Without electric dad, you never know how cold it is in winter.

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In winter, a large number of electric car owners will suddenly appear on major social platforms such as friends circle, and even a lot of talented people will be pulled out:

"The air conditioner of the electric car is not heated. I brought a down jacket hat, gloves and even a small blanket in the car. "

"Electric dad is not covered, fully charged first drop 100 km battery life! Turn on the air conditioner in this weather. I'm afraid the car won't get to the company. If you don't turn on the air conditioner, I am worried that people will not be able to get to the company. "

"I don't dare to run at high speed, I'm afraid I can't last; If you don't dare to turn on the warm air, you are afraid of endurance. "

These spits come from such a group of people. They either take a fancy to some cities' preferential policies on electric vehicles, such as unlimited number and limited number, or buy electric vehicles for energy conservation and environmental protection, or simply want to experience new technologies.

Electric cars are all over the country, but in the cold winter, car owners in areas where the temperature is below MINUS five degrees Celsius should be more patient with electric cars. With the Huaihe River in Qinling as the boundary, car owners in the north will especially understand why electric cars are ridiculed as "electric daddies"-fully charged electric cars can lose half their electricity after standing for one night; The cruising range is 30%, 20% or even 50%, and you have to charge the next day; In order to save electricity, we dare not turn on the air conditioner in a few degrees below zero-the behavior of charging pure trams frequently in winter is also called "serving dad".

Unfortunately, the winter of 202 1 is colder than in previous years. In recent days, the body temperature in many places is generally below -25, and Beijing even set a record for the lowest temperature since 2 1 century. For electric car owners, once again ushered in a nightmare, but also played the wisdom of supporting electric dads: according to whether to turn on air conditioning, high speed, outdoor temperature, calculate the actual cruising range, plan the trip in advance; Even if the air conditioner is turned on, it should be strictly controlled, such as how high the wind speed and temperature are. ...

Xiao 'an, who lives in Hebei, has a little collapse in this cold winter. All this stems from her recent purchase of a Beiqi EX360. She found that raising an electric father became a Schrodinger-style number game.

Xiao An commutes 20 kilometers every day, and the car is her important means of transportation. The reason for choosing BAIC is also very simple. First, the price is cheap, 80,000 yuan. Second, the new energy license is unlimited and easy to use. But this cheap and convenient car also brought her a series of troubles.

According to the official website, the cruising range of this car is 398km, and the clerk in the 4S shop said that it is actually 360km. However, Xiao An found that even if it is fully charged, the mileage on the central control panel of the car can reach up to 320 kilometers, never reaching 360 kilometers.

In winter, the low temperature greatly shortens the cruising range of electric vehicles. "Now the actual cruising range is floating between 260 and 280 kilometers. The lower the temperature, the less cruising range, which is equivalent to a 20% discount on the endurance in winter. And the more miles you drive, the more electricity you lose. In summer, it is basically running 10 km and cruising 10 km. In winter, it is more than 10 km, which is equivalent to actually running 10 km, but the electricity consumption shows that 15 km is consumed. "

To this end, Xiao An has a serious mileage anxiety disorder, which has almost become her daily nightmare. "Looking at the decreasing mileage figures, my heart will panic. So I bought it for almost a year. Basically, I will charge it as soon as there is 100 km left. /kloc-below 0/00, dare not go out. "

Zhang Ming, who lives in Haidian, also found that his Geely Emgrand's battery consumption has been too fast recently, and its endurance has been shrinking. When he bought an electric car to go to work, he calculated an account: it is only 17 km from his home in Wudaokou to work in Wangjing, and he basically consumes only 14 km in summer, and charges electricity twice a week at most; However, in winter, it is also 17 km, and the mileage consumed by electric vehicles has become 30 km, and the power consumption has dropped rapidly, so it needs to be recharged every other day.

One night, the temperature in Beijing dropped to MINUS 13 degrees Celsius, and Zhang Ming filled up the car with electricity. Before the car started the next morning, the mileage dropped from 300 kilometers to 220 kilometers. "The power to approach 100km is gone."

