Freezing In An EV? ! #ev #cars #automotive #electricvehicle
A question I am often asked is, “How much energy does running the heater in your electric vehicle actually use?” Well, here we are. Temperature set at 20° C. We have the heated seat on, as you can tell, if I could just focus it. And the fan speed, what’s the fan speed on here? We’re on setting three for fan. We have the air conditioning running so we don’t fog up. Defrost on, heated vents on for the floor. And we are using 2 kW of energy just sitting here idling the car right now. And this is fairly high. Normally it’s around like 1 kilowatt. And if it’s really cold outside, it might go up to three. So barely using any energy right now. Essentially 2 kW is well basically what a kettle uses. And this car doesn’t have a heat pump in it. This car has a resistance heater. So it’s going to use more energy. It’s better off with a heat pump actually.
