EVs still don't do well in winter. What's the solution?
Story by Gabriel Ionica • 1d
It has become relatively common knowledge that EVs don't fare as well in the cold as gas-powered cars do. The good news is that may no longer be a worry in the near future while the bad news is that we're still quite a ways away from batteries being fully immune to Mother Nature's colder side.
Current lithium-ion EV batteries rely on moving liquid
Much like any liquid freezes or becomes slower to flow in the cold, so do the liquids inside EV batteries. The way lithium-ion batteries work in cars is that charge-carrying lithium ions travel through a liquid electrolyte from the positive side to the negative side. When the battery gets cold, that liquid electrolyte part gets "thicker" and slows the movement of the ions from one side of the battery to the other.
This not only leads to slower charging times but it also means that the car's range drops significantly as the ions can't complete their journey fast enough to carry their charge through the battery.
That drop in range is further exacerbated by the car's thermal management system which uses its own electricity to warm the battery up for proper use. Throw the defroster, seat warmers, and steering wheel warmers on as well, and you're likely to look at a first-generation Nissan Leaf kind of range.
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