It is no secret that not everyone seems to be as keen about transitioning from inner combustion engine autos to battery-powered autos. Very often, people who aren’t prepared to modify to an EV level to causes that are not rooted in actuality; not essentially as a result of they don’t seem to be being truthful, however just because they have not achieved any analysis and are uninformed on the subject.
So we took on one of the vital widespread misconceptions about electrical autos – that they’re unsafe to drive in extreme snowstorms. We have usually seen folks remark how they would not really feel protected driving an EV in a snowstorm as a result of if the roads turned impassable they usually needed to pull over and wait out the storm, the battery would die and they might possible freeze to demise ready for assist to reach.
Getting caught and stranded in your car throughout a snowstorm is a really uncommon incidence, but it surely does occur. Triple-A stories that they count on to get about 100,000 calls per year from stranded motorists requesting assist and extraction throughout extreme climate occasions.
Ford F-150 Lightning vs Rivian R1T heater effectivity
Whereas 100,000 stranded motorists sound like quite a bit, there are over 230 million licensed drivers within the US. Due to this fact, you may have solely a couple of .000043% probability of getting stranded in a snowstorm. In different phrases, you most likely have a greater probability of profitable the lottery.
Nevertheless, some folks do discover themselves in that precarious and horrifying place so we wished to see how lengthy the batteries would final and preserve the passengers heat in a Ford F-150 Lightning and a Rivian R1T.
So we charged up each autos to 85% and parked them with the heater operating for twelve hours whereas it was snowing to see what share of the battery could be utilized in that point. We then projected out how lengthy the battery would final if the car was stranded at totally different percentages of state of cost.
We initially set each autos’ heating to 65 levels Fahrenheit and on the bottom fan setting, however after checking the inside temperature we discovered the Lightning’s cabin was almost 10 levels hotter, (60° in comparison with 51°). So we lowered the Lightning’s warmth setting to 62 levels and raised the R1T’s to 67 levels and that introduced the inside temperatures to related ranges.
Surprisingly, the F-150 Lightning used much less vitality within the take a look at although the realm of the cabin that wanted to be heated is way bigger than that of the R1T. The Lightning completed the take a look at at 71% state of cost, so it used 14% of the battery and the R1T completed with 66%, utilizing up 19% of its usable battery capability.
We then charged each autos again as much as 85% to see how a lot vitality they would want to replenish the vitality used within the take a look at. The Lightning’s FordPass app confirmed the car wanted 20 kWh and the R1T’s in-vehicle show confirmed it wanted 23.6 kWh to get again as much as 85% state of cost.
Ford F-150 Lightning vs Rivian R1T heater effectivity
Neither autos make use of a heat-pump system, as each depend on much less environment friendly resistive heating parts. Regardless of that, our take a look at confirmed each autos would final very lengthy earlier than exhausting their respective batteries, offered the batteries weren’t at a low state of cost when the car received caught.
Even at solely twenty-five % state of cost, the R1T would final greater than fifteen hours and the Lightning twenty-one hours, and that is if the occupant left the warmth on continually. In an actual emergency, it might be prudent to have the warmth set to a decrease temperature and switch the car off every so often to preserve vitality. Additionally, if the car is provided with heated seats, as each of those take a look at autos are, utilizing that characteristic and turning down the warmth could be much more environment friendly, and prolong the battery life even longer.
So it appears you will be simply nice should you get stranded in a snowstorm in a Rivian R1T or a Ford F-150 Lightning, or every other EV for that matter, offered your state of cost is not critically low while you get caught. Nevertheless, the identical will be mentioned for an ICE car. For those who get stranded with only one/8 of a tank of gasoline, you higher hope the storm passes rapidly.
No matter what gasoline your car makes use of, it is smart to fill/cost up the day earlier than the storm and preserve a blanket and bottles of water in your car if you realize you will be driving in it.
