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by jillesvangurp 1547 days ago
There's an effect on range for sure. But there are also ways to mitigate that by for example heating the battery.

There are plenty of EVs operating under arctic conditions in Norway, for example. And not just in Oslo where temperatures are mild. Here's a story about a Norwegian with a model 3 that lives on the north coast of Norway in the arctic circle: https://electrek.co/2020/02/11/tesla-model-3-arctic-circle-w...

It seems that that particular car has some features that are genuinely nice to have when it is minus 32. Like the ability to warm it up before you get into it. That costs energy of course and that explains most of the range hit you get.

Most recent EVs have ways to cool (high temperatures are also a problem) and heat batteries, which older cars and phevs would have lacked. And of course the process of charging and discharging batteries actually warms batteries up as well. That's why heat is a problem and probably a bigger problem from an engineering point of view. Yet nobody ever complains about Tesla's not working in the desert. It's kind of a solved problem. Extreme temperatures affect range and you need to plan accordingly. But otherwise the battery will work fine.