EV alternative for light/medium duty trucks

pianotuna wrote:

Reisender wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Does anyone know the wattage on the battery heaters used in EV's?

It depends on the car Don. But generally speaking EV’s do it different than ICE cars. Unlike an Ice car that uses an electric element to heat metal, most EV’s use the power from the battery to heat itself, or in many cases the coolant which is circulated. But that only happens down till about 20 percent battery and then that gets turned off so the battery isn’t depleted. It also doesn’t heat it unless the owner decides to either pre-condition the battery in preparation for charging or if the owner wants to warn the interiour and defrost the windows. Even if the car is plugged in the power will still come from the battery, but the battery will be charging because it’s plugged in. The power for everything always comes from the battery. The only thing that changes when it is plugged in is the battery is charging.

So in answer to your question, you can use anything from 8 amps at 120 volts to 48 amps at 240 volts. But the battery won’t be heated unless the user or the software decides it needs it. Below minus 30 the algorhythm changes a bit from what I understand. But only if it’s plugged in. The coldest we have used ours over the years is about minus 30 so I can’t speak to colder than that. We don’t plug ours in if it’s out in those temps as the cord gets to stiff to put away. The car doesn’t care either way. It takes an extra 5 minutes to warm up and defrost the windows at that temp.

We have a garage but unfortunately it is often occupied for projects so it is not always available.

Hope that helps.

I should have been clearer

I wanted to know if the battery was kept warm while plugged in at temperatures down to -37 c (-34 f)--and if so, how much power does it use to do so.

I'd have access to level 1 charging.

I seem to remember that the Leaf does use energy from the battery bank to keep the bank warm. But really not sure at all

Yah I get what you are asking now. Bottom line is a normal 120 volt 15 amp receptacle is fine for that. We did all our charging like that for a couple years. But even a 240 volt 12 amp connection is much better. We since added that and it’s a much better charging solution in cold weather. Hope that helps.