Does the heating affect the range?

[Tidds]

Hi all.

Today was cold and i whacked up the heating in the car, then drove for 138 miles. I also used apple car play for the first time to play a podcast.
I was 80% charged and expected to get 208 miles out of that. So i should have had 70 miles range left at the end of the journey. In the event i had 26 miles, 6.9kw left.

I have a single motor extended range car, which has a heat pump.

My questions are -

1. Should having the heater on 23 degrees c (I’m sure the thing is lying about the temp btw, i never had to put my old Volvo up to anything more then 21) affect the range as much as this? If so, I’m in for a very short range winter.

2. How does the heat pump work? Is it automatic? Can i turn it on and off anywhere? Does it extend the range?

3. Is it possible that using airplay affected the range? I am aware that sounds completely ridiculous, but this is a car whose radio goes silent when i brake so anything is possible!

Thanks.

[Deleted User 598]

The core temperature of the battery is the main influence on the range both charging and discharging. As the outside temperature drops so does the battery capacity and its maximum discharge and charge rate. This is why people talk about ‘preconditioning’ the battery before charging, i.e. warming the battery up before arriving at a chargepoint by using some of its residual charge to heat the battery so recharging will be quicker and more efficient.

The car cabin heating and accessory use is trivial in comparison.

[OomD]

In general the car uses the heatpump in cold weather anyway, to keep the batteries at optimum temperature from what I understand. However, heating the cabin requires the car to generate more heat, irrespective of heat already being generated for other purposes, so yes - it will influence (reduce) the range. Heating something uses a lot of energy, think about your water heater at home, hair dryers, electric kettle, all those are high energy users. While a heat pump is much more efficient, i.e. uses less power to obtain the same amount of heat, it still needs to use power. As to how much range will be lost is a factor of how long the heater was on for, how cold it is outside, how high you set the heating temperature, etc.

Using the electronics, i.e. carplay or audio or bluetooth is very insignificant compared to the heater, so I wouldn't worry about those at all.

Heated seats and steering wheel of course also consume quite a bit of power, especially if left on for long periods.

[SP1959]

Heated seats and steering wheel do consume quite a bit of power, but not nearly as much as the air heaters to warm the air inside the car.

If there are no rear passengers, they can be used to warm the occupants to reduce the energy used by the cabin heater. This will be more efficient as the cabin heater can then be turned down some. (Wearing warmer clothes would also be a good way to increase range in winter as the cabin heaters could be turned down even more.)

[MO1]

Yes, it will make quite a bit of difference to range

[OrganMorgan]

Isn't it now something of a myth that warming the car while it is plugged into the charger saves range? If one uses cheap rate, overnight charging as, for example with Octopus, then the charger is 'timed out' as it were after the cheap hours are over and there will be no benefit to warming up prior to departure apart from comfort. And Tidds is correct, in my view, above, when he questions the accuracy of the temperature read-out. I have grown accustomsed to a comfortable setting of 22*C over the years, but to achieve that comfort, and having cross-referenced with a third-party device, I have to have the Volvo cranked up to a read-out of 25*C. This is with the third party device in the centre area when the cubby hole is, mind you. The upper part of the car seems to be warmer sooner, and also cooler sooner, so that little zone between the shins may be a bit of a flat spot, heating/cooling-wise.

[SP1959]

Hardly a myth but not applicable to most EV users. Having the car heating active while plugged in does work for those users who use a standard electricity tariff - but as you say, that refers to very few EV users.

Just for interest, I used the app this morning (a cold wet and windy UK autumn day where I live) to activated the climate in the car before I went out. It used an estimated 2 miles of range for 15 minutes use.

My wife, who is always on the cool side, is always turning the heat way up to try to get warm, and is always complaining about a cool draught. We have worked out the draught is cold air from the windscreen demisting vents. If we switch off the windscreen ventilation, the draught goes.

[andrewollason]

Given the minimalist design of the dash it may be that the cabin temperature sensor is in the overhead control module. I can’t see any other little grille which usually indicates where the sensor is. Volvo may have done it another way however.

[SeX30]

I did say this to a fellow forum member in August (see attached)
He gave me short shrift but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
For route planning, take advertised uk EV range at 100% charge, take off 25% for the real world driving conditions, then in anything under 8 degrees celcius, take another 15% off, then another 2% each year for battery degradation.
If I didn’t have home charging, I wouldn’t buy an EV that couldn’t do a claimed 400 miles of range, knowing this in reality is 300 at best with a light foot!
I’ve screenshot my KIA EV9 app to show how much it claims it uses for climate control (2%) give or take.
Whilst the seat massager is nice I’m sure that doesn’t help my range!!

[iHansz]

"Over 3 years your battery will also lose 20% range." That is absolutely not true. The Dutch equivalent of your magazine Auto Express regularly does battery degradation tests of EVs and it all turns out to be tremendously better than expected. There are KIAs with 100,000 km and about 5 years old with still 97% battery capacity. Tesla does even better, at e.g. the Model S with more than 200,00 km on the odometer and more than 90%. Even with fast charging, battery capacity is not decreasing faster. My previous car with only 25,000 km on the odometer and 4 years old, still had more than 90% of its original capacity when sold in.