Back in May, I bought a 2016 VW e-Golf (my first electric car). Before I bought it, I did a ton of research and I knew theoretically what I was getting into but really needed to figure out a few things in practice. Two weeks after it arrived at my house, I tried a roadtrip to Madison. I was very curious if that was practical. It didn’t go great but I figured out after the fact how to improve the experience. (Stay tuned for a second attempt.)
Another big question that I had was about the heater. My e-Golf has a resistive heater and I had read previously that heat pumps were more efficient than resistive heaters. It was still a bit cold here in May so the first thing that I did was to switch the heat on and it blew hot air like a champ. If it was hot but inefficient, I was ok with that. I live less than two miles from work, afterall and I can preheat the car while it is plugged in.
Recently, I discovered an interesting video about the difference between heat pumps and resistive heaters. After watching it, I think that I would prefer the resistive heater anyways.
It is worth a watch if you don’t understand the differences and you are interested.
[ Cover photo by Jaromír Kavan on Unsplash ]