More and more drivers are wondering how much the air conditioner of an electric car consumes
The demand is high for many environmentally sensitive drivers to leave for the holidays. How much does the electric car air conditioner consume and how much does it affect the range? In the days when the classic “black balloon” is expected for the departure traffic, those who have chosen to buy a battery-powered electric vehicle may have some crackdowns. To find answers, the German Automobile Club (ADAC), with a test conducted on Tesla Model Y.
The impact of the air conditioner on the electric car in traffic: the test
In the association’s test, the electric car was subjected to rising temperatures for eight hours, simulating congestion in the middle of the summer. The air conditioning was set to 20 degrees, and the outside temperature was 35 degrees. The Tesla consumed between 1.3 and 1.5 kWh per hour during the experiment to keep the cab cool. It is a loss of autonomy of approximately 8 kilometers per hour. After eight hours, the car had lost only 16% of its battery capacity, or about 64 kilometres of range.
Electric car air conditioning has little impact on autonomy
Unlike internal combustion cars, the air-conditioning compressor in electric vehicles is powered by the battery and does not require the engine to work. Under similar conditions, a petrol car would consume between 1 and 1.5 liters of fuel per hour, also producing emissions.
The ADAC test shows that electric cars use moderate amounts of energy for summer cooling, even in extreme conditions. Therefore, drivers do not have to worry excessively about getting stuck in traffic with the air conditioning active.
The Association was able to conduct these tests because it is preparing for the electric age. Thus, it has invested in an advanced test laboratory for electromobility, where the performance of electric cars in various conditions is examined. The system consists of a roll dynamometer in a climate chamber. Here temperatures can be reached from -20 degrees to +40 degrees Celsius. In this way, it is possible to check the impact of summer heat on electric vehicles and their loss of range in winter.