So I have to take a road trip in an EV, and it’s winter. So I’m going to have to use the AC. I know in my old ICE car I could have the AC off and the fan would blow hot air just from the engine. With my EV it seems to be the same, even with the AC button off the vents are blowing hot air. Is that hot air just heat vented from the battery? Or is it still using battery power for the compressor to heat the air.

  • elconquistador1985@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My Bolt has a resistive heater like you’d plug in to warm up a room. I’ve watched it use energy via Torque and I’ve seen it up to 3.5 or 4 kW. I preheat my car while it’s plugged in before I leave for work. It uses the heater settings it had when I last turned the car off.

    Other cars have a heat pump and use waste heat from other systems.

    With the temperature at like 45F the other day, my Bolt’s transmission coolant reached about 110F while driving and the battery was in the 40s-50s. It would be a pretty slow warm up if all I had was a heat pump (but I just have the resistive heater instead).