Electric vehicles cover less distance per charge in winter, and the loss is larger than most drivers expect. Three distinct mechanisms are responsible and they do not act equally.
Cabin heating has no waste heat to draw on
A combustion engine is inefficient, and the waste becomes heat that warms the cabin at no additional fuel cost. An electric drivetrain wastes comparatively little.
Cabin heat must therefore be generated deliberately, either by a resistive element or a heat pump, and that energy comes directly out of the driving budget.
This is usually the largest single contributor to winter range loss, and it is why short journeys suffer far more than long ones, since the initial warm-up dominates.
Cold chemistry slows the battery down
Lithium ion cells rely on ions moving through an electrolyte, and that movement becomes sluggish as temperature falls, increasing internal resistance.
Higher resistance means more of the stored energy is lost as heat inside the pack rather than delivered to the motor, and available power is reduced.
The capacity is not permanently lost. A pack that appears diminished in the cold returns to normal once warmed, which distinguishes this from genuine degradation.
Battery conditioning spends energy to save it
Because cold cells cannot accept charge quickly or safely, vehicles heat the pack before rapid charging and often maintain it within a temperature band while driving.
That heating consumes energy, which appears as reduced range, but it protects the pack and restores charging speed that would otherwise be severely limited.
Vehicles that precondition using a navigation destination do this more efficiently than those reacting on arrival, because the heating is spread across the journey.
The road itself becomes less efficient
Cold air is denser, so aerodynamic drag rises at any given speed, and this effect grows with the square of velocity.
Tyres are stiffer and lose pressure as temperature drops, both of which raise rolling resistance, and wet or snow-covered surfaces add more.
These factors affect combustion vehicles equally, but they are less visible there because fuel consumption is reported less precisely than remaining range.
Why the displayed range moves so much
Range estimates are calculated from recent consumption rather than from a fixed figure, so the display reacts to a cold start by projecting that consumption forward.
As the cabin reaches temperature and the pack warms, consumption falls and the estimate recovers, which is why the number often improves during a journey in winter.
Drivers who judge winter capability from the first few kilometres therefore see the worst case, not the average, and the settled figure is the more useful one.