The Halloween decorations are out, which means that as soon as that spooky holiday has passed us by in a blur, we’ll be looking ahead into the depths of winter – typically, the time of year when electric vehicles (EVs) tend to have their shortest one-shot driving range.
This is because the battery packs in EVs do not like super-cold ambient temperatures, while drivers will tend to be using more of the electrical drains in the cabin to exacerbate the situation – the in-vehicle heating, for instance, being a prime culprit.
Here, then, are some of our top tips to help your charge go that bit further during the darker, grimier months of the year.
Use the pre-heating feature
One of the benefits of owning an EV is that you don’t need to wait for an internal-combustion engine to fully heat up to optimal operating temperatures to provide warmth in the cabin. This, in turn, means that EVs can be ‘pre-conditioned’ – that is to say, you can remotely switch on their internal heater before you even get into the car to drive off in the morning. Usually, this is done via a companion app for the EV which you install on your smartphone. Simply tap the app about 15-20 minutes before you want to drive, or even set a timer for the car to do it automatically at a given time of day, and the car will be pre-heated before you get in. Do this with the car plugged in and it will help the EV maximise its driving range in the colder conditions.
Adapt your driving technique
You want to be smoother and, if you can afford to be due to good forward planning, a bit slower in your EV in cold weather to maximise range. Thrashing about the place with lots of heavy accelerator inputs and lead-footed braking won’t help with electrical efficiency at the best of times, never mind when the mercury is hovering around zero degrees Centigrade, so try to adopt a smoother, more anticipatory driving style. However, braking will help recoup power – if you use a one-pedal technique. Lots of EVs have this facility, in which the action of lifting completely off the accelerator pedal delivers deceleration without having to touch the brake pedal. This is a very good way of harvesting otherwise-lost kinetic energy when braking, which is then fed back into the battery pack to eke out your range to the max. Obviously this only works if you’re not wasting energy by accelerating up to speed unnecessarily.
Eco is your friend
If your EV has variable drive modes, there is a very, very good chance one of them will be called ‘Eco’. It might be called something else, like ‘Range’ or ‘Green’ or similar, but in effect it is an overarching setting for the car which makes it as efficient as possible. Typically, this will be by reducing the overall top speed of the EV to a lower limit (usually around 90km/h), as well as softening off the accelerator response and reducing the strength of the in-car climate control. It does make the vehicle feel less responsive to drive and, if it’s bitingly cold outside, you want to make sure the cabin is as warm as possible before activating it and restricting the climate control, but it’ll get you further to a charge rather than the Normal or Power/Sport etc driving modes.
Optimise the car
As with any internal-combustion-powered car, which uses either petrol or diesel to get about, there are basic tips to efficient driving that can apply to EVs as well. These relate to the following: first, don’t carry around unnecessary clutter and junk in the car. Any vehicle is more efficient the lighter it is, so if you’re needlessly carrying around 25-50kg of sports equipment or other items in your car, you’ll be using more electrical power to get about than if it was empty. And the second point here is, keep on top of your tyre condition. They need to be pumped to the optimum pressure level – being either under or over inflated by a significant degree will impact an EV’s efficiency on the move.
Hardy types use direct-heating elements
We’ve touched upon it a few times in this piece, but the biggest thing that will savage range on an EV is the in-car climate system. This places a greater strain on the ancillary electrics, forcing the EV to divert some of its propulsion power to top up the secondary battery that runs things like the lights, the wipers, the sound system and, yes, the climate control. Therefore, you’re in a conundrum in winter, because it’s the climate control that helps defrost and defog frozen-up and misty windscreens and side windows, and it’s the climate control that keeps occupants warm while motoring along.
However, there is a solution, as long as you wrap up warm: if your EV has heated seats and a heated steering wheel, try and use those on their own and switch the climate control off, if you can stand it. As long as the car doesn’t mist up again inside (as visibility out of the glass is the main safety priority in this instance), the seats and steering wheel should keep you feeling warm enough, without recourse to warming the entire car. This is a particularly good tip if you regularly drive your EV on your own with no passengers – you’re then ‘localising’ the in-car heating to the only point that needs it, rather than warming up the whole cabin unnecessarily.
Top up the battery fully at home
Putting any rechargeable battery for an electrical device through repeated, high-power charging cycles will shorten the battery’s operating life. This is why EV manufacturers tend to quote 10-80 per cent charging times using direct current (DC) electricity – it’s a method of preserving the battery for longer, as forcing it to 100 per cent charge at its fastest rate could soon degrade the cells. However, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you’re regularly driving your EV with only 80 per cent of its battery to start with, you’re not going to go as far to a charge. Luckily, home-charging an EV via a domestic 7.4kW wallbox is gentler on the power pack, and it allows you to go all the way to 100 per cent charge safely. That means, if you plug the car in overnight, you should wake up to an EV that’s ready to go as far as possible to a charge in the colder months – and those extra 30-50km that fully charged battery might bring to your journey, compared to kicking off with say 80 per cent, could be crucial during the winter, and the difference between you getting to your destination or having to find a charger en route to top up the car.