Neven
Wintry weather is upon us here in Southern Ontario. When things cool off in your neck of the woods could you keep us informed as to how your newly acquired EV responds.
It was slightly cold, around freezing, and very wet, last week. Of course, I noticed a reduction in range, and charging also took longer. It may freeze after this weekend.
I've read that the lithium batteries have fewer problems than lead/acid batteries on the discharge side, but that charging below 0C will cause permanent damage.
It doesn't say anything about that in the i-MiEV manual. It says that certain 'phenomenons' may occur from -15 °C or lower, and some are described, like 'can't be charged to 100%', or not charged at all under -25 °C. But nothing about permanent damage.
In the 10 years I've been living here, I've seen -15 °C only about once or twice per year, on average.
Here in Canada many keep an old "beater" pickup for the coldest months while saving their dream cars from the heavily salted slush. Keeping an EV heated may prove difficult in Canadian winters, (VW at one time offered petroleum burning heaters in their vans),
We still have our Opel Combo CNG, for when we can't drive the i-MiEV (like now, because there are some minor problems with the paperwork). Or when we go on a holiday. The i-MiEV is too small for that, but it's really a fantastic car. I love driving/gliding it, and even though it's small, it feels really spacious on the inside. In fact, it's so narrow that I can fit it into the part of the carport that is actually meant to be occupied by bikes.
It's no problem at all to drive to Graz and then charge there for 1-3 hours. In fact, I can even fast charge it somewhere (and save money) for half an hour, and drive home with a little bit of heating on.
I've looked into what is best for the battery, and the rule of thumb is that it doesn't like to be too empty or too full, and so my strategy is to keep it between 20% and 80% as much as I can. In theory, I could drive to Graz and back, but then I have to charge it to 100% and have only 5-10% left when coming home. Maybe this will improve in summer, once I put on some good, efficient tires.
and I wonder if the heater cuts heavily into your E-mileage.
Yes, the heater sucks up a lot of energy, so, just like silkman, I try to dress warm and just bear it for 45 minutes. Or at least, that's what I'm going to do, as soon as things get really cold.
I'm not a fan of the seat heating, though! It feels as if all the heat creeps up my ass!
My biggest problem so far, just like my mom's Honda Civic back in the 90s, is condensation on the windows.
