Electric freeze: Is it cold enough in Charlotte to impact EV drivers?
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — While some fuel up at the gas pump, Benefit Mason charges his electric vehicle at a Food Lion parking lot in Charlotte.
“It’s cool. It’s great,” he said. “I love it.”
On average, Mason says it takes about 45 minutes to fully charge his EV battery, unless temperatures dip below zero. At that point, he says it can take up to an hour.
“Sometimes, your charging will go faster, yes,” he said.
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In the Queen City, temperatures this week haven’t dipped much lower than 20 degrees. But for some in Chicago, sub-zero conditions left electric vehicle drivers stranded for hours.
“One thing that is probably hard for a lot of people to think about is how much energy you can get out of that battery is different when it is cold than when it is hot,” explained Robert Cox, associate director of the Energy, Production, and Infrastructure Center at UNC Charlotte.
Cox, who is also a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says freezing temperatures impact EVs in three ways: a decrease in driving range, increase in charging time, and faster battery drain from heating the car.
“Gasoline may be bad for the environment, but it’s pretty straight forward in terms of you get the same amount of energy out of it when it is hot outside and when it is cold outside,” Cox said. “When it comes to battery, batteries are really, really sensitive to temperature.”
Under the Joe Biden Administration, there has been a push for more Americans to go electric.
In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper has set a goal of 1.25 million EVs on the road by 2030.
Cox says until the technology is improved, a large-scale adoption of EVs isn’t likely anytime soon.
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“Personally, I think that if we are going to have electric vehicles and if we are going to have batteries tied into the grid on a large scale, there is going to have to be some further work on how you deal with these low-temperature conditions. for sure,” Cox said.
For now, Mason says he is fine with waiting a little longer for his EV to charge on colder days and is hopeful those behind the technology will continue to improve it.
“Every situation, there will be a solution,” Mason said.
According to AAA, electric vehicles typically lose about 41 percent of range when temperatures dip to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
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