Most EVs pump coolant through the battery pack.

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Have you ever pulled into a fast charging station on a freezing morning without notifying your EV first, and found that it charges more slowly? Turns out that if you set that same charger as a destination in the car's navigation, many EVs will use the time it takes to drive there to prepare the battery. It's something Tesla's manual tells owners to do 30 to 45 minutes before arriving, while Porsche goes so far as to warn that, without doing so, a vehicle's charging power might be lower.

This warm-up routine is part of an EV battery's thermal management system in most modern cars.…