[prottog]

> We don't have a bunch of coolant and pumps sloshing around

I thought all mainstream EVs were liquid-cooled? I'm sure the motor and battery still need cooling, though perhaps less than exploding dino juice engines. If this weren't true, Tesla wouldn't sell branded jugs of coolant ;-)

[cyberax]

Cooling systems for regular ICE cars need to dissipate around 1/3 of the nominal engine power. So if you have a modest 150hp car (112kW), the cooling system needs to be able to dissipate around 40kW of power. In reality it's even more, because you need to have some safety margin.

The cooling system in an EV are much, much smaller. You're looking at maybe about 20kW for a Tesla Model 3 with 450hp motors, and this includes heat rejection from the air conditioner.

(on the other hand, the air conditioner on EVs is a _critical_ component, because the main battery can't tolerate being heated to more than +90C like regular ICE engines)

[nradov]

Most of the waste heat created by an ICE is dumped out the exhaust, not the radiator.

[cyberax]

Yup. The "1/3-rd of mechanical power" is an empirical rule.

However, it seems reasonable once you think about it.

The mechanical power of a car is about 25-30% of the total heat generated. So a 150hp car actually generates about 450hp of heat energy. Most of that power is indeed lost in exhaust. The 1/3 of 150hp is 50hp, around 10% of the total.

[RosanaAnaDana]

I suppose you must be right but I've never even touched or had to think about that. My technician hasn't mentioned anything either. I suppose maybe because there isn't a big oily thing the coolant is moving through it isnt a bother?

(2013 leaf, btw. very basic. just kinda works.)

[prottog]

Yeah, it makes sense that the overall design is more resilient and you'd have far less issues with cooling in general.

[Baeocystin]

Leaf is air cooled, so there you go.

[RosanaAnaDana]

This is why I pay for a technician.

[lostlogin]

What for? Genuine question, did something break?

[RosanaAnaDana]

Because it takes three times for me to try and adjust the headlight fluid before the guy at the auto parts store takes pity on me.