A common issue that people have debated regarding Electric Vehicles (EVs) is how they handle extremely cold temperatures. The main problem is the range.
Electric vehicles lose a bit of range when it gets colder outside, but will still start reliably. In Saskatchewan, at -36° Celsius this is proving to be true.
Pointer, founder and president of the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association, said the extreme cold does reduce the range of his Tesla by 40 to 50 per cent. But it’s working better in winter than his previous gas-powered vehicles, he said.
The great thing about an electric vehicle is that it has significantly less moving parts and you’re essentially driving one massive battery that’s very good at maintaining its heat and keeping itself going.
In areas where there are EV charging stations and Superchargers everywhere, this issue of cold weather is clearly minimal, but in areas where they are far apart and it’s hard to get to one, it could be a problem that could leave an EV owner stranded in the cold.
Hopefully, as the demand for EVs continues to rise, both Tesla and EV charging station companies such as ChargePoint and Volta will be able to meet this demand and help continue to increase these charging networks in more areas.
Reference- CBC News, InsideEVs, Clean Technica