Winter range, in plain English

The first cold morning of a new owner's first winter is a rite of passage in this community. The number on the dashboard is lower than it was in October, the group chat lights up, and somebody who has been doing this for six years says the same reassuring thing they said last year.

So, plainly: yes, every electric car goes less far in winter. This is normal, it is not a fault, and it happens to petrol cars too — you just never watched a petrol car's range readout closely enough to notice.

There are two reasons and they are worth separating. The first is heating. A cold car needs warming, and unlike an engine there is no waste heat lying around to do it for free, so the energy comes out of the same battery that moves the car. The second is the battery itself: chemistry is simply less willing when it is cold, which is why a rapid charge on a frosty morning also starts slower than you expect.

The good news is that both problems have the same solution, and it is the one thing on the internet's winter list that genuinely works: preconditioning. Warm the car while it is still plugged in. The heating runs off the wall rather than the battery, the cabin is comfortable when you get in, and if your car preconditions the battery before a rapid stop it will charge noticeably better when you arrive. Members who do nothing else report that this alone recovers a decent slice of what winter takes away.

After that the list gets less exciting, which is a good sign that it is honest. Use the heated seats and the heated wheel before the cabin heater, because warming a person costs far less than warming the air around them. Keep your tyres at the right pressure, which is worth doing anyway and quietly matters more than most gadgets. Drive a little more gently. And if you have a garage, use it — a car that starts the morning at five degrees rather than minus three has already won.

What does not help, or helps so little it is not worth the bother: driving with the heater off and a coat on, which makes you miserable and saves less than people think; and obsessing over the range estimate, which is a prediction, not a promise, and updates itself as the car learns what you are doing.

The practical summary is short. Plan a winter journey around roughly three-quarters of your summer range and you will almost never be caught out. By March it comes back, all of it, and you will have forgotten this was ever a worry until you help the next new owner through their first cold morning.