JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As a cold snap grips Northeast Florida, many local electric vehicle (EV) owners are discovering a frustrating side effect of the cold temperatures on their battery.
Experts at Bridges Auto Repair & Electric warn that these plummeting temperatures are slowing down the technology powering the city’s greenest cars.
“The electrons inside the car just don’t have the energy to stay up with the cold snaps. It slows them down,” explains Cory Seifert, owner of Bridges Auto Repair & Electric.
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According to Seifert, EVs that depend on batteries are uniquely vulnerable when temperatures drop.
Unlike gasoline-powered vehicles, EVs must use significant portions of their battery energy just to keep the cabin and the battery pack itself warm. This extra work, combined with the fact that cold temperatures inside lithium-ion cells, leads to faster drainage and noticeably longer charging times.
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Hybrid owners may notice fewer issues. Seifert notes that hybrids have a built-in advantage: the internal combustion engine. “A hybrid has the engine to warm up the batteries faster,” he says. “An electric system is just electrical. There’s no transfer of energy, there’s no heat from the exhaust.”
Putting the EV in a garage or putting a cover over the car should help the batteries stay at a higher temperature, so it won’t struggle to start.
"Storing it inside where it could be warmer or having a car cover over it just to keep the temperature from not hitting the battery as much would be ideal,” Seifert said.
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