In this video, we travel 220 km in a single charge from Prince George, BC to McBride BC in -27 Celsius temperatures (440 km return). We discover the importance of battery preconditioning, wind speed, cabin temps, and charging speeds using both BC Hydro 50kw and Tesla v3 250kw Superchargers.
Frequently people ask how very cold temperatures affect EVs so I decided to put this discussion to bed with my own experience. Join me on this road trip to McBride and back as temperatures dip to -30C!
Spreadsheet showing the stats from this extreme cold vs two separate summertime drives: here
My presentation slide deck for the Mid Vancouver Island Electric Vehicle Association: here
Cold weather best practices from Tesla: here
A few news stories related to this subject: here and here and here
A discussion specifically about battery preconditioning: here
Some more experience in cold weather from the Yukon: here
BC Hydro’s presentation on the grid from Sept 2023: here
Electric Vehicles are more reliable than petrol-based vehicles in Norway’s cold winter: here
Out of Spec podcast discussing why EVs can work well in the cold winter temperatures: here
To view our cold weather EV-related playlist click: here