I’m curious, is the heating in a electric car instantly warm? Seeing as there’s no waiting for the engine to heat up.
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In a gas-powered car, most of the time instead of adding electric heating coils that will consume a lot of electrical supply there is instead a “heater core” that blows air over pipes that have been heated by engine coolant. This helps cool off the coolant AND provides heat without using up the battery. So it takes a while for the heater to heat up because the engine starts cold, and it takes a while for the coolant to heat up. (My car’s heat is noticeably less strong if I’m idling!) (Some cars may have electrical coils to try and supplement this, but electric heaters use a LOT of power so they won’t be as effective or powerful as you’d think.)
Electric cars don’t usually generate as much heat as gas cars so that kind of heat generation isn’t practical. Instead they use electrical heating coils. Those heat up very quickly, in only a matter of seconds (it’s effectively the same technology as a toaster.) A downside is this consumes more battery, but there isn’t a practical alternative since there isn’t a gas-powered engine or other car part generating a ton of heat.
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