https://lemmy.world/post/22892985

/c/technology was the most active by far (more so than /c/cars), so I’ll post here again first.

Stats

The following stats are winter tests (10F to 30F. Or -10C to 0C).

• L1 Charger from Home is 2.05 mi/kwhr (12.0 mi/electric-$$. 17.1c per kwhr home costs) in this deep cold.

• L2 Charger from Work is 2.8mi/kwhr (14.0 mi/electric-$$. 20c per kwhr work-charging costs).

• 43 Miles per Gallon gasoline (13.9 mi/gasoline-$. $3.10 gasoline during test).

• L1 Charger is closer to 2.8 mi/kwhr during 60F (15C+ temperatures).

• L2 Charger is closer to 3.5 mi/kwhr during 60F (15C+ temperatures).

Conclusion: The cold (10F to 30F) has made the Li-ion batteries of this car SIGNIFICANTLY less efficient. We’re at the point where L1 chargers are more expensive than gasoline, while L2 chargers are roughly on part with gasoline.

I recommend anyone who gets an EV to get an L2 charger. Not only for the convenience of far faster charges, but also because of the incredible improvements to cold-weather charging efficiency.

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There were some pro-EV fans asking me to more carefully test the gasoline usage in the winter. And now you have the stats. I can solidly say that gasoline is worse during the Winter (down from EPA estimated 48), but not dramatically worse like the electric engine gets.

The above gasoline test was done over an entire week of driving to reach the 200+ miles I thought was needed for a solid test. I performed it by running out of electricity (all the way down to 0%), then driving to a gasoline station and filling up. I memorized the exact pump I filled up at.

Then, after 200 miles across a week, I came back to the same pump and filled up exactly the same. I then counted the gallons that came out of the pump and divided out based on my trip odometer. I was 203.5 miles of driving total with 4.734 gallons reported from the pump.