Why Do Electric Cars Suffer In Cold Weather?

So where are the charts for us people who don't see their 25 F bottom end on a good day?

Oh wait never mind. Lithium based battery tech tends to go 100% belly up below 0 F.

Not to worry. The global warming caused by continued use of fossil fuel powered cars will soon have palm trees growing in your North Dakota yard. Then there will be no problem with low temperatures on battery powered cars. Every one can then switch to cars that don't emit CO2, and global warming will stop. Oops, we just triggered a new ice age

There's an obvious solution to this problem that both of you should have thought of.

Really, battery powered heaters are not new and would cure this nagging problem for almost no investment, compared to the cost of an EV.

LynDoor™Industries DesertBreeze battery sock will warm that cold battery in no time.

Using just 1,000 watts of power per hour to warm the battery, it will allow the battery to provide up to 500 more watts of power per hour to keep your EV purring noiselessly down the road.

Just put a little fuel cell in there.....you get heat and a battery boost....

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/07/02/honda-fit-ev-uses-clarity-fuel-cell-components-to-boost-range/

The juice freezes, of course.

Use a small fuel cell to run a CHP/Heat Pump hybrid for temperature regulation and range extension.

So start the IC engine "range extender" - running at tick over speed, then switch the modest amount of generated electricity to warm the battery and the cabin. There you are at 50-60 mph, warm and comfortable, with the IC engine at tick over speed. Sure you will use some liquid fuel under these conditions, but you can't have it all ways.

While a fuel cell is tapped for it's electricity, the goal would be to put some of that waste heat to work. I'm not trying to challenge the laws of thermodynamics, just looking at how much of it could be grabbed. I understand that a fuel cell needs to have an operating temperature window to run effectively. However, good insulation allows you to minimize unwanted losses of BTU's. You might be able to get by with a very tiny fuel cell to minimize waste heat losses but sacrifice range extension capability.