In fact, car owners know very well that the mileage information displayed on the on-board central control panel of electric vehicles is the remaining mileage estimated according to the power consumption of 10km or 100km. This calculation method is closer to the ideal state of uniform linear motion, and has little reference significance for actual driving. In winter, the mileage information on the central control screen is even more inaccurate. Car owners must rely on their own experience, such as whether to turn on the air conditioner, whether to get on the highway, outdoor temperature, etc. to "pinch out" the actual cruising range.

20 17 Wang Li, who bought an electric car, obviously felt the battery aging after driving for the fourth year, and the driving range dropped rapidly. "I usually estimate the cruising range. Basically, I will give a 20% discount on the displayed mileage and at least give myself a cruising range of 20 kilometers. "

Chen Ming, who lives in Tianjin, lives a cautious travel life because the newly bought BYD EV360 has a cruising range of 300 kilometers: the first thing to do when going home every day is to charge the electric car; Plan your trip before going out every day and decide whether to turn on the air conditioner according to the distance of the trip; Even if the air conditioner is turned on, he has clear restrictions. The wind speed reaches the third gear, and the temperature is controlled at about 26 degrees. When the journey is more than 100 km, or when it is necessary to run at high speed, the tanker is preferred, and the electric car is basically ignored.

Another group that supports electric vehicles is network car drivers, who are miserable when their battery life is shrinking in winter, and charging is even more difficult. A person in charge of a network car franchisee said frankly: "It is too difficult to fully charge now. It used to be almost full in an hour, but now it takes two hours, and it is difficult to fill it, basically only 80%. "

Not just electric car owners within 200 thousand. Even if you buy a mid-to high-end electric car, you still have to face the problem of low-temperature mileage attenuation.

A car owner who owns both Weimar EX5 and Tucki G3 has no choice but to find that the cruising range of the two cars has dropped to the earlier100km. A Weilai ES8 owner also admitted that the cruising range is basically 60% off when the air conditioner is turned on in winter, but Weilai has a power exchange service, so the experience is quite comfortable.

Last winter, the weather was not so cold that car owners couldn't turn on the air conditioner. But this year is different. The weather forecast shows that the lowest temperature in this century will appear in parts of central and eastern China. It is definitely an extreme sport to travel without air conditioning in the winter of MINUS ten degrees. "This year is really too cold. If you turn on the air conditioner, the cruising range will be 50% off, and if you don't turn on the air conditioner, you can still keep 30% off. Life or life is a problem. " Zhang Ming said.

In order to save electricity, a network car driver came up with some skills: when the car is not particularly cold, generally turn on a warm wind, you can raise the temperature a little first, and then fix the temperature at around 26 degrees after the inner room is warm.

No electric car can escape the fate of the sudden drop in cruising range in winter.

The person in charge of the above-mentioned network car franchisees is in Tianjin. After observing the phenomenon of battery life attenuation of electric vehicles for three or four years, he found such a rule: in the north, the so-called long-life vehicles with a cruising range of more than 500 kilometers generally lose 200 kilometers of electricity in winter when the temperature is below MINUS 5 degrees Celsius, leaving a cruising range of about 300 kilometers; And the cruising range is below 350 kilometers, which is considered as a small cruising electric vehicle. The electricity consumption in winter is basically around 150 km, which is equivalent to only about 200 km of electricity left.

The degree of power loss is different with different temperatures.

Wang Cheng, director of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Laboratory of Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear Energy and New Energy Technology, told Shenzhan that electric vehicles can generally achieve a long cruising range in spring and autumn (about 20 degrees Celsius), and minus 5 degrees Celsius is an important dividing line. When the temperature is below MINUS 5 degrees Celsius, the cruising range of electric vehicles will obviously shrink.

This means that in most northern areas north of the Huaihe River in Qinling Mountains, after winter, electric vehicles can't escape the fate of a sudden drop in cruising range, and the situation in southern areas is even better.

"In addition, if there are situations such as warm air blowing in place (such as traffic jams and waiting in place), frequent acceleration and deceleration, and vehicles stored at extremely low temperatures for a long time, the phenomenon of shrinking cruising range will be more serious." It is not difficult to explain why some people will lose half their cruising range the next morning even if they fully charge their electric cars at night.

But why does low temperature become the killer of cruising range? Many people in the industry said that the problem mainly lies in the battery.

