[c0nfused]

At cold temps you lose range a few different ways: First heat in an EV isn't free, this is usually where it gets you. People get in go "oh man its cold" and crank up the heat and there goes range. When you see one of the "this person ran out of power waiting in line at the Tesla charger in winter time" pictures this is how they did it.

Second battery efficiency goes down.

Finally, the battery usually is constantly doing the regen breaking thing but in cold weather it doesn't to save pack wear until you get the pack warm again

[Scoundreller]

Shouldn't a couple regen braking events be capable of dumping a boatload of heat?

[amluto]

At least last time I checked, Teslas had rather anemic battery heaters. IIRC they’re around 6kW.

6kW is not enough to make a big dent in required mechanical braking, and it’s also not enough to quickly heat the battery pack, especially when operated intermittently.

[ggreer]

The problem is that cold batteries can't charge or discharge quickly. From the battery's point of view, regenerative braking is the same as fast charging (just for a very short period of time). When the battery is very cold (or almost full), Teslas regen as much as they can, then use the friction brakes to keep a consistent feel for one pedal driving. The battery does have fluid pumped through it for heating/cooling, but it can take some time before the pack is warm enough to charge/discharge at its rated capacity. The longest I've had a cold battery notice is 20 minutes, and that was after my car sat at 0ºF overnight.

[darkwater]

I think you are missing the most important effect of cold: more air density at terrain level, which creates way more drag on the car.

[ggreer]

The density of air at 20ºC (293ºK) is 1.204kg/m^3. At -10ºC (263ºK) its density is 1.341kg/m^3, or 11% denser. For a Model 3 moving at 100kph, about half of its power is used to overcome air drag and half is used to overcome rolling resistance. Air drag is 1/2 * density * velocity^2 * coefficient of drag * area, so an 11% increase in density means an 11% increase in drag, so a ≈5.5% decrease in range. That's significantly less than typical cold weather range loss.

Most of the range loss comes from climate control. In a combustion car, the majority of the energy in the gasoline is turned into heat. In cold weather, you just dump some of this heat into the cabin to keep it warm. An EV's efficiency is a disadvantage in this case, as it needs to use energy from the battery to heat up the cabin.

[ghaff]

I very much doubt this. I've never seen this having a notably measurable effect on ICE vehicles in Massachusetts winters (which can be cold but aren't notably arctic).