Tesla cars fare well in new EV cold weather range drop test that highlights heat pumps

[Redaktion]

The presence of a heat pump should be the main criteria for EV buyers who live in colder climates, according to a new study. The EV cold weather range drop test reveals some surprising winners.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Tesla-cars-fare-well-in-new-EV-cold-weather-range-drop-test-that-highlights-heat-pumps.769690.0.html

[Brad Abernethy]

There is range loss on ice vehicles during cold months also, 10-20%..funny how gas car lovers never mention that.  Our Toyota Matrix drops from 620 km per tank to 510 during winter.  My Rav hybrid drops from 830 km range to 670.

[Riss]

I wonder if the EVs were all operated in a manner that optimized the cold weather range?  I had good luck with my 2014 Leaf by using the heated seat and heated steering wheel, then keeping the cabin heat on the lowest blower speed and highest temperature.  With it's heat pump setup the current used for heating would flair up to 3-4 kWhr at the start, then quickly drop to well under 1 kWhr.
The car was very comfortable to drive with those settings.  That should have equaled a very low percent drop in range, maybe 3%?  Operating the same car and turning up the cabin heat to higher blower settings would easily use 5 times more energy.

[CarGuy]

Couple of things...

The Audi was one of the first EVs built with a heat pump thermal management in mind and, overall, electric cars with those fared very well as they help offset the biggest winter weather battery consumer of cabin and seat heating

Audi e-tron no longer uses heat pumps.

And seat heating uses 12v system so who cares if there's a heat pump?