Wang Cheng agrees with this view. "The decline in the cruising range of electric vehicles in winter is the result of a combination of factors. The main reason is that the performance of power batteries decreases at low temperatures. "

Many reasons will lead to the performance degradation of lithium batteries at low temperature. For example, at low temperature, the concentration of electrolyte will increase, the diffusion coefficient will decrease, and the charge transfer impedance (Rct) inside the battery will increase significantly. For another example, the cleavage phenomenon of the negative electrode of lithium battery will become serious at low temperature, and the precipitated metallic lithium will react with the electrolyte, and its products will be deposited, resulting in an increase in the thickness of the solid electrolyte interface (SEI).

Electrode materials and electrolyte materials have a great influence on the low-temperature performance of batteries, which will further affect the winter cruising range of electric vehicles.

At present, the power batteries of electric vehicles are mainly lithium batteries, which are divided into lithium manganate, lithium ferrous phosphate and lithium nickel cobalt manganate, namely lithium ternary and lithium cobalt oxide. Among them, ternary lithium batteries, which combine many advantages of ternary materials, greatly improve the battery capacity and energy density with the addition of nickel, and occupy the market rapidly in recent years. Lithium ferrous phosphate started early, its technology is mature and its safety performance is outstanding. The application scope of the other two materials is not as good as the first two; In addition, BYD has also developed a blade battery.

An expert who has been studying batteries for a long time analyzed the deep combustion. Generally speaking, ternary lithium batteries are superior to lithium iron phosphate batteries in low temperature performance. Although the blade battery technology is BYD's latest battery technology, which is essentially a lithium iron phosphate battery, BYD makes the energy density of the blade battery close to that of the ternary lithium battery through technology, but its safety and cost are better than that of the ternary lithium battery.

As far as the recent actual situation is concerned, the performance of blade batteries is not satisfactory. Recently, some netizens in Shanxi broke the news that they had been driving the BYD Korean EV for a month and a half. After many tests in winter, he found that the cruising range was only 230 kilometers after the actual charging, while the official test mileage was 600 kilometers, and the cruising range was reduced by two-thirds.

However, lithium iron phosphate battery is relatively cheap, and many car companies still choose it as a power battery. Take Tesla for example. On June 65438+1 October1day, 2020, Tesla officially announced that the price of domestic Model 3 would be lowered. The important reason for the price reduction is that the standard battery life version was changed from ternary lithium to lithium ferrous phosphate.

A lithium ferrous phosphate Model 3 owner in Beijing has already realized the difference between the two: in winter, the actual cruising range of his own electric car has dropped from 468 kilometers to 220 kilometers, which is basically 50% off; And he bought a friend's ternary lithium Model 3, and his electric car's cruising range in winter was only 20% off.

In addition to batteries, heating air conditioners is also one of the important culprits of power consumption.

"In winter, the heat source of the fuel car comes from the preheating of the engine. The conversion efficiency of the engine is only 40% to power, and the remaining 60% of heat conversion is enough to meet the heating needs of our passengers. The electric car does not have the preheating of the engine, and all heating needs an energy source. " Dai Kangwei, vice president of BAIC New Energy Research Institute, once told the media. To put it bluntly, electric car owners need more power to turn on air conditioners in winter.

At present, there are two kinds of air conditioners for pure electric vehicles on the market, one is PTC resistance wire air conditioner and the other is heat pump air conditioner. An industry insider said that the former is widely used because of its price advantage, but the efficiency coefficient of the latter is 2-3 times that of the traditional resistance heater, and it also saves more electricity. At present, only some high-end models in the market are equipped with the latter, such as Weilai ES6, BMW iX3 and other high-end cars. Recently, Model Y, which has been desperately reducing prices, has also installed heat pump air conditioners.

In the extremely low temperature environment, the efficiency of power electronic devices, motors and other equipment on board may also decrease.

All in all, in winter, the cruising range of electric vehicles in the north is not as good as that in the south; In terms of models, SUV, MPV and other models are generally inferior to cars when equipped with batteries of the same capacity because of their large windward area and heavy body. In addition, electric vehicles equipped with ternary lithium batteries have slightly better endurance in winter.

In winter, the cruising range will be 20% or even 50% off at any time, and the charging times will be forced to increase. Many car owners have to charge once every other day.

