- A Tesla Model 3 owner wanted to see how much the EV’s battery would last while “idling” in the freezing cold.
- The test was meant to simulate a situation where the driver is stranded and needs to keep warm.
- A gas-powered car would have used about 2 gallons of fuel to do the same, but EVs use energy much more efficiently.
Electric vehicles are known for their efficiency, especially when driving at low speeds around town. Here, EVs have a huge advantage over internal combustion vehicles because the slower the driving speed, the lower the energy consumption.
But have you ever wondered how much energy an EV uses while switched on and standing still? In a gas car, the engine sips fuel every second it’s running, including when idling. So how does an EV compare?
Canadian YouTuber FrozenTesla wanted to find out by using his own 2024 Model 3 Long Range All-Wheel Drive by keeping it on through the freezing night when temperatures feel as low as -28 C (-18 F) degrees.
Remember, this is not about parking the car and leaving it on standby—it’s meant to simulate a situation where a person might be stranded and needs to keep warm. So things like the climate control were kept on, as were the heated seats and heated steering wheel.
The experiment started at 9.30 pm with the car’s battery state of charge at 66%. The climate system was set to 68 degrees F, the front heated seats were set on auto and the heated steering wheel was also left activated.
After about an hour, the SoC went down by roughly 4%. One more hour later, the battery level went down by another 3%. The next morning, after 12 hours of letting the car “idle” through the night, it had 29% charge left in the battery, which comes out to an average loss of 3% per hour.
In total, 34.4 kWh of energy was used during the 12 hours of idling, which comes out to a price of $6.05, considering the average electricity price of $0.176 in the U.S.
By comparison, a four-cylinder 1.5-liter gas engine uses roughly 0.16 gallons of fuel per hour to idle, according to an Engineering Explained video. Multiply that by 12 hours and you get 1.92 gallons used in 12 hours of idling. With the average gas cost of $3 in the U.S., it comes out to $5.76. Cost-wise, the EV isn’t more efficient, but to be fair, 1.5-liter engines are quite rare stateside (they’re usually bigger and thirstier).
However, that’s just part of the story because leaving a gas engine idle for long periods isn’t too good for its health–the engine oil might become contaminated with fuel, which reduces lubrication over time and can cause damage to the internals. An oil change fixes that, but that means paying more money. Then, there’s the issue of emissions.
Leaving an EV to “idle” has zero emissions associated with it as long as the energy put in the batteries comes from green sources, whereas idling a gas engine will spit out nasty gasses.
So if you’re stuck in an electric car—a rare occurrence, thankfully—but have a battery with a decent charge, you can at least bank on using less energy and doing vastly less environmental damage than a gas-powered car would.
Correction 1/18/24 at 2 pm EST: This story originally had incorrect math regarding the estimated costs for idling an EV and gas car. We have updated the story with correct numbers. We regret the error.
