sotek2345
Well-known member
- First Name
- Tom
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
- Threads
- 30
- Messages
- 3,682
- Reaction score
- 4,325
- Location
- Upstate NY
- Vehicles
- 2022 Lightning Lariat ER, 2021 Mach-e GT
- Occupation
- Engineering Manager
Yup,Tesla owner here, mos def not a fanboi though and I'm typically the first to point out shortcomings on Tesla forums and actively rage against those who blindly defend ANY brand even in the face of obvious shortcomings. Can't stand that junk.
I think the heat pump is a wonderful solution but it's not a universal one the way resistive heat is. In North America we just have too wide of a range of temperatures for it to be a one-size-fits-all type of solution. If you only made cars for Southern California or Arizona this wouldn't be an issue. While sometimes early on it felt like Tesla only had SoCal in mind when engineering cars in some aspects, it seems as though they're doing a better job now with certain aspects which is a good thing for the rest of us.
I did some cursory research on heat pumps for our house and where we live it just doesn't seem to make as much sense as I had hoped. I think it's the same thing with the cars in this climate. Sure, you can add resistive heat to make up that lower range but the heat pump is still governed by the physics involved with thermal dynamics which, until we have some sort of a breakthrough, make it a non-starter as a single source solution.
I think that having a heat pump/resistive heat combination in EVs is the probably the best implementation for efficiency/range reasons but I certainly wouldn't see the omission of a heat pump as a limit in terms of performance, though.
From what I have read, if it gets below freezing where you live, it is too cold and a heat pump won't really help. If it stays above 40 it is too warm and a heat pump won't help.
I have no issues staying warm in my Lightning. Even at full blast, the heater doesn't take that much range on the highway (when it counts). 5kw for 4 hours is only about 15% of the battery and it won't be running nearly that high the whole ride.
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