In northern Norway’s bitter cold, the durability of electric vehicles is put to the test

[Elderberry]

Archive Today by Nathan VanderKlippe 2/21/2023

The Finnmark region in northern Norway has become one of the world’s best testbeds for electric vehicles in winter, with an Arctic climate, long distances and residents who prefer to tow snowmobiles.

Few places on earth are better designed to create automotive agony than the Lapland Proving Ground. Midway between Paris and the North Pole, it is where automakers come to see if their newest creations can endure the most frozen of tortures.

So it seemed the perfect place for The Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association to bring a handful of electric cars, to see how they manage in conditions unimaginable in the more temperate latitudes where automotive designers work in Germany and California.

After all, drivers in far northern climates are as likely to encounter 30 below as 30 above. Cellphones regularly fail in extreme cold. Can an electric car fare much better?

The late January test has considerable relevance for Canada, where the federal government will require all vehicles sold by 2035 to meet zero-emission standards. That will place a burden on new automotive technology to fill the void, in particular the heat pumps and batteries that are set to be the new sources for warmth and speed on the road.

To work in Canada, those cars will need to perform in the blistering cold of not just Edmonton or Winnipeg or Grise Fiord – but of rural Ontario, where temperatures touched -30 C in the recent polar vortex.

In Finland, Ståle Frydenlund, test manager for the electric vehicle association, locked five new models into the proving ground’s cold chambers overnight and set the thermometer for -40 degrees. When he returned the next morning, the results were not particularly reassuring. Three of the vehicles – Kia Niro EV, Nissan Ariya and MG4 Electric – could not drive out of the chamber on their own power.

“We had to put the gear levers in neutral and push the cars out,” said Mr. Frydenlund.

A short distance from the Lapland Proving Ground, across the border in Norway’s Finnmark region, lies the frostbitten real world.

More: https://archive.is/cUdho#selection-1387.0-1399.129

[DefiantMassRINO]

In colder climates, the cars may need to remain plugged-in whenever they are not in use.

I have to place my wife's Toyota Sienna on a battery tender when she isn't going to drive it for a couple of weeks.  In 2-3 weeks, the vampire voltage/ampage will drain the battery to where there are insufficient crank apps to start the vehicle.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

In fairness, gasoline engines may not start in bitter cold weather either.

[catfish1957]

When it is all said and done, I hope every complict enviro-whacko is feathered and tarred in true bio-degradable fashion.

These suckers must pay in the end.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The enviro-commies will not suffer because they will purchase carbon-offset credits to exempt themselves from the policies they impose onto the unwashed masses.

[roamer_1]

In fairness, gasoline engines may not start in bitter cold weather either.

Well, sorta. They may not want to... but they will.