But the problem is that charging is difficult. Generally speaking, electric vehicle charging is divided into fast charging and slow charging, and frequent fast charging will quickly shorten the battery life. The common sense now is that "slow charging is the main thing, and fast charging is the auxiliary thing", but slow charging requires a fixed charging pile.

One reality is that some people buy cars, but there is no parking space, so it is difficult to have their own private charging piles. Lian Qingfeng, spokesman of BAIC New Energy, disclosed a set of survey data to the media: about 70% of car users in China have no fixed parking spaces, and only 40% to 50% of new energy car users can install exclusive charging piles.

Without private charging piles, there are not many choices left for car owners. Yao Yao in Hangzhou is facing such a dilemma. Because the parking space is too expensive, she can only choose to rent a car. Her original plan was to install a detachable charging pile in the rented parking space, but after all, it was a rented parking space, and I don't know who paid the electricity bill. Finally, I had to give up. "I am charging my neighbor's charging pile every day, or running around with my charging pile." Yao Yao doesn't know what to do next.

Many people choose to take risks in order to charge their electric dad. Chen Ming lives on the first floor. He chooses the charging cable from the house to the ground to charge.

Even if you choose fast charging, it is not so easy to grab the charging pile.

Sun Yihang works in Beijing Financial Street. There are only six charging piles near the shopping center. He often can't grab the charging pile. "Now there are more and more electric vehicles, and the charging piles are obviously not enough. I often have to wait in line. I waited for the charging pile for 40 minutes at the longest time. Coupled with the slow charging in winter, it usually takes an hour to fill it. " It takes nearly two hours to charge once, and charging is Sun Yihang's biggest headache now.

The high electricity bill is another problem that needs to be considered. Xiao An has been driving an electric car for a year, and he has never rushed out of the door because he thinks the electricity bill is too expensive. "Public * * * charging piles charge both electricity and service charges, with electricity charge 1.2 yuan/kWh. And the household one only costs 50 cents once. For an ordinary migrant worker, I can only choose to save electricity and turn on the air conditioner. "

"electric dad" is so difficult to serve, why do you have to raise it?

If you ask this question, some electric car owners will smile bitterly. For those who need to face the winter dilemma of electric vehicles, the label is basically like this: for the green card and unlimited number, they rely on electric vehicles to go to work, and there is not enough money to replace long-lived electric vehicles, and there is no fixed charging pile.

In fact, with the development of technology, there are more and more vehicles with a cruising range of more than 600 kilometers on the market, but the cruising range is directly proportional to the vehicle cost. The longer the mileage, the higher the price. Most electric vehicle owners who can afford high endurance configuration also have their own independent charging piles, and even buying electric vehicles is a relatively early adopter. There are also fuel vehicles besides electric vehicles.

But for most users who really need electric cars to travel, 300,000 to 400,000 Weilai and 200,000 Tesla may be unattainable luxury goods, and their spending power on cars is mostly below 200,000. "Weilai and Tesla are sky-high prices for me. As a newly graduated migrant worker, I just want to buy an electric car, not walk. I didn't expect to encounter such a big trouble. " Ann gave a wry smile.

Fortunately, the country is carrying out related infrastructure construction. In April 2020, State Grid launched a new round of charging pile construction, and planned to invest 2.7 billion yuan in charging pile construction, adding 78,000 charging piles. The projects are distributed in 24 provinces (cities) such as Beijing and Tianjin, covering public, private, logistics, sanitation, community, port shore power and other types.

Technology is also gradually breaking through. Wang Cheng said that in order to solve the problem of performance degradation of power battery in low temperature environment, many researches have been carried out, such as developing electrolyte, electrode material, electrode structure and heat pump air conditioning technology that can adapt to low temperature environment.

Wang Cheng is also promoting the concept of hydrogen battery. He believes that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be a better choice in the northern region in the future, and the cruising range in low temperature environment will not be significantly reduced. "Under the existing technical conditions, fuel cell vehicles can basically achieve a cold start of MINUS 30 degrees Celsius, while fuel cells are currently working at around 70 degrees Celsius, which is a heat source, so the cockpit can be heated in winter without extra power consumption."

* The title map and the pictures in the text are from Pexels. At the request of interviewees, Xiao An, Zhang Ming, Wang Li, Chen Ming, Yao Yao and Sun Yihang are pseudonyms.