[asianthree]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

All true. But it is a but more complicated than that. What a lot of people don't realize is that, in extreme cold, things happen to an EV that makes powering them back up a whole lot more complicated than doing it in, say, balmy Florida temps.

For one thing, batteries just don't charge as well in the cold. That goes for ALL batteries, not just EV batteries. But lead-acid batteries, even if nearly depleted, can still take a charge when cold. Not as much as if they were warm, but enough to get you up and going. EV batteries won't. They have to be preconditioned in extremely cold weather before they'll take on more charge. If the driver doesn't precondition them before getting to the charging station, the driver has to wait for a half-hour, give or take, for the station charger to warm up the battery to the point where it WILL take a charge, and even then the charging process may take much longer than normal. Sitting at a station for an hour and a half getting a charge, with a line of folks behind you getting progressively more irritated, is a whole lot different than swinging into a gas station off the freeway and fueling up the Family Truckster with about 20 gallons of gasoline.

EVs are a reasonable option in Florida. Up north, they're far more trouble than they're worth.

Our car dealer strongly suggests AC garages, because heat in FL effects battery life. Even at purchase of something as inexpensive as our electric mower, we were warned not to leave batteries in the FL garage. Charge and store in climate control house.or battery life will be half. So not sure about EV auto in heat, only have experience in cold. So far our family have traded in before batteries were in need of replacement.

We are swapping kids EV for our 7 person suv for the summer will see how TV heat effects the EV batteries.