It would a cool comparison to do a test like this with an ICE vehicle. Everyone knocks EVs for loss of range but never considers it applies to all cars

I've noticed that I lose a very noticable amount of range while cranking the AC even on shorter trips. Glad you covered this as I think it needs more attention!

What I've noticed is that the longer the trip the less difference there is in range when the AC is on. I suppose this makes sense given that, at the start of the trip, the AC is working hard to cool the car down whereas later on it's just maintaining the temperature.

I sit in my Model Y on my lunch breaks and it’s usually 90+ degrees in the car and over 100 on warm/hot days. I run the AC at about 78 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. It uses about 1% of battery (usually a little less than 1%) and I can live with that.

Actually, it used ~16% more energy with the HVAC on full blast... But weirdly it only used ~14% more based on SoC. (HVAC off ended at 28%, while HVAC blasting ended at 25%) Interesting that there is such a big difference between the SoC difference and what was reported in the trip information. I would have liked you to make one more pass with the HVAC set to 72 degrees on Auto...

The dedication 🥵

The drop in efficiency has a lot to do with how fast you are moving and how often you are standing still. If you are often stuck in traffic or slowed down, the AC will have more of an impact in terms of Wh/mi because you're still burning energy even when you aren't moving. I suppose this isn't reflective of the conditions of an actual road trip or long distance drive, but it's worth considering if you are stuck in LA traffic and you don't have much range available on the car.

Very useful information - Appreciate you enduring the heat ! Many thanks.....All the way from London !

Kyle, with so many EV’s having full glass panoramic roofs, I’ve heard a lot of uncertainty about not having a sun shade. Great idea for a video, exploring how the UV blocking glass works and what it’s like living with a glass roof day to day.

Let's be honest, Kyle was just trying to figure out how he could wear a hoody during the middle of summer. Achievement unlocked.

The impact on range will be much bigger if you'd drive 25mph. You'll have less consumption wasted on air resistance drag, and more hours of AC operating

In the Ioniq 5 (mine’s a ‘22 RWD LR, heat exchanger), the guessmeter adjusts when you toggle the AC. Seems pretty accurate too. On a full charge, at ~20c outside temp, guessmeter is 490kms, turning off AC fives me 22 extra KMs. So, roughly 5%.

I've always wondered about this for my Model 3. Thanks for posting this!

Now thats commitment! Reminds me of driving through 110F Death Valley in our 20 y/old LS400 with the windows down for airflow because we couldnt run the AC without risking a breakdown!

My tv app that I was using to watch this just clicked through to a comparison vid where you hit 40K subscribers. Congrats on 165K!

Fascinating and something I've always just ballpark when someone asked. This is really helpful!

Given we are in a streak of consecutive days of 110F in Phoenix (record is 18 and we are probably going to better that on Monday 7/17) I've been keeping an eye on my usage on our 2022 Bolt EUV and just looking at the energy display on the Bolt for the last couple weeks worth of commuting i'm running about 16-17% of climate control usage & 3-4% battery conditioning, whereas during the rest of the year i'm usually in the single digits on both climate % usage & conditioning, often no battery conditioning other than if we have a cold streak in the winter. Like others have mentioned below, that equates to me charging maybe a day earlier in the week at home than normal, just to keep my charge between that 30-70% where i try to keep it on commuting days. Since we don't use the Bolt for anything other than commuting and shorter road trips, Phoenix to Tucson, Flagstaff, Vegas being the furthest we've gone, it isn't a huge issue, but definitely interesting and something to keep an eye on if you have that emergency trip added to a day.

Comfortable settings would be a great test indeed

The other thing to keep in mind is multiple short trips are going to be worse with efficiency since it uses a lot more energy to cool down a 100+ degree cabin vs keeping the cabin at 70 degrees after it is already cool. Doing lots of errands around town where the car sits in the sun and heats back up each stop is going to use a lot more energy than just doing one long drive. Also preconditioning before you leave while still plugged in can make a big difference in extending range during the summer.

