Heating or cooling the cabin significantly shortens an EV’s range since maintaining the optimum temperature can waste a lot of energy. This is especially true for electric cars operating in extreme climate environments, where it’s either very warm in the summer or very cold in the winter. In most vehicles, air conditioning helps keep the air cool while a radiator warms it up.
Whether it works by circulating hot water or electrically heating a coil, these are so-called radiant heating systems. Their common characteristic is that they heat the cabin air, which transfers some heat to nearby human beings and objects. Since there are multiple energy-conversion steps involved, they are not very efficient. It doesn’t matter much with an ICE vehicle because the heat generated by the engine is going to waste nevertheless.
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