Range anxiety? E-drivers can stay cool in summer traffic jams

When the increased travel during the holiday season leads to painfully long traffic jams, drivers of electric cars can remain cool. Although they also won't make progress any faster, at least potential range anxiety is unfounded, as determined by the ADAC.

The running air conditioning does not drain the battery so much that one would have to fear for the continuation of the journey, says Dino Silvestro, the head of vehicle testing at the ADAC Technology Centre in Landsberg, offering reassurance.

Tesla under Test Run

To investigate what a summer traffic jam with a standstill means for an electric car, Silvestro placed a Tesla Model Y in a heat chamber for eight hours at 35 degrees and increasing sunlight intensity throughout the day. Meanwhile, a test subject sat in the car, the air conditioning was running at 21 degrees, and the infotainment system was used. 

Stay Cool - Actually Not a Problem in an Electric Car

According to Silvestro, the car consumed 1.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per hour while stationary, and the battery thus lost 12 kWh or 16 percentage points over the entire test.

"We left the Tesla with 60 percent and brought it back out with 44 percent after the simulated traffic jam, so continuing the journey was no problem."

The ADAC man therefore cannot imagine a summer traffic jam that would actually bring an electric car to its knees.