Perfect time for this video, I was just experimenting with this in my car lol

This is very similar to what I am seeing here in AZ. 110+ a lot lately! Before getting hot my average daily commute was around 285wh/mi and now I am around 325wh/mi in this crazy heat. The AC is on high all the time now!!! 😢😢

We live in Dallas,TX, and have a 2023 Model Y. The temperature has been warm, averaging highs just under 100 official temperatures. Most days, we park in the closed but unairconditioned garage, and some days, we park under a small shade tree at our daughter's home for part of the afternoon. We have the overheat protection set to 95 degrees. We are losing between five and ten percent of our charge daily just with the overheat protection. We have purchased and installed the roof reflectors, which helped a small amount, but it did not appear substantial. The only concern is on road trips where superchargers are not close. We now carry a mobile charger to offset this if we are staying more than a couple of days.

1:14 Actually, there's been several times where I've kept the A/C on max in a car for an hour before I finally felt like it was cold enough to turn down. The worst was a Nissan Versa I use to drive for work while doing deliveries, I actually kept that A/C on max all day when it was almost 100 F outside while driving it. It was all in tiny 4 cylinder cars with not very big condensers though. Also an EV will be able to always have the compressor at an optimal speed so that should help.

Super helpful!! Would love to see a similar test in the winter with heat. Thanks guys!

I drove 280 miles in 34 - 39 celcius with my AC set to 20c in the UK last summer in my M3LR. Its a trip I would normally do one charge on, but I had loads of time and decided to hypermile it. I charged to 100% on AC at home and just trundled at 55-65 mph sunday driving behind lorries or busses when ever I could. I achieved 190 Wh/mile and arrived with 26% soc.

Great info! you should try this time in Boston around 3pm while driving people or ride share.

Helpful. Thanks for the effort.

Very nice and kudos for stating the temperature in Celsius too! 👏👏👏

Thanks for doing the test!

Great test! Thank you for your sacrifice in the name of science! BTW: There is clever insulation for the roofs of Models 3 and Y called EVglass. I just had mine installed yesterday. The company claims that insulating the roof and the battery cuts wintertime range loss in half. In the summer the insulated roof cuts the inside roof temperature by 20F in the hot sun which makes the car much more comfortable. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way.

Thanks for all your testing I want to do but do not have the time to do!

Thanks for taking one for the team.

Fascinating focused challenge test. Practical summary reassuring.

Speed will always be your biggest hit. You're correct in that you'll never notice the impact of AC in the summer. Those with resistive heaters like in our Bolt, those will see a significant hit in the winter. Heat pumps are a major difference in EVs. Interesting test. The absolute best case scenario I've ever driven was in our 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5. We left our place near Ravenna, OH and drove to Clarksville, TN. It was a cool morning negating any need whatsoever for climate control beyond the fan at low speed just to circulate air in the cabin. We also had a tailwind, and we still did our keep right and drive 55 hypermile style. Our net result was 4.8mi/kw in a pure highway drive. ABRP in it's ultra conservative manner had us stopping at 4 different places to charge. We cut it to two, and significantly shortened the time spent at those two charging stations. The leg of our trip from there to Tyler, TX., we were still able to keep the climate control off and still had very favorable driving conditions. It was on that leg that we had to skip our planned stop in Memphis, TN., and exceeded the city rating enough to have been able to run a full 300 miles on the highway if we had been forced to. On our way back home on this trip, we had routed through Nashville, TN. We were learing the car well enough that we chose to run from there to our home in Ravenna with a single charge stop in Cincinatti, OH. Next month will be a trip to Vancouver, WA. It's going to be another chance to learn this car navigating the charging desert of I-80 in WY.

Thanks for doing this test! That plaid has a heat pump A/C. I need to test my 2015 Gen1 Model S.

Great test Kyle. Sorry you had to deal with the heat... and the charging issues. I still don't rely on any non Tesla DC charging network - at least for now. It is improving though.

I would love to see a test where you compare the non heat pump version of the Model 3 to the heat pump version of the Model 3. You don’t need to do the whole test like this. Just get the Teslogic display device and it will show you exactly how much power the A/C is drawing.

Love your content. Keep up the good work.

I had to order roof shades to help reduce interior heating when parking in shaded lots is not an option. I usually just Vent, close the window and then Auto cool to around 70F while I'm at work. Lol "Cabin Overheating Protection Activated" just pop-up on my Notifications as I'm typing this again 😅

2021 id4 here; my personal experience is that very cold weather/ using heater (40ish) used noticeably more than AC in extreme heat(98+).

