How Much Range Do You Lose in the Winter?

I’ve had my Ioniq for nearly a year so I’ve been able to drive at both summer and winter temperatures. As I drove it last year, the efficiency (and thus the range) continued to go up throughout the spring until peaking in the warm New England summer weather with temperatures between 70F - 90F.

That peak was about 6mi/kWh for city driving and 4.2mi/kWh on the highway. With the Ioniq’s smaller 38.3 kWh battery, I could get about 160 miles maximum highway range and up to 220 miles in city driving. In mixed driving I would typically see about 185 miles, slightly above its 170 mile EPA range estimate.

Winter temperatures can obviously vary a lot depending on where you live, but here in New England the temperature will often be below freezing. I’d say a reasonable range is about 20F to 40F, although it recently has been in the teens.

A recent trip, temps outside were actually in the 20s. The temp shown now is the garage temp, which usually manages to stay above freezing.

With these colder temps I’m seeing an efficiency of about 4mi/kWh in city driving. Highway driving is much worse, at about 3mi/kWh. That equates to about 150 miles of city driving and about 115 on the highway. In mixed driving I’ve been seeing about 140 miles of range.

That comes out to about a 25% reduction in range.

For more modern EVs, the reduction is probably similar, but most newer EVs have much larger batteries so they can absorb range loss more easily. With 180 miles or so of range, I have no issues with the Ioniq with normal driving and road trips.

However, with just 140 miles of range, I have to do more careful planning. In particular, my longest single day trip is about 100 miles (50 miles each way, mostly highway), which gets me back home with only a few percent of battery to spare. Longer trips will require more planning around DC fast chargers or maybe even using the portable charger or some level 2 chargers to get a little extra juice.

You might think this range loss is unacceptable, but remember that ICE vehicles also lose range in the winter, typically about 10% - 20%, with short trips losing even more range. But ICE vehicles usually start with much more total range and filling up at gas stations is easy enough, if somewhat painful when it’s very cold.

Even with the range loss, an EV makes for a great cold-weather vehicle because it has instant heat and, perhaps more importantly for me, I never have to stand outside to pump gas in freezing cold temps and wind. Instead, once the car is in the garage, I just plug it in — easy-peasy.

What do you see for winter range loss where you live?