2024-01-18

Let's talk about cars for a bit. A lot of states here in the US
just came out of an arctic blast where we experienced a few days
of extremely cold weather.

One interesting news story that popped up was just how poorly
electric cars and their associated electric charging infrastructure
performed during the extremely cold conditions. Yes even Tesla
supercharging stations didn't fare that well in places like Chicago.

Unlike what anti-EV pundits will tell you, this doesn't prove that
battery electric cars are a bad idea and we shouldn't develop or
sell them...but what it does prove is that there is no such thing
as a perfect car...just a set of trade-offs.

Battery EVs are particularly disadvantaged in extremely cold weather
and good old combustion vehicles turn out to get some nice bonuses
in extremely cold weather. These 2 facts are only interesting
because unfortunately politics has taken over a lot of the vehicle
discussion in the US and therefore combustion vehicles are constantly
being compared to BEVs. Sadly this is due to politicians pursuing
mandates which seem to artificially pre-select technologies for
cars which I think is just a bad idea.

Anyways, why are battery EVs disadvantaged in extremely cold weather?
Because one of the outputs we expect our cars to produce in cold
weather is HEAT.  Yes the thing we almost always consider as a
waste product becomes one of the most valuable things in extremely
cold weather. So a hyper efficient battery EV has to spend precious
energy literally outputting Watts into the air to warm up its
occupants. Basically, your battery EV has to act like a completely
inefficient space heater whenever it gets cold! Of course EV cars
are better than your 1980s space heater. Highly efficient heat
pumps are used and all that but still, an EV has to spend precious
energy heating up air (and often times even the battery!)
Additionally, the current battery chemistry we use just doesn't
perform that well in cold weather. Lithium ion batteries especially
perform poorly in extremely cold weather.


Meanwhile, on the combustion engine side, heat from the engine is
used to heat up the air. Yes, ironically, the WASTE HEAT that the
combustion engine usually generates actually becomes completely
useful in cold weather. So the combustion car literally gets a
bonus for free. Afterall that 4 stroke engine is gonna make heat
anyways to move the car, but now you get a bonus use to heat up
the air in the cabin. The overall efficiency of the combustion car
goes up tremendously.

Now, if you live in Texas like I do where it is basically a scorching
hell on earth for 10 months out of the year...waste heat from a
combustion engine isn't worth all that much. So battery EV vehicles
are just going to be more efficient (for the most part Hummer EV
notwithstanding)

However, if you live in extremely cold weather all of the time...i
don't know to be honest. There's no question that EVs are extremely
energy efficient but how cold would it have to be before that
advantage is eroded away. There are a lot of factors that go into
overall efficiency including how cold it actually gets, how often
you drive, how far you drive and all of that.

My point is that there isn't a one size fits all solution when it
comes to personal transportation and that's why I'm against government
mandates that pick certain technologies like battery EVs.

If you've read this far, you've probably noticed that I've been
prefixing EV with battery. Why do that? Because battery EVs are
just one form of EV. Serial hybrid vehicles are another form of
EV. Fuel cell EVs are another form. I think that is what is lost
in a lot of discussion. Just restricting the arguments to gas/diesel
cars vs Battery EVs is too limiting.

for the record, it is my firm belief that ALL cars will become
electric vehicles...but that does not mean all cars will be BATTERY
electric vehicles. I look forward to seeing Fuel Cell cars and
serial gas hybrids and even diesel-electric hybrid trucks on the
road. Parrallel hybrids will be with us for a long time as well.
The combustion engine itself also has a rosy future being the
powerplant for hybrid vehicles. Advances in synthetic fuels or
other sustainable fuels also looks promising. Hydrogen fueld
combustion vehicles are also being researched...although I'm
skeptical they will ever beat hydrogden fuel cell vehicles in most
applications.

Battery EVs are not the final solution or even the best solution
for every type of transportation need...but they certainly
do a great job for a lot of people an awful lot of the time and
they will probably only get better and cheaper to produce.