2019 SR+ Summer of 2019 - 102F !! - Trinadad, Co Supercharger to Amarill, TX Supercharger 226 miles. No other Superchargers at that time. Charged to 100%. Got on I-26. Route planner said stay below 75 mph.. ha... I stayed at 65 mph... Got on US-87 south which luckily is going SE directly towards Amarillo. Soon I had to drop to 60. Then 55 on that 2-lane highway, with a long line of pissed off people behind me. I would pull off the road from time to time which was not easy as there weren't any pull offs when I needed them. The US-87 turned into TX-395 and took me into Amarillo. Arrived with 4% battery left. This was a miracle! And yes... I did run my A/C the entire way. I think doing 55 saved me in a big way. Also, I had ceramic tinting everywhere on that car, even the windshield. Heat still radiated off the glass. 95F would have been welcomed. lol But hey... Big round of applause for that SR+!!🙌

My Grandfathers only vehicle was a 1920 Chevrolet truck. It's AC was a 55 roll down and it had a steel tray welded to the frame under the engine to put hot coals from the fireplace to thin the oil to help starting! Used alcohol in the radiator because antifreeze was too expensive !! The pioneers took off their shirts and jumped in a river to cool! They had animal skins for the winter! People play video games inside now to stay comfortable. Swimming pools outside!! All the gripping about no air for the test made me want to tell him to put a lid on it!!

I'd highly suggest getting the windshield tinted to 70% with a ceramic tint. BIG difference on heat in the car and not really noticeable visibly.

Good informative video on the "what if" reasonable video length also

That fire extinguisher next to the charger and gas pumps looks so cute. Any fire on that property would laugh and that little guy

Living here in Arizona with our temperatures this summer with weeks in the triple digits. Looking at the energy display shows about 20% of the energy spent on driving stat. When I cool it at home while plugged in before starting off for the day, the rate of energy spent on A/C is GREATLY reduced.

I have a 2015 MS and in the Nashville, TN area I would lose 18% on a hot day with the AC on. In central Florida I lose 25 - 28%. The heat and humidity plays a huge factor not just in using the AC but regular driving with it off. Also, opening up either the windows or the sunroof is equivalent to launching a super huge drag shute.

Great test would love it see the same one done on the Taycan. I was assuming this is what was degrading the range in my Taycan. Could only ever get 215 mi range in the vehicle but I do have the AC blasting

Keep in mind in my good mpg Scion XB the A/C takes a hit too but in Florida we dont care if it cost 25% losses we will always use A/C ....even in the Winter when it get down to 80 here.

The Chevy Bolt shows 15% battery use for climate, and 5% for battery conditioning, leaving 80% for driving and accessories. This is in Phoenix, AZ this past week with temps 110-115⁰F, AC set to 70⁰F, and high fan speed. Kept speeds around 50-65 mph, 110 miles per day for this past week.

I haven't done any measured tests, but my Lightning Pro SR doesn't seem to be much affected by the use of air conditioning - the worst I have seen when pulling up the power usage graph on the center display is about 4%-5% (that is a percentage of all electric power used by the vehicle). I'm about to take a 12-15 mile trip in the Mojave Desert and the current outdoor temperature is 109°. If I see something different, I'll come back and edit this post.

The EV screen on the Ioniq 5 shows you estimated range with and without climate control on which is nice that it can give you at least an approximation on how much it uses out of your estimated range.

Living in Sacramento where we get over 100 during the summer months, I do notice the car uses more energy because its blasting cooling all day. I use Tessie so I should do a comparison.

Any navigated trip summary will break down where your energy was used, from A/C consumption to what you could have saved if you wouldn't have driven so fast 😊

We own a Model Y. We keep the AC on while we go to the gym in Phoenix. With temperatures below 100F, we use about 1 to 1.5% of battery charge per hour. Temperatures over 100 cause a drain of 1.5 to 2.5% per hour. We drive at 80mph on trips and get 2.8 to 3.2 miles per kWhour. 2% of battery is approximately 1.54 kWs. That time 3 miles per kWhour means that we lose 4.6 miles of range per hour of driving. That is about 5.75% loss. Your numbers probably represent the energy required to pull the inside temp down from way over 100 at the start.

