Winter range in Georgia: what to actually expect

Why cold weather cuts range

Every electric car loses some range in cold weather, regardless of brand or battery chemistry. Two things happen at once: the battery itself is less efficient at moving energy when it's cold, and the car spends more energy heating the cabin — using electricity that would otherwise go toward driving. Combined, these effects are well documented across the EV industry and are not specific to any one brand or model we sell.

The honest range of numbers

Independent testing organizations and EV owner data generally put cold-weather range loss somewhere around 20-30% compared to a car's mild-weather range, with the worst cases (deep freezing temperatures, short trips that never let the cabin heater turn off, aggressive highway speeds) landing at the higher end, and mild cold or longer trips landing at the lower end. We won't give you a single number to the exact percent for a specific car — real-world range depends on temperature, driving style, trip length, and how the heater is used, and anyone who promises an exact figure is guessing.

What actually helps

A few habits meaningfully soften the effect:

• Precondition while still plugged in. Warming the cabin and battery before you unplug uses grid power instead of battery power for that first blast of heat.
• Use seat and steering wheel heaters instead of the cabin heater where the car offers them — warming a person costs far less energy than warming the whole cabin.
• Cars with a heat pump lose less range in the cold than cars that rely only on resistive heating, because a heat pump moves heat rather than generating all of it from scratch. Ask us whether a specific car you're considering has one before you buy.
• Shorter trips see a bigger percentage hit than longer ones, simply because the fixed energy cost of warming up the car is spread over less driving.

Tbilisi's actual winter

Tbilisi's winters are mild by the standards most cold-weather range studies are built around. Sub-zero days happen but are not the norm, and prolonged deep-freeze stretches are uncommon compared to genuinely cold climates. That doesn't mean zero effect — expect noticeably less range on the coldest days of the year, especially on short trips — but it also means Georgia's climate isn't the harshest test case the wider EV data comes from.

Bottom line

Plan for meaningfully less range in winter, not for the exact number on the spec sheet — and if a specific trip matters (a mountain drive, a long return journey), ask us about that particular car's real-world range before you rely on it.