I’m considering buying an EV to replace my aging diesel. I live in a very cold country where temperatures regularly dip below -30C in the winter.

I understand that EVs lose range in cold temperatures and that they need heating to use and charge without damage.

My question is this: if I plan on not using my car for several weeks, can I leave it unplugged and/or tell it to stop managing the batteries’ temperature to save energy and not damage the batteries?

I’m okay with spending half a day preheating it when I plan on using it again regularly, but I don’t want it to draw current all the time for nothing when I’m away on long missions.

For some reason, I can’t seem to find out if it’s safe to keep a fully unpowered EV in the cold for a long time…

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
    2·
    10 months ago

    ICEs are also less efficient in traffic, but they heat the car with excess engine warmth

    Not mine 🙂 My car has a very small turbo-diesel (1.3L), I tend to hypermile so I drive slowly and in higher gear, and in the winter, below -15C, the temp needle only gets close to normal operating temperature and starts warming up the car on the highway.

    That’s also something I learned when I moved here in northern Scandinavia: bigger engines are better because they reach normal operating temperatures in almost all conditions. My little underutilized engine just plain can’t get warm enough to heat the cabin significantly.