No snow / ice around the car on the driveway - does the battery pack give off some heat?

[Andy H]

After the 1-2cm of snow that settled here the other day, I noticed a good few feet of driveway behind and in front of the car was clear of snow.

No snow in front of the car could easily be explained by shielding from the house. But behind the car I'm less sure.. so I am wondering if the battery pack or car in general gives off a tiny bit of heat (maybe to stop things getting too cold) and if so, it was enough to prevent the recent dusting from settling?


Our neighbour commented that our car never seems to need de-icing / scraping etc, which I said was due to the remote defrost feature (smug face), but I said I couldn't really explain why the area around the car was defrosted too!

 

[Nick77]

The BMS might stop the battery from getting too cold and use a little energy, but it's probably just down to the orientation of the house/car/sun.

I'd bet that a similar sized ICE car would give the same results.

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

No, batteries try to keep from freezing over but no, no heat. I DID see some product that straps to the bottom of the car like a blanket but I didn't read any good reviews of it and you either must be a good DIY or the company will install for a price

 

[brkaus]

The car will heat the battery, but only if really really cold. Someone smarter than I would know the actual temperature targets to keep the battery safe.

 

[Adopado]

After the 1-2cm of snow that settled here the other day, I noticed a good few feet of driveway behind and in front of the car was clear of snow.

No snow in front of the car could easily be explained by shielding from the house. But behind the car I'm less sure.. so I am wondering if the battery pack or car in general gives off a tiny bit of heat (maybe to stop things getting too cold) and if so, it was enough to prevent the recent dusting from settling?


Our neighbour commented that our car never seems to need de-icing / scraping etc, which I said was due to the remote defrost feature (smug face), but I said I couldn't really explain why the area around the car was defrosted too!

The battery pack has a large thermal mass. After a reasonable amount of use the warmth in the pack will build up and when parked will dissipate relatively slowly. I would guess that the pack is going to be above ambient temperature for a period of more than 24 hours, possibly a couple of days ... perhaps someone with specific knowledge in this area could comment. It only needs to be slightly above ambient to make a difference to the ground adjacent to the car.

 

[MrBadger]

No specific knowledge but empirically plausible. I have other images showing similar at different angles so not just a one off.