How will I stay warm (and for how long) in an electric car if I get stuck in another snowstorm?
In: Technology
Exactly the same way as you will in a petrol powered car.
Stuck in a petrol car, you have the option of running the engine to turn on the heaters and warm you up – but every time you do this you are using fuel, so the distance you will be able to drive before refuelling will decrease. The aim is to use you fuel supply sparingly enough that you still have enough to reach the nearest petrol pump.
In an electric car it is just the same, but swapping out the petrol tank for a battery. Every time you run the heater it uses some of your stored power, so in just the same way you need to be sparing using the heater (and other functions) in your car to allow you to keep enough power in the battery to drive to the nearest charger.
The heaters do work in slightly different ways – a petrol car’s engine naturally creates heat, so to warm the cabin all you need to do is funnel air around the hot engine to warm the air up and blow it into the cabin. With an electric car we lose this source of heat, so instead we just have to rely on an electric heater like you might use at home to warm the air. They work in different ways, but do the same thing – using the energy supply the car has available to warm the air.
Latest Answers