Electric car owners…. In cold weather

[Dancethenighttillday]

Is you electric car using more, I was able to charge mine up to around 200 miles and it would last me the week, now with the cold weather that 200 miles is getting about 80 miles, trying to work out if it’s cold weather or fault with car. Also, charging is taking a lot longer.
gosh I regret getting an EV

It's the cold weather. Mine is taking up to twice the usual battery amount to do the same distances.

Yeah… they don’t tell you this

It works mileage based on type of usage. You need to look at how long the battery is Lasting. Don’t use air con. Use the heated seats. And yes. It’s lower in colder weather.

I honestly had no idea it would be this bad, it’s costing nearly £100 a week to charge and That’s only getting me to work and back (roughly 10 miles) and the odd short trip

Mine is too and it's taking longer to charge. Try to cover the car at night to help the battery stay warm is what I was told

I don’t use heating or air con or anything that could use the battery, I am literally freezing in the car because I don’t want to put the heating on 🙈

Yup. Mine only charges to about 2/3 of its usual range at the moment and uses charge up more quickly. Glad it's a hybrid.

How 0ld is the car op? Generally the batteries degrade by about 2 to 3 percent a year, with a life span of 10-20 years depending on how high spec it was. But this degradation hugely increases with more extreme temps like heat or cold. And we have had both this year the battery could he degrading quickly

replacement batteries are about 6 grand depending on the model and of course then the work to remove the old one and replace it. Often making it more costly than the actual car value.

ev is very expensive in terms of life time ownership and currently far exceeds combustion

It’s the weather.

My Ring doorbell has sent me a message to say the battery life won't last as long in freezing conditions so assume the same for cars.

Cold weather is the reason I can't wait to get rid of our electric car. That and charger wankers and poor infrastructure.

Lipo (lithium polymer) batteries are not so efficient in cold weather.

On the flip side I still love our electric car, but the sub zero temperatures really change things. Had ours 2.5 years now, and this week I think had been the worst for consumption. When the weather warms up, everything is better, so I try not to mind too much.

£100 a week?!!! That is INSANE and then massively reduced mileage on top. What a con. This shit has to be sorted out. I'm holding on to my shitey but fabulous Honda petrol.

Can you garage it overnight?

Mine is less efficient, but I don't need to do many miles and it's a hybrid.

Is that home charging rates?

I have a hybrid and I was getting 70mpg now I'm getting just under 60. Dire.

I've noticed a big drop in range with my EV car because of the icy cold weather. It's two years old so the battery is should be OK. However, I have been using the pre-warm app to melt the ice on the windows plus having to drive at night a few times. I'm sure the range will be back up once the weather gets less cold.

This week I've had no heating on in mine either. And breathing was fogging up my windscreen. I'm looking into something else as I can't go on like this. Wish I'd never bothered with an ev. (Although it's fab in the summer!

Are you on an electric car tariff? If I charged for that distance I’d pay £10-12 per week.

Winter is making me regret getting an electric car.

It's been a while since it was this cold in the SE, we don't normally get these long lasting freezing temperatures.

I don’t have a charging point at home so I use a local MFG connect. Car is only 18 months old and I don’t remember it being like this last winter but maybe it wasn’t as cold last year. Really regretting buying it but then it is okay in the summer

I'm just using a 3 pin plug at home, I got 100 miles in 12 hours last night. Frustrating but home electric is not much more than Tesco charging points and it saves walking round in the freezing temps.

Can you fit a charging point? You can buy them second hand on eBay and get an electrician to fit them, you might need an 80amp fuze box upgrade in the garage too.

No wonder it’s costing you so much charging like that.

All EV batteries are massively affected by temperature - we've had our i3 for 10 years now & get about 85 miles in summer & under 60 in below zero temperatures. I'd advise home charging on an EV tariff - we currently pay 4p/kwh for 3 hours at night - with your low mileage you should get enough charge in that time even on a granny (3-pin plug). Also if your car has preconditioning, then set that for your departure time as preheating the cabin & the battery from your mains is cheaper and more efficient than doing it from a cold battery. I love my old EV (it's such fun to drive) but would never have purchased one without being able to charge at home as that's one of the main savings over petrol/diesel prices.