Once again simple research shows that whilst temperature does affect range it is auxiliary stuff that affects battery performance greater. For example if it is -3 degrees C then you will turn your heater on. Whilst the temperature will affect range, turning on the heater and getting it to blast out warm air will reduce range more than the temperature. Yesterday’s advice applies, use your extras as minimal as possible.
Having said all that lithium batteries do perform best at optimum temperature. What is that? Well it is around 21 degree C. Between 10 and 30 degrees C your batteries performance will be at peak. Between 0 to 10 and 30 to 40 your battery will lose performance. How much largely depends on how you drive and whether you are turning on all those extras.
I live in the county of Cornwall in the UK with temperatures rarely dipping below 0 and above 25 degrees C and I am still testing range etc on our Vauxhall Corsa EV. Over the last few days by driving carefully and running temperature in the car at 18 degrees C I am maintaining good range results. Not as good as the summer but they are better than I was experiencing. Would I recommend the car – yes I would but I am completely unimpressed with Vauxhall and there ‘Customer No Care’ attitude.
Edit: 10th February 2023
So, I wanted to do a little experiment. One of the regular journeys I do is to travel to Fowey from Lostwithiel. It is a round trip of around 12 miles. I did the trip on Wednesday during the day and kept the internal temperature at 17 degrees C, no lights, no wipers, playing music (Taylor Swift if you’re interested). I measured the range I achieved and driving at around 40 mph there and back again, I used 14 miles of range. i.e. I used 2 miles over the actual measured journey. Yesterday, I went to an evening meeting and with the outside temperature at 2 degrees C I switched the heater on to 24 degrees C. Travelling at night with the lights on, Taylor Swift singing Anti-Hero and heater trying to get the car warm I used nearly 15 miles of range going there. 6 miles of travel took over double the range. Coming back I reduced the heat to 21 degrees C and it still did 15 miles of range. For my journey of 12 miles I used a total of 30 miles of range. Ouch that hurts! But at least I know. This is not a carefully carried out experiment, just a someone who wants to conserve energy and use my car as efficiently as possible.
Edit: 23rd February 2023
Over the last few days the temperature has been around 9+ degrees C. Last night it dropped to 3 degrees C and this badly effected range. I used up 50 miles to go 22 miles.
Probably the last edit on this post but I hope this helps.
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