This man is crazy!!!! Driving 60 miles no ac at 95

I just had an A/C range issue this past weekend with MYLR. Between Burley and Twin Falls we ran into a big traffic backup and with 106 degrees on the car thermometer we lost enough range that we had to add a charging stop in Twin Falls in order to make it to Boise. I think we lost over 5% in under half an hour due to running the A/C. BTW I think the cars around us made a heat island. When we started moving again the temp went to 96.

I just made a trip to Phoenix from Tucson yesterday in my y performance most of the trip was 100 plus with the highs in the teens. I had was the ac at 71 degrees and was driving the speed limit with not bursts of speed. This was not my normal driving habit and I wish I had tracked it closer, but I had to charge at both ends of the trip. To test the trip without climate control yesterday and all windows up could be fatal.

Yesterday we had to run AC for 4.5 hrs waiting for a ferry (plus crossing) in British Columbia. Conditions: 26 Celsius, 79 Fahrenheit, after 430km/267mile run, 2023 Audi e-tron. Arrived at terminal with 97km/60mi range; exited ferry having lost just 5km/3.1mi of range, solely from AC and music. To maximize range I set the AC on Eco at 21 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) front and back, seat cooling on low in the front. Dog, wife and I napped. Not so happy however were the three ICE cars whose batteries failed when they needed to board. We were third from last on board. This is a practical test returning from a 2,700 km trip. Thought you might like to know…. another Audi win.

Thanks for this, I was wondering if the a/c was affecting my drive on the highway, or if it was not using regenerative braking. I have the Genesis GV70 Electrified. I got a full charge before taking an ~180 mile trip and had to do a "safety" 10 minute charge stop to make sure I could get home. I was cruising at around 79 mph with the air on recirculated and 71 degrees when it was 90+ outside. It's supposed to go ~236 miles on a full charge.

Great video. Help a brother out and pick up that faulty charging cord off the parking lot.

HVAC uses a crazy amount of power in my MY. I live in Florida. Probably should get the windows tinted soon, but it’s so expensive 😵‍💫

10-20 percent. Depends on how cold you want it and how hot it is. Easy. If you put heat rejection film on your windows that will help your AC from running as hard. It helps a lot

Kyle, I live in Tallahassee. Although I don't run with the AC full blast, it's been at 96 neighborhood for weeks already. I run my Bolt EUV with the AC on more of the year than not. I imagine this is the case for most of the south east and west states.

This is the stuff I wanna see. Hot weather stuff. For example my 240 turns to 190 with ac on :(. That was before degradation I don't have wheat pump btw

u should make a video follow up on just winter how much range do you lose during winter when using heat

Great video!

Model Y in Phoenix at 115F it’s a lot more than 15%. It’s a combo of the AC PLUS Battery efficiency. I only loose 5% of my mpg on my hybrid… I know, every car is different but it’s an interesting subject in the heat of the summer 🔥

THANKS FOR SHARING THIS INFO AND KEEP COOL 😎💚💚💚

2023 leaf sv plus owner- I Doordash over 12 hours (@76F 24C) in a day and I loose about 30ish miles (per charge, 2 charges in a day). Would say that’s about 12-13% of the battery. Winter time was a bit closer to 60ish miles (almost 25%), more so to keep the windows clear to see.

Actually "Worst Case" would be on an LA Freeway during prime time traffic slow, 5 mph, at 100 degrees ambient, so pavement would probably be over 145. that would be interesting to know. how many miles at 5mph in a traffic jam commute at 100 degrees with aircon on ? will the aircon cool the cabin sufficiently ?

Arizona summer in my model 3 long range I'm loosing 80 to 90 miles of range from full charge also black interior and exterior. My chevy bolt is just a tad bit more efficient also black but it is a smaller cabin so it makes sense.

ambient humidity makes a big difference in how hard your AC has to work. latent and sensible heat. think of how easily it is to get a pot of water to boiling, and then how long it takes to boil all that water away.

I have a 2022 Model Y Performance and live in Phoenix. Def notice that there is a drop in range/charging more frequently during the summer with temps 110+. This is with ceramic coating on the windows and a roof shade. Like @tgold99 mentioned, multiple small trips really drain it as it is cooling down the cabin multiple times.

