Electric cars are undoubtedly getting better and better range, and the number of models with high range (+400km) is increasing. At the same time as the cars themselves have improved, the number of charging stations along Dutch roads has also increased significantly. The purely rational basis for range anxiety is therefore largely gone for the whole country, although it is of course advisable to have a destination charger if you visit your family in a small village.
​

Just like your mobile phone, the car's brain is constantly trying to figure out how far the car can go with the available energy in the battery. Expected mileage is shown in the car display. This display is called by many "GOM" or "Guess-O-Meter", as it is the car that guesses how far the car will be able to drive with the power left in the battery. The electric car is usually based on how high power consumption the car has had in the last few kilometers, and calculates how far the car will drive with a corresponding consumption and driving pattern going forward. In other words, if you drive up a mountain top, the car will show a shorter range than if you have driven down from the same mountain top and are at the bottom of the valley.

Heating

In an electric car, we do not have waste heat from the engine that we can use to heat the passenger compartment. We are thus dependent on using energy from the propulsion battery to heat the passenger compartment. When the passenger compartment is hot, on the other hand, the car will use relatively little energy to keep the passenger compartment warm. If we drive short trips in the winter, we will thus spend a lot of energy on constantly heating a cold car, which goes beyond the power consumption and thus the range.

One of the big questions many new electric car owners have is how the range will be affected during a cold winter season. Like a fossil car, electric cars are also affected by the fact that winter weather often gives higher resistance to the surface, and thus higher fuel consumption.

Fortunately, there is something you can do a lot with a few measures

Firstly, several tests have shown that the actual range loss of cold is relatively small, and with a short distance between the charging stations it will in practice have little to say. A range loss is due to the low temperature of the battery, and as soon as you start using the battery it will get hotter by itself.

The electric car batteries have the property that they warm themselves both when they are used and when they are charged. A trick for you who are going on a trip in the winter cold is therefore to charge the car as close to the time you are going to use the car. Then the battery will already be hot after charging, and will be at a more efficient point when you start driving.

Another trick you can test to increase the range in the winter cold is to check the tires. Make sure they have the correct air pressure.