State-of-the-art electric vehicle cold weather range

摘要

Research by General Motors (Ellis, 1994) indicated that the range of their prototype EV, the Impact, was 19 kilometers in cold weather. In other words, the car loses over 80% of its nominal 21°C range when operated at -18°C. According to this report, poor EV range in cold weather is a major impediment to EV deployment in northern regions of the country. The Northeast Advanced Thermal Management Technology Project (NATMTP) was started to increase cold weather range and improve passenger comfort in cold temperatures. NATMTP, led by EVermont, found that production Solectria electric vehicles, modified with existing technology such as fuel-fired heaters, experienced far less range reduction than that reported by Ellis. Also passenger comfort in these modified vehicles was acceptable even in Vermont's below zero temperatures. Solectria has incorporated the best of the cold weather technologies demonstrated by NATMTP into its 1996 production EV. By working with currently available EVs and current technology, NATMTP has demonstrated that EVs can and do work, even in one of the harshest cold weather climates in the country.