If there’s one thing to make you feel really smug, it’s the knowledge that you won’t be one of the many drivers in a combustion engine car that is scraping their windscreens with frozen fingers.
If you’re in an EV you can set your car to defrost before you even step out of the door.
It’s remarkably simple to do and can be operated via your car’s app as well.
Here’s how you do it: on the car’s dashboard, set your departure time and date, plus the temperature you would like the interior of the car to reach before you even open the door. Once that is done, simply plug the car into the charger and your EV will be ready to depart in the morning, fully defrosted and fully warmed up for you: so you can be smug and snug.
But, even if you didn’t have the opportunity to set up your departure time, EVs defrost really quickly and many now come with a heat pump to ensure warm air is distributed around the cabin really swiftly.
Unlike combustion engine cars, which need to warm up to deliver a blast of hot air to your windscreen, the heating system in an EV runs off the battery and instantly starts defrosting your front and side windows, while the heated rear screen and door mirrors do their thing to melt the frost. Within a few minutes you’ll be able to drive away with a clear screen – so unlike the experience in a petrol or diesel car.
Combustion cars can be unreliable in the deep cold of a winter. Press the start button, or turn the key in the ignition, and then hear that dispiriting whirrr-whirr-whir… as the starter motor struggles ever more hopelessly to turn over the engine.
The cold saps batteries of power and most car batteries often fail in the winter months when after a few years’ use their ability diminishes in extreme cold.
Now, it’s true that cold weather can also impact the available range of an electric car, but it has no impact on how easily the car can start. With an electric car you can be confident that you will start reliably each time, no matter how cold it is outside.
It’s true that electric cars tend to be heavier than petrol or diesel cars, mainly because of the weight of the battery. But this can also be advantageous in cold and wintry conditions.
Because the battery sits close to the bottom of the car and in the centre of the car, it makes the car extremely stable with a lower centre of gravity and improved stability.
Also the regenerative braking assists greater slowing stability in icy conditions. Regenerative braking helps slow down an electric car when you take your foot off the accelerator. It’s a way of capturing energy but also helps you slow down securely and safely without fear of skidding, rather than having to brake and risk skidding on an icy surface.
There’s further good news for EV drivers in the winter. If you use the eco mode on an EV, this reduces the torque to the driven wheels, which will help you accelerate from standstill more smoothly in snowy conditions without spinning your wheels.
Useful fact: since September 2024, there are now more EVs on the road in Norway than there are petrol powered cars. Conditions during the winter tend to be severe with snow and long dark nights, but EVs are only involved in half the number of crashes on icy or snowy roads compared with petrol and diesel engine vehicles.
While zero tailpipe emissions help the environment 365 days a year, the advantage of an EV during the winter multiplies, particularly in traffic jams when idling petrol and diesel engines contribute to the environmental pollution particularly in urban environments.
It also helps when starting – a point we’ve made right at the start of this feature – because petrol and diesel cars are left idling for 244 minutes during winter waiting to warm up and drive off, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology the pollution created by this is the equivalent of flying the population of Cardiff to Egypt.
It should also be noted that there is less brake particle pollution from EVs, thanks to regenerative braking – a technology that also helps them brake more securely during wintry conditions (see point 3).
EVs can heat the cabin more efficiently than petrol or diesel cars, as they don’t rely on waste engine heat. We’ve already noted that this leads to faster warm-up times with no need to get icy fingers scraping frosty windscreens, but an EV can keep you staying toasty throughout the journey.
What’s more, many EVs come equipped with heated seats and some with heated steering wheels, so you remain comfortably warm while you’re driving to arrive relaxed at your destination, snug and warm.
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