As we all know, for the majority of electric vehicle owners, losing battery life in winter is a headache. Many users even posted jokes on the Internet saying that in order to save electricity, power-hungry households such as the heater in the car would not dare to open it.
According to the latest reports, recently, due to blizzard weather, an interstate highway in Virginia, USA was congested for a day, and some media even claimed that the congestion was caused by the lack of electricity of electric vehicles. In this regard, some bloggers have conducted experiments to refute this statement.
The blogger first said that in this congestion, he had already received information from two electric vehicle owners, and the congestion did not affect them much. One of the Tesla owners said she was stuck for 16 hours when she was at 74 percent, but when she got home, it was only down to 61 percent.
Another Nissan LEAF said that his car, a 2012 model, was blocked for about 6 hours and used the seat heating function, but only lost 15% of the electricity when he got home. In order to further stimulate the traffic jam environment at that time, the blogger also used a Tesla 2020 Model X and a 2021 Tesla Model Y to do experiments in an environment of 15 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 9 degrees Celsius).
Among them, the Model Y has a heat pump air conditioner and the battery power is 91%. The Model X is a traditional resistance heater, which is relatively more power-intensive, with a battery charge of 90%.
The blogger set the heating temperature of both cars to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (about 21 degrees Celsius). After 12 hours, the Model Y dropped from 91 percent to 58 percent, using about 26.5 kWh of power. At $0.16 per kilowatt, the cost is $4.24.
The Model X, on the other hand, dropped from 91 percent to 47 percent, using about 43 kilowatt-hours of electricity. At $0.16 per kilowatt, the cost is $6.88. The blogger pointed out that if fully charged, even in a big congestion situation like Virginia, the Model Y can keep the car at 70 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 36 hours, while the Model X can keep it for 28 hours.