What I reccomend for EV owners here in colombia where range anxiety is a VERY serious problem is ceramic tint, spend quite a bit on REALLY GOOD ceramic tint, you can have the AC set to not that cold and get the same result as without ceramic tint... Sure it is about 1 grand in material + install, but hey, long term it is worth it, interior doesnt get blasted with as much UV light, not as much heat and you prevent skin cancer.

Yeah my mom's friend has a 2024 Cadillac lyriq luxury 3 AWD on order every option as well she said she is expected to get it in November or december

One thing you can't control in this case is battery cooling, in these temperatures the conpressor AC is certainly running to keep the battery at the ideal temperature.

You should try charge with "Keep AC On" and without. I have seen our Model Y getting 25% below standard charge rate in 110-115 Fahrenheit. So basically longer charges and the ~10% extra juice needed for the heat.

Great test. I did not see you mention it. But the difference is 4kWh over 48 minutes. That gives excat 5KW draw from the AC. The draw would be same no mather speed. So if you halfe the average speed, you will double the range drop.

You did this in 90+ weather? (haven't finished watching this as I post this) Obviously you didn't die during the test as Alyssa posted this. Really do appreciate the work!

We need a series testing how accurate Teslas energy app is with the power lost to each category: elevation, climate, driving speed, etc.

Kyle, thanks for performing this brutal test. If outside temperature is 96 F, inside with windows closed it must be over 120 degrees. You should have a greenhouse effect from sunshine. Assume it was awful w/o AC.

Very convincing test!

Our Ioniq 5 seems to take about 1kwh for heat/ac, or it should run it for about 70 hours with a 100% charge. But being around Seattle it's not usually under 40 in the winter or over 85 in the summer and I usually keep it Auto 1, the lowest setting. If someone had it blasting on high it would likely take much more power. Turning the climate off makes the estimated range go up by about 15-20 miles

I was just asked this the other day! My response was along the lines of "The battery could power my whole house for almost three days, so I doubt the A/C has much impact."

Thank you so much

This TX heat has my tesla screaming as it tries to cool down. Luckily I park in a garage, but real feel 110 degrees for weeks is nuts.

Once vehicles can achieve 500 miles on a charge or 400 in winter it will not matter as much how efficient the hvac is but at 200 to 300 mile range it matters a lot more because of how spread out the network is between stops

Not really related, but I was surprised to see how little impact AC had on my 23 Niro PHEV when on EV+ mode only. Really nice having AC without running the gas engine. Often stay in the car for an hour or so at a time while my wife visits her patients (North Central AZ). Typically only lose few % of charge per visit.

If you only have two passengers, I find level 1 quite comfortable once it's cooled down and the battery drain isn't too bad compared to when I turn the A/C off.

With a Model Y, I observed doubled the energy use for in town driving. I routinely get below 130wh/km without AC, but over 250wh/km with AC. And that's only at 30C.

For my 2023 Tesla model 3 in the Florida summer I lose quite a bit of range. I have the AC on Lo and fan speed between 5 - 10. My Tesla battery consumption is 15% - 18% devoted to the AC

actually efficiency increase when temperature increase when driving at high speed. yes A/C will consume more but you also have less drag air resistance. a good test will be to do the same route with the same cabin temperature but different outside temperature.

2020 model y with heat pump here in hot as balls Texas uses the same amount of energy for driving and AC according to the energy chart. This is city driving with pre conditioning and all. Normal auto AC settings and assertive driving style

14% sounds about right. Even my 2017 Model S which I believe had a 92 KWH/315 mile useable range seems to lose about 10 KWH more than the calculated 288 WH/mi I usually average. I use about 60 KWH going from 90% charge to 7% or 8% and used to wonder what happened to those phantom KWHs. It is the A/C

This is exactly what people need to know. Cheers.

96 degrees Fahrenheit , come down to the southern region of Texas, where we are at 114 degrees Fahrenheit with a 100% humidity right now. Giving us a feels like temperature of128..

Thanks for taking one for the team in the name of science haha!

What was the cabin temp during the Sweat test? Oddly the best way to see cabin temp is on the Tesla app as its not displayed in the car.

In Central Cali that is a very real scenario... we will hit 114 this weekend and anyone with an electric car will for sure be blasting the A/C every time they drive....