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Comment by jmclnx | Hacker News Reader

This is one of my major concerns about EV, over the years I had asked about this very issue and all I got was "range will be slightly less" or "no impact". So I decided to stick with fossil fuels. Getting stuck in the middle of no where in the winder is no fun where I live.

I hope this hits the mainstream press, these days, seems all vehicles are only designed for use in Southern Calif.

>AAA found the loss in driving range could be as high as 41% with the heater on full blast.

My main concern was with the heater, in gas engines, heat is "free", I always thought the heater would be a big drain. Finally someone did some studies.

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I actually think the same thing (designed for Southern California only) about self driving cars. My car comes with a bunch of pointless sensors that beep nonsense at me incessantly until I give up and disable them. The lane assist goes bananas while I dodge ample potholes or drive around road construction, so I turn that off. But even the panic breaking constantly complains it is no longer working (indicated by an irritating beep) because some combination of salt, road splash and maybe sun has disabled it. Heck, the backup camera requires frequent wipe downs due to salt otherwise I can't see anything out of it but a muddy blur.

I've never owned a self driving car, but I suspect they'll just throw up their hands and tell you to deal with it in the event of any inclement weather. Which would be about half the time around here!

when I look at this chat, I see that a properly designed ev loses less than 2% performance in cold weather.

yep, though below freezing it will get worse

Did you take the time to read the articles? For many of the evs the range hit WAS minimal

>I hope this hits the mainstream press, these days, seems all vehicles are only designed for use in Southern Calif.

You realize FUD about EVs is almost constant in the press, right?

They seem to be most popular in Norway, despite all this.

That's mainly because of government subsidies though, it's way cheaper to buy and drive an EV in Norway compared to fossils.

>Finally someone did some studies.

I recall reading an EPA study from the mid 2000s that compared the total fossil fuel emissions from gasoline, hybrid, and hypothetical electric vehicles. They included power usage for battery heaters and even the emissions from fossil fuel heaters in all electric heaters. I can't find the study now.

Your concern is vastly inflated and misplaced. The car always tells you an accurate estimate of remaining range whatever the temperature. Also, the Tesla navigation automatically computes charge stops in real time and ads them to the navigation it makes it incredibly slick.

doesn't really matter if the car 'tells you' you are running low on battery - if you are not near a charging station, it is a real problem, wether you believe it or not.

I own one and drive it in winter including on long distance road trips so this isn’t a belief it is direct experience. The tesla charging stations are numerous and growing rapidly never have I even come close to running out of battery.

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