Electric vehicle batteries are a lot like people, in one important respect: They’re most comfortable in temperatures around 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the weather gets much colder or hotter than that, a battery works less efficiently. It has to work harder, too, to keep the vehicle’s cabin comfortable for its equally picky human occupants.
The result? Electric vehicles can’t drive as far or as efficiently in extremely hot or cold weather.
AAA has been testing exactly how big an effect temperatures have on modern EV batteries. In its latest research, shared exclusively with NPR, it found that hot temperatures reduced range by an average of 8.5%. Cold weather cut vehicles’ range by a whopping 39%.
I wouldn’t trust anything from AAA. 39% loss in cold is straight up false unless you’re talking like -20F. These tests have been done many many times by more respectable orgs and they usually get around 20%
If you run the heat/climate control along with the range loss from the cold, it ads up pretty fast, to probably about that number. I found that out when I went to pick mine up 2.5 hrs away. It was cold spring weather and raining, so fogged windows and numb fingers if heat not running. The impacts screen showed a whopping 30% of my battery use on that drive was climate control alone. I have since learned how to use the vents without climate control, but it wouldn’t have helped much on that drive.
It can make the drive no problem in nicer weather without the heat on, even using the AC is pretty cheap, battery-wise (about 3% on the same drive, though I do keep it set just a few degrees cooler than outside temps in the current weather), but running the heat/climate control just soaked my range. Had to stop at a fast charger, got back to like 85%, and still barely made it the second half of the trip.
Anecdotal, ofc.
My guess is that this number may be possibly accurate for cars without a thermal management system for the battery. In the USA, this would be exactly one car model and even of those there are years where it would be fine: the Nissan Leaf.
The Leaf came out in 2010 and has been air cooled until just this year in 2026. Some models had a battery heater though, but not all. I could see for a model without a heater and extreme cold the 39% range suppression. However, since its only one car, putting that 39% number is disingenuous because it suggest its more widespread when it isn’t.