Leaving aside the fact that 50% or so of all the electricity burned by electric cars is produced in coal fired base load plants, [Ooooh, bad!] do you ever turn on the AC [air conditioner] in your Tesla when you are stuck in rush hour in the heat and the smog? Assuming you do, what does the AC drain on the battery do to range - assuming say, 90 degrees F ambient.
“Leaving aside the fact that 50% or so of all the electricity burned by electric cars is produced in coal fired base load plants, [Ooooh, bad!]”
You should probably bring that up with someone who is bothered by coal plants. Or is it you that is bothered by coal?
“do you ever turn on the AC [air conditioner] in your Tesla when you are stuck in rush hour in the heat and the smog? “
Well I don’t own a Tesla. Some of my friends do. One of them occasionally leaves his dog in the Tesla when it’s parked and runs the AC for the dog. That hasn’t yet caused him a problem. The dog enjoys it.
The impact of A/C on the range is negligible, and varies by speed and OAT. I believe the computer usually calculates about 5% range cost.
“Assuming you do, what does the AC drain on the battery do to range - assuming say, 90 degrees F ambient.”
I can’t say that I know that answer, but with gasoline cars, AC is an additional load on the engine, so I’d expect the impact to be roughly similar. But heaters are a freebie with gasoline cars, since engines generate tons of heat anyway and that heat is going somewhere, either into the cabin, or outside. Electric cars generate next to zero heat, so they have to actually run some type of electric heaters for the cabin, not cheap.
Having said all that, and having noted above that Musk is taking care of the cold-weather range problem on Tesla’s with a software push. Perhaps enough people complaining will get him to do another software push that will fix the air conditioning problem and also allow the AC to run without losing battery range. After all, if you can change the laws of physics in cold weather with a software push, why not do the same for warm weather!