Kinda. Im leqd to believe heatpump is a $50 device that manufacturers charge $2k for (must be more to it honestly).

If that saves 10% of range that’s 10% less batteries which cost more than $50. Eventually all these savings add up so much that EV is lighter and cheaper than similar ICE vehicle…

> Im leqd to believe heatpump is a $50 device that manufacturers charge $2k for (must be more to it honestly).

Turning an AC unit into a heatpump is indeed pretty simple, but that type of heatpump doesn't work well when the temperature gradient is too high.

What you'd need to heat a car during winter is a "high temperature heat pump", which usually requires multiple stages, different thermal fluids, etc.

That's a much more complex and expensive system, not well suited to vehicles.

AFAIK in cold climates they use different refrigerant like methane, but that’s even more expensive.

Expensive why? Methane itself is dirt cheap.

Not sure. Maybe higher pressure or corrosion means beefier gear.

As an owner of a EV, who regularly sees over 20% of the energy used during the winter goes to heating the cabin, I can't agree.

It regularly gets cold enough here that the the temp gauge on my conventional ICE barely rises over an hour without covering the cooling vents manually. We're wasting enormous amount of energy on non-insulation/inefficient temperature control

I can real-time adjust my car's range by changing the temperature and fan speed. As I bump up the temperature, the range computer immediately goes down in significant increments. It's not been proper cold here since I got my EV, but at the moment I'm seeing about a 30km range decrease with cabin heating on.