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castratikron | 3 years ago

A lot of ICE cars won't even start at 40 below. Those cases should count as zero mile range

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5e92cb50239222b|3 years ago

Those can be warmed up with a g̶a̶s̶o̶l̶i̶n̶e blowtorch. Or you can fit your car with an alarm system that auto starts the engine throughout the night to keep it warm. That's what pretty much everyone is doing where I'm from (-25°C is a pretty typical winter temperature here, with drops down to -40-45°C for a couple weeks each winter).

After that you get tolerable gas mileage. I don't drive much, but from my friends' description it sounds like you get around 30-40% more gas usage compared to warmer months.

anthomtb|3 years ago

I thought electric block heaters were common in cold climates. Is the blow torch a last resort if you cannot park your car in range of an outlet?

metadat|3 years ago

What is a gasoline torch? Would blowtorching a vehicle be detrimental and destructive to it?

LinuxBender|3 years ago

My old vehicle gets really grumpy at -10F. I use an oil pan heater, a battery maintainer 1.5 amps, 2 heat-lamps above the engine and fuel additives heat, seafoam that keep it running. The only downside is that I feed all the local birds and they discovered my heat lamps.

pengaru|3 years ago

> My old vehicle gets really grumpy at -10F. I use an oil pan heater, a battery maintainer 1.5 amps, 2 heat-lamps above the engine and fuel additives heat, seafoam that keep it running. The only downside is that I feed all the local birds and they discovered my heat lamps.

The only downside? The entire comment constitutes a list of down sides...

seanmcdirmid|3 years ago

Anyone who is trying to start an ICE at -40 (C or F, they are the same at that temp), will have it plugged in with a block heater. Or if in Russia they’ll have an insulated jacket for the car.

mkhpalm|3 years ago

To be fair, it typically costs about $50 for a block heater which allows you to start below 40 degrees in an ICE.

Whats the solution for EV?

noahtallen|3 years ago

I believe they “just work.” Electric motors don’t stop working at low temps. I think it’s mostly just range that’s impacted since EVs can’t use the inefficient part of an ICE (e.g. energy produced by gas not captured by the powertrain) for heat, so they have to run heat pumps. (Along with battery chemistry not working as well in low temps)

t_tsonev|3 years ago

EVs will maintain the battery temperature if plugged in, usually at 0C.

Even if not plugged-in they'll try to keep the battery above temperatures that may be damaging, e.g. -30C. This only works for a sufficiently charged battery.

ezfe|3 years ago

EVs could (and some do) self-heat the battery when temps are low enough for damage

dsfyu404ed|3 years ago

Every modern gasoline vehicle should be fine at those temps even without a block heater. It's just a question of can your 12v battery deliver enough power to start it, but that's a problem you can solve in 30min if you encounter it (bring your battery inside).

laptop-man|3 years ago

cold batts always get worse range got to plug it in and have a batt warmer (like Tesla).

not such a foreign idea when you have to do that for Diesel to get them to start in the cold.