Bad Weather Makes Maine, Vermont And New Hampshire The 3 Worst States For EV Range, New Study Claims

If you listen to conventional wisdom, I'm probably an idiot for leasing a new Fiat 500e. I live in a rural area, after all, and you need at least 800 miles of range if you ever hope to drive anywhere. Georgia isn't exactly the friendliest state for EVs, either, and finding non-Tesla public chargers can be a pain. According to one new study, though, Georgia's actually a pretty great state for EVs, and it's EV owners in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire who are the fools, Green Car Reports reports. Wait, is that a little Dashboard Confessional I hear in the background right now?

OK, they aren't fools, exactly, but the study comes from Vaisala, a company that bills itself as "a global leader in measurement instruments," and took a look at how weather and road conditions impact range for electric vehicles. And when you make measurement instruments, you can measure all sorts of things most people wouldn't think of, from monthly temperatures to wind speed, snowfall, air density, solar radiation and all sorts of other factors that might impact EV range. And while batteries don't like being either too hot or too cold, the study found you're actually still better off — from a range perspective, at least — roasting in the sun instead of freezing your buns off. 

Yes, when the friendly Finnish measurement nerds crunched the numbers, the states in the continental U.S. with the worst conditions for EVs were Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Minnesota. Meanwhile, the best states were Arizona, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana. There are certainly other factors to consider when moving somewhere, but hey, I'll take Georgia finishing in the top five in something other than college football, especially if it helps me defend picking up a new 500e. 

That doesn't mean, however, that the states with the best conditions for EVs actually buy that many of them. Louisiana's EV adoption rate is one of the lowest in the country, for example, while California's adoption rate is the highest in the country, even though its conditions are actually pretty middle-of-the-pack. Meanwhile, states such as Oregon and Washington have pretty high adoption rates despite their poor conditions. 

While driving a decade-old compliance EV with less than 90 miles of range back when its battery was fresh may not be the most scientific of tests, these results track with what I've seen, too. I got much better range one day when it was pushing 90 degrees compared to when temperatures were in the 40s and 50s. And while Arizona is certainly pushing it on how much heat the human body can tolerate, at least for now, you're unlikely to ever encounter temps more than 30 or 40 degrees warmer than the 70 degrees batteries seem to like best. Meanwhile, states that actually get real winters get way colder. 

So if you want more range out of your EV, come join me in Georgia. Unless you have kids, in which case, maybe pick a state where it's still legal to open a history book.