I see and hear about a random EV that has X range in 20 degree (Celsius) weather, steady speed of 110 km/h, but Y range (significant difference) if it’s 130 km/h. Even more of a difference if it’s 0 degrees.
If it needs to pull a trailer with 500kg it loses, i don’t know, 25% of the range?
There are probably other examples. I’m not talking these specific examples, i just mean in general.
Nobody ever talks about that when it comes to cars that run on gas or diesel, i assume because it doesnt affect them as much. Why?
In: Engineering
Speed and weight will affect gasoline/diesel the same way it does EVs, it’s just less noticeable because you can fill up a chemically driven car much faster than an EV.
Temperature affects EVs more significantly, ironically, because they are much more efficient than gas/diesel engines. Both engines and batteries work best at a certain (elevated) temperature. Cold starting gas/diesel engines have atrocious fuel economy, but because most of the burning fuel is lost as waste heat, even in cold weather, they quickly warm up and are able to maintain that temperature through waste heat of the fuel. Therefore the engine can stay warm without affecting the gas mileage too much.
Batteries also need to be warmed up but since they are so efficient, they don’t have much waste heat to use, so they have to use energy from the battery to heat itself, which reduces the range of the car.
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