The winter cold is not a good thing for battery life. The cold slows down the electrochemical reactions that allow your batteries, and therefore your electric vehicle, to operate. The RossiniEnergy team gives you advice on how to avoid this problem.
Protect your vehicle
Logically, if you have a garage or a shelter, use it to house your vehicle in winter. While your EV has no problem starting in winter, a good shelter won’t hurt it!
Manage your heating
Indeed, in order not to impact your autonomy too much, you should not heat up too much at once. Think about preconditioning, you will get into an already heated vehicle, which is surely more pleasant, and you will not have to push the heating fully up.
In addition, preconditioning helps preheat the entire vehicle to prevent energy loss from cold starting.
Finally, if your EV is charging, the preconditioning will use the energy from the mains and not the energy stored in your battery.
Good management of your heating is therefore essential!
Charge up your battery 100%
In cold weather, batteries perform less because the electrochemical reactions are not as fast. Add to that the use of heating, which is necessary, and your battery will not be able to give you the same performance as in mild weather. We therefore advise you to always set off with a well-charged battery and adopt a more flexible driving style in order to maximise your range.
In conclusion, it is certain that in winter your batteries are more exposed and therefore their capacity decreases. Nevertheless, good organisation and planning will allow you to spend a comfortable and hassle-free winter behind the wheel of your electric vehicle.