I wonder what the range on the EV's are when it's -10F. Hey Tesla fanboys
@flyingcheesehead and
@deonb what say you?
The worst I ever saw was in the dead of winter last year, my 114-mile-rated i3 only went 90.
All vehicles are subject to higher aero drag (thicker cold air) and more rolling resistance in the winter. ICEVs also run a richer mixture, but finally get to use all that waste heat they create all year long for something useful.
EVs have to use extra energy to heat the cabin, but there's less energy available with a cold battery. This is at least somewhat ameliorated by the fact that you can run the heat from "shore power" when you have it plugged in, so on your way to work in the morning the cabin will be toasty warm as soon as you get in it, and you don't really have to run the heat unless you have a really long commute - I used to commute about 15 miles with no cabin heat, just by having the cabin heated before I left and using the seat and steering wheel heaters I was perfectly comfortable.
There's certainly some EVs that do better than others, though. I'm a member of several different model-specific EV groups on Facebook (Tesla, Tesla Model 3, Rav4 EV, Bolt, Volt, i3, etc) and it's been interesting reading about some people's experiences with the extreme cold. The worst was someone who had parked outside but only had L1 (110V) charging available, and their car decided that since it was plugged in, it could run the battery heater... Which takes more than the 1.4 kW that L1 charging provides, so their battery went dead. I think that might have been on an i3, but I can't remember specifically.
Clearly, the manufacturers need to pay more attention to the cold climates even though their biggest market in the US is California. Tesla is in pretty good shape because their second-biggest market, aside from the US, is Norway. But the ones who are selling "compliance cars" so that they can sell pickups and SUVs in CARB states need some work.