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Comment by _kulang

2 days ago

It’s a near-doubling of energy loss - probably a healthier way to understand it when the efficiencies are all 90%+

Funnily enough if enough of that energy loss (heat) can be scavange, this wouldn't be nearly that bad for us living up here in the cold.

  • In most EVs motors are watercooled, so that energy can indeed be scavenged – problem is, during low-speed driving, the heat output is not high enough to get noticeably above ambient temperature.

  • Thermodynamically, heat is waste energy. EVs are so efficient that scavenging isn’t practical anymore; I’m not sure the temperature gets high enough to usefully extract the heat energy for heating. ICE cars obviously produce mostly heat so getting a radiator hot enough to heat the cabin is very easy