go farther, last longer, and cost less than they do today.

BTW, John Goodenough is the inventor of the lithium ion battery, and is currently 96 years old...and that's the rest of the story.
20 posted on 02/07/2019 3:19:20 AM PST by PreciousLiberty (Make America Greater Than Ever!)
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