This is what the cold does with the range of an EV

Colleague and ‘head endurance testers’ Stéphan Vermeulen immediately noticed the effect of the lower temperatures at the Hyundai Ioniq 5 that is in the AutoWeek garage this week. “Normally you can easily get more than 400 kilometers with it, but under these circumstances it is more about 330 to 350 kilometers. The consumption then goes to more than 22 kWh per 100 kilometers”. It’s a well-known phenomenon. Like all battery powered devices – just look at your smartphone! – an electric car is empty considerably faster at temperatures below zero than in warmer conditions. In the case of an EV, the interior also needs to be heated, which costs a lot of energy. Add to that the possibly slightly higher rolling resistance due to precipitation and/or winter tires, and you get big differences between the ‘summer consumption’ and the ‘winter consumption’.

Economical with a Performance

Although David Kloppenborg drives the Performance version of the very popular Tesla Model 3, he is more concerned with consumption than with sprint times. This is also apparent from the figures achieved, because in the summer David simply achieves a consumption of 15 kWh per 100 km, or 150 Wh/km in Tesla terms. This is neatly maintained by resetting the on-board computer per season. In the winter this results in a clearly higher consumption: “On average it goes to 170 in the winter season, 15 to 20 percent more, so definitely”. In addition, David still takes it easy and the stove is at a completely reasonable 19 degrees. Under really winter conditions, such as this week, consumption is even higher: “With freezing cold and the heater at 21 degrees, you can easily exceed 200 Wh per kilometer”.

Empty after 160 km

With a Tesla or Ioniq 5, the difference in driving range is not an immediate problem for most people, because regardless of the circumstances, more than 300 km can be driven quickly. That will be different with an EV with a somewhat smaller battery, such as a BMW i3. Miriam van Hagen drives the 94 Ah version, so with 33.2 kWh. “In favorable conditions I get more than 200 kilometers, but this week I already had 130 kilometers range. With preheating on cable I stretch that up to 155 km”. The limited radius of action also immediately poses challenges for colleague Marc Klaver. The bright yellow Peugeot e-208 had the greatest difficulty this week with a return trip of 160 kilometers in total, and that with a WLTP range of 362 kilometers.

Fuel cars also sometimes have a parking heater, but with EVs preheating is more common. Delicious!

Consumption monitor

The differences are perhaps best visualized using the AutoWeek consumption monitor. There we find, for example, a Peugeot e-2008 – the SUV – which has consumed an average of 17.2 kWh per 100 km so far, but burned away no less than 26 kWh per 100 km in the past week. A 2021 Kia e-Niro achieves an average of 16.1 kWh / 100 km over almost 33,000 kilometers so far, but needed 21.7 kWh to cover the same distance in recent days. User ‘DKL3’ keeps a close eye on the consumption of a Kia EV6 in an AutoWeek consumer review. In the summer, 15 to 16 kWh per 100 kilometers proves to be perfectly feasible, good for a range of approximately 450 kilometers. In the freezing cold that is also considerably less here, and 19 to 21 kWh per 100 kilometers are used. Just up to 40 percent more, with far-reaching consequences for the range. And for the consumption costs, because these have suddenly become extra relevant with today’s high energy prices. In combination with the very low winter yield of solar panels, this quickly means that electric driving also costs more than 10 cents per kilometer in ‘fuel’. In most cases that is still less than with a petrol car, but that is no longer as obvious as it once was. But at least you don’t have to scratch!