Replies

This is an excellent post, and should be read by everyone who lives in a cold weather area. If those folks have thoughts about buying any electric car, they better DEMAND that they get PROPER information about those scenarios from the company and anyone else promoting that they buy electric. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that those cars have the “stuff” to be safe in a cold, rural environment.

You could be wrong! :)

Oh, I agree- I make it a habit to be wrong daily just so I don’t get out of practice.

That said, the load a battery-operated space heater required to keep a car heated in zero-degree weather is definitely not insignificant compared to the load place on the battery by the motor. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the battery would be completely drained by the heater (and fan required) alone within 30minutes at temperatures well above the low temperatures experienced in over 25% of this country, in order to gain and maintain a cabin temperature of, say, 60F. There has been many a day that my car which generates tremendous waste heat has been hard pressed to accomplish that feat.

Certainly somewhere this has been investigated, and the answers pretty well understood. There are not going to be any breakthroughs available to accomplish the heating- it has to be raw power, or super-insulation required. Like an electric-heated home, an electric-heated car is likely to require major insulation, which eats up both weight and space.

As I said, anyone in a cold weather considering buying such a car must SERIOUSLY consider the question of heating the car in cold weather, and survival for some period of time in the case of sliding off the road into a ditch or snowbank in a rural area.