Is Cabin Heat Reducing Your Winter EV Range?

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In short, yes. The biggest loss of winter range is due to the heat that is required to keep the battery, and the driver, warm.

The main thing that explains winter range loss is the use of climate control system on-board the vehicle, also known as the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In a gas car, heating is a simple matter. Most ICE vehicles just use the waste heat from the engine to keep the driver and passengers warm. For an EV however, which is much more efficient, all of the heat must be created.

This is either done with resistance heating or with a heat pump. Resistance heating passes electricity through an electrical resistive element, the element gets hot, and a blower or fan blows the hot air into the cabin. This is similar to baseboard heating in your home. With a heat pump, which are more energy efficient until around 10F, a compressor transfers heat.

In this chart below, which pulls data from Kang Li et at. "Investigation on the performance and characteristics of a heat pump system for electric vehicles under extreme temperature conditions" and a 2018 NREL study.

EVs that use heat pumps for HVACs typically lose less range to climate control than EVs that use resistance heating, at least until it gets really, really cold. But, even at 14F, there is still a range benefit to using a heat pump.

Learn more:

How much do heat pumps help winter range loss?

New research: the truth behind winter range loss in EVs

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