All of us have this question, “What are the factors that affect the range of an electric vehicle? Is it only the capacity of the battery pack or are there any other external factors that can affect the range of an EV?”
There are quite several elements that can affect the range of an electric vehicle. Some of them are traffic, hills, roads, water, cargo, passengers, etc. Digging deep into the question we found an interesting factor that will affect the performance of the electric vehicle adequately. That is none other than the climatic conditions. The climatic conditions have a noticeable impact on the chemistries of the battery packs which will affect the range of the electric vehicle.
According to the tests conducted by different drivers under different climatic conditions, the results have shown a drastic difference in the range when compared to claimed range under normal temperatures.
Interestingly, when the weather is freezing then the range of the EV is observed to be 25%–30% lesser than the normal range, and on a red-hot day, the range is comparatively greater than it is on a freezing day. The range under mild temperature conditions falls between the above two categories.
The reason behind this is that In contrast to a gas vehicle, where heat is generated for free by the engine, an electric vehicle (EV) must generate cabin heat and regulate an ideal battery temperature using energy from the battery, which reduces range. (It should be noted that gasoline engines often perform worse in cold weather.)
Surprisingly the highest range was observed under extreme heat conditions when tested under these two extreme conditions. The weather conditions not only affect the range but also the charging of the electric vehicle. The colder the climate, the more time is consumed by the battery pack to get charged. Under extreme heat conditions, the chemicals in the battery pack act excited more than they do while charging under normal conditions. This may or may not affect the charge time of the battery, but it is not suggested to charge the battery pack under extremely hot conditions.
So don’t worry if you are not aware of this and if you are facing the same problem, we are here to get you covered up…!!!!
Drive safe….!!!!