PV5 Winter Performance.

Whilst we aren't in the deepest, darkest depths of winter just yet, it has been pretty cold across the UK over the last couple of weeks.

I figured I would do a quick post on how well the Kia PV5 handles the colder weather, and what sort of effect it has on battery range.

Features

First, the cabin features. Both the front seats and the two outer rear seats are heated, and it is absolutely gorgeous. There are three levels of heat in the front and heated controls for the rear seats too. There is also a two-stage heated steering wheel, which I love—I've never had a heated steering wheel in a vehicle before, and it's a game-changer on frosty mornings.

App Control

What makes it even better is being able to switch all of this on remotely from the phone app. You simply set the app to maximum temperature, and it automatically fires up the cabin heating, the seats, and the steering wheel heater, so the van is proper toasty before you even step outside.

One gripe I do have, though, is the sheer complexity of the app. There is a button to turn on climate control, another for maximum heating, and various other controls spewed elsewhere across the interface. Aside from the "Maximum Heat" option, it is usually unclear what the app is actually going to do. For instance, it seems I can only turn on all four heated seats at full blast using the maximum heat button, even if I only want the front two on a medium setting. I also can't seem to just run the demister on its own.

These are purely criticisms of the app rather than the vehicle itself—the hardware capability to control all of this is clearly there, but the interface is laid out in a way that makes no sense to a normal person or a rocket scientist. What it really needs is the ability to save custom user profiles. I’d love to have a "Cold Morning" profile that sets the steering wheel to level 2, the driver's seat to level 1, and the cabin to 22°C, alongside a "Damp Morning" profile that just runs the dehumidifier.

Anyway, thats me vented.

Winter Range

So, how does all of this affect the battery range?

There are 2 aspects to winter range;

• Battery chemistry in colder weather.
• Energy for heating in the cabin.

The unscientific answer on my PV5 Passenger (which is fitted with the heat pump) is that if you want moderate warmth, the cabin heating impact on range is barely noticeable. Rather than generating heat from scratch, a heat pump works by extracting thermal energy from the outside air and waste heat from the drivetrain, compressing it to warm the cabin.

However, as soon as you really crank the cabin temperature up, the heat pump needs a helping hand from the traditional electrical resistance heater (PTC) to get the cabin up to temperature quickly. Similarly, the colder it gets outside, the less ambient heat there is in the air to extract, meaning the PTC heater kicks in sooner.

In practice, I haven't noticed any real battery drain from the steering wheel or seat heaters, even on their maximum settings—warming the person directly uses very little power compared to heating a big cabin full of cold air. The only noticeable drain is when I set the cabin air temperature higher than the heat pump can comfortably maintain on its own.

Out on a proper longer run, I am still seeing over 3.2 miles/kWh. Whilst that is down from summer performance—where I can see over 4.0 miles/kWh on a good day—it is still very impressive for a vehicle of this size in the cold. I have noticed a higher battery drain on short trips (under 10 minutes), which comes down to the cold battery warming up and the traditional PTC electric heater working hard to get a head start on the cabin temperature. After that initial 10-minute period, consumption settles right down as the heat pump takes over the job of maintaining the temperature.

If you are running a non-heat pump variant of the PV5, I'd be really interested to know how you are getting on as the temperatures drop. Let me know in the comments!