What’s the worst place to drive an electric car?


Electric cars are getting better every year, with increased performance and better ranges, all while prices are dropping. Still, they do have some disadvantages compared to petrol and diesel cars, especially for longer trips.

Yes, there are fast chargers and the networks of charging stations are growing steadily, but charging still takes considerably longer than filling up the tank on a traditional car and unoccupied charging spaces are not always readily available, even if there is a charging station nearby.

And then there are areas with no or almost no charging stations.

But what is the worst place of all to be owning and driving an electric car? The answer may surprise you.

The answer does not have so much to do with the availability of charging stations. Granted, they are far between in some places, or completely absent, but does that necessarily make these places horrible for owners of electric cars?

Not really.

It is a fact that most electric cars are only utilized to a small fraction of their maximum range, on a daily basis. People simply do not drive around as much as you might think, and if they do they’re probably headed off to somewhere else, where there may be a plethora of charging stations.

In addition to this, all electric car owners can charge their vehicles at home. Many, if not most, actually have some sort of fast chargers that makes it fully feasible to charge the car from empty to full in one night, thus eliminating the need for charging stations everywhere.

Instead it’s the climate that’s the culprit and most prominently the temperature.

Electric car batteries, as all kinds of batteries, have a real problem with cold. Cold may be good for electronics, but it is not good for battery performance.

Electric cars are very popular in moderately warm places, such as California and large parts of central Europe, and they perform well in that type of climate, but as soon as you get into colder climates, performance starts dropping considerably.

Not only do you need to use the heater, that consumes additional energy, when the temperature drops, you’re also losing battery performance.

So, the worst place to be driving an electric car must be a place where it’s really cold and where charging stations are far apart.

Like the North Pole.

It’s a good thing Santa uses reindeer.