Norway is the world leader in EV sales, but now it’s crossed a new landmark: the first country with more EVs than gas cars in service.
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20240915025331/https://electrek.co/2024/09/14/there-are-now-more-electric-cars-than-gas-cars-on-norways-roads/
I’m curious how well they handle the colder temperatures.
Very well. It’s much more enjoyable to own an electric vehicle in colder climates than a gas/diesel powered one actually, since you can let it heat up and defrost completely before going anywhere.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a60344222/does-an-ev-work-as-well-in-cold-weather/
Interesting. I’ve always heard the usual complaints of EVs being harder to start from cold temps and the battery not lasting as long when it’s cold.
Harder to start? That sounds extremely weird - it’s electric :D I’ve never had such issues (Sweden, on my second EV) while ignition when really cold has always been problematic with my gas/diesel cars.
Range goes down, yes. That’s true also for gas/diesel cars, but when the range is good enough we tend not to notice/care. My previous EV (Tesla Model 3 SR+) had lousy range both summer and winter (Tesla lies about their range) but in the winter it was indeed painful.
The current one (VW ID.7) has about double the range and also performs as stated. I expect a 20% drop in range in the winter and that’s just fine.
This is good to know. Sweden’s climate is very close to where I live in the US (a little colder I think) and I know I’ve always thought the tech wasn’t there yet for places that actually have 4 seasons.
Is it true it draws power to keep the battery warm when parked, and if so is it significant?
Some models do precondition the battery. Of those that do, if you leave the vehicle unattended for months you would notice the drain. Not over a few days though, the power drain is negligible compared to what’s needed to drive, or the increased range loss of a colder battery.
To put things in perspective: The average consumer EV can drive for 3–4 hours, but can power an entire household (including appliances) for 2 days.
I haven’t owned it through winter (no ID.7 owner has tbh) but I don’t expect that to be an issue. It will only heat the battery if you schedule departure times.
I’ve noticed no battery drain with the car parked otherwise.
I meant EVs in general, I don’t know much about them.
That’s good to hear, thanks
Ahh then I might know where it comes from. People who use Tesla’s Sentry mode don’t realize that it uses up several percent per night. Now, it does turn off automatically when the battery is at 20% but I know people who parked at an airport and didn’t have charge enough to get home when they got back because of this.
That’s part of the disinformation campaign against competition for legacy auto and gas. There is a lot of money going into telling you the new option is worse…
That’s fair. IMO though, the worst part are these half-assed OSes with OTA updates and software locked hardware.
When I need a new vehicle, I’d like to go electric but I haven’t seen one that really like yet.
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It’s a mixed bag imo. Don’t go on a long road trip in the cold…
I’ve been traveling all across the US in an EV and haven’t had any issues with range in the winter. Colorado mountains during ski season, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana in the spring. The built in navigation routes you to chargers based on current conditions and I’ve seen minimal range drop.
Battery capacity plummets when temperatures drop really low.
Also charging is a whole lot slower
Which EV do you have where this is an issue? The ones I’ve had pre-heat the battery to optimal charging temperatures.
Not dure if it’d the batteries or the charging stations. But I have a ds3 e-tense and during like, -10c ish is just a pain to charge.
You can even tell in the winter cus the queues to charge is just so long.
VW. As far as I know they still don’t have battery pre-conditioning…
I have a VW ID.7 and it does - but I also believe that’s the first model on their “new platform”.
Glad they finally got around to it. I got last year’s Cupra Born which is basically the ID.3 and it’s utter trash software wise.
Yeah, the new platform is way better - one of the reasons we held on to the Tesla until the ID.7 was available.