Remember that time you left your phone in the car on a cold night when you went to dinner, and when you got back to it, the battery was nearly dead because it had gotten so cold? Yeah, that would be happening a lot if you had an electric car that didn’t take temperature into account. And so the testers of BMW Mini Es are finding out in cold weather: range seems to be reduced by half in 23° temperatures.

The Volt, as Matt discovered, has a battery heater to keep the electrical system at a decent temperature. Seems an elementary feature to include in an electric car, and maybe these tests will convince BMW that it’s necessary.

On the other hand, we may be looking at a bit of a delay before all-electric cars are truly practical for the average family, seeing as if you can’t rely on it to get to work and back on some days of the year, there’s not much reason to buy one.