A Heat Wave Will Cook Your Electric Car Battery, If You Let It
As EV adoption picks up in Arizona, Texas and other US states experiencing record high temperatures, drivers are learning to protect battery health.
An EV in a hot climate has to work harder to keep its battery and its passengers cool.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergConsider it ironic, or at least a little poetic: Electric vehicles, great for combating climate change, don’t do well in extreme heat. It’s a paradox being thrown into relief as multiple US states bake under heat waves that are becoming more frequent and more intense.
High temperatures aren’t kryptonite for battery-powered vehicles. An EV in a hot climate has to work harder to keep its battery and its passengers cool, but the car will function just fine. On a chemical level, though, extreme heat is akin to heart disease for EV batteries, or a mellow and slow-moving form of cancer.