The car uses energy while plugged in to cool itself
On a chemical level, high temperatures are like heart disease
Decreases maximum mileage
Electric cars, which are an ideal means of combating climate change, cannot withstand extremely high temperatures. This is a paradox that occurs at a time when many American states are being burned by heat waves that are becoming more frequent and more intense, writes Bloomberg.
An electric car in a hot climate works harder to keep the battery and its passengers from heating up, and will have no problem functioning. On a chemical level, however, heat is like heart disease or a slow-growing form of cancer to an electric car battery.
The reason is that when the temperature rises, the ions in the car battery accelerate. Once this happens, they often have trouble attaching to the anode or cathode. To some extent this happens with every fast charge cycle. Using the Tesla supercharger will move the ions faster than plugging into a wall outlet. But on extremely hot days, the ions in an electric car’s battery move even when the car is parked or unplugged, and this can lead to an irreversible reduction in range.
“The worst-case scenario is a car sitting in an unrefrigerated garage in Phoenix all summer without being plugged into a charger,” said Scott Case, CEO of Recurrent, a startup that produces battery health reports for customers and dealers. of electric vehicles. “That will fry the battery very quickly.” If the car is plugged into a charger, it will use the energy to cool its battery.
Very cold weather can also have adverse effects on a car battery. The colder it is, the slower the chemical processes happen and the battery lasts less time. But these effects are short-lived – in the spring, the battery in snowy Michigan or cold Maine will regain full functionality, while the heat can reduce the maximum mileage forever.
Electric cars are becoming more common, and meanwhile the temperatures are rising. Therefore, drivers should familiarize themselves with ways to maintain battery life. In the US, some of the highest rates of electric car penetration are in hot spots. California, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Georgia are home to 56% of battery-powered cars. Fortunately, care can neutralize much of the impact of heat changes.
“Wherever there’s shade in the hot Texas summer, I try to find it,” says Skyler Williams, an Austin entrepreneur who, before buying a Rivian R1S in August 2022, learned about battery chemistry and maintenance . “It doesn’t matter if I’m in the store for 10 minutes or 2 hours. Better to be safe than sorry,” he says.
Williams follows other helpful tips: he only uses fast-charging stations when necessary, always leaves his car plugged into the charger if it’s in his garage, rarely lets the battery charge past 80%, and uses Rivian’s app to open his car windows if he is away from it on a hot day. In almost a year of use, his car has not lost any mileage, which is a good guarantee of resale value.
Battery life is becoming the next critical metric in the EV market, driving the drive to quantify it. Stephanie Valdez Streeti, director of strategic planning at Cox Automotive Inc., says four out of five EV buyers already consider battery life when making a purchase, which is one reason her team is developing its own metric to measure it.
“We’re still in research mode,” she says. “When buying a used electric car, a clear idea of the condition of the battery will be of key importance,” says Stephanie Valdes Streeti.
2023-07-16 18:30:00
#heat #fries #battery #electric #cars #Labor
