“Our chambers can range from -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees Celsius) to 176 degrees Fahrenheit (80 degrees Celsius),” Jeff Tessmer, senior manager of Zero Emission Vehicles at NTCNA, said. The chamber can also modulate humidity, enabling engineers to test vehicles like the Ariya in conditions rarely (if ever) experienced by most drivers.
“We want to test the worst-case scenario so that our customers will still get the same performance in various weather conditions,” Tessmer added in the press release. The test results shouldn’t be surprising, given the news in December 2023 that an Ariya was to travel from the North to the South Pole.
In a recent spate of tests, engineers wanted to see how the Ariya held up against freezing weather. They especially wanted to know how these temperatures impacted the vehicle’s battery health and ability to “cold start” under such conditions.