Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

How is this problem specific to EV's?


There is waste heat produced by the engine of a traditional vehicle, which is used for heating. The EV doesn't have this advantage.


Internal combustion engines throw off heat whether you want them to or not, plus the total amount of energy stored in a gas tank is vastly greater than a battery, so wasting some of it as heat is less likely to strand you. EVs only get similar range by being much more efficient, and efficiency means less energy lost to heat.


Depending on the car and the temperature you'd much rather be stranded in a Tesla (or another EV that works as well at low temperatures). A Tesla can run its heater on full blast for well over 12 hours. In ICE cars that don't have resistive heaters, the heat output is much lower at idle- think a civic or corolla. It can be risky to fall asleep in cars like this because you need to warm up the engine regularly or the cabin will become quite cold.


Having slept in quite cold temperatures in cars during longer trips quite a lot of times, just having the car idle over-night has always been enough to keep the cabin warm enough to not even need a blanket. Not talking about luxury cars with huge engines either. It also uses very little fuel. After 8 hours, you can see that the fuel gauge has moved, but only very slightly. I'm pretty sure a ICE car with a full tank can idle for several days before running out of fuel.


Only because they have shorter range. I explained in another comment why the specific problem (Given the distance to be driven and the range) doesn't occur for my current ICE car.

Edit: and yes as was pointed out in another comment - heat is "free" while driving because of losses in the engine.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: