Anecdotally, just about everyone knows that an electric car's range can be affected by the weather. If it's too hot or too cold, the battery has to work harder and range is negatively affected. Given the electric car's already limited range, EV buyers need to know just how much the weather is affecting their car. With more and more of its members opting for electric cars, AAA recently studied how temperature affects the range of an EV and found that outside temperature can reduce a vehicle's range by up to 57 percent.
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The study, conducted by AAA's SoCal branch, ran tests using a 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, a 2013 Nissan Leaf, and a 2014 Ford Focus Electric on a dyno in a climate-controlled room. The three EVs were driven in a manner that'd mimic the stop-and-go traffic of city driving, and run with a full charge until the batteries were depleted.
AAA not surprisingly found that the ideal EV battery range was a balmy 75 degrees Fahrenheit, where the combined average range for the three electric cars was 105 miles. Outside of that 75-degree sweet spot, range suffered. With the thermostat cranked up to 95 degrees, AAA found that average range dropped 33 percent, to 69 miles per full charge. Cold weather affected range even more; AAA found that range dropped by 57 percent at 20 degrees, meaning combined average range was just 43 miles.
Source: AAA
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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