Question of the week: Is it worth the extra money to have a heat pump in my new EV?
Fri, 17 Apr 2026
Dear Honest John,
"I'm looking to purchase an EV from new and I see there's the option to add a heat pump. Is it worth the extra money? Does the range improve having a heat pump?"
- VM
Dear VM,
In an EV, a heat pump performs two useful roles. In cold weather it can draw waste heat generated by the battery to warm the interior, which is more efficient than using the car's heating as this uses battery power, which subsequently eats into your potential range.
It can also warm or cool the battery pack in cold or hot weather respectively to ensure the battery is at its optimum operational temperature, again something which helps boost efficiency.
An EV with a heat pump should operate more efficiently for more of the time compared to one without, which should result in better range, all other things being equal.
Whether it is worth the extra money very much depends on your circumstances. If you regularly need to make long journeys where you will use a lot of the vehicle's range, or will use your car frequently in cold weather, then it may be worth the extra investment, but depending on the cost of the heat pump it may take tens of thousands of miles before you recoup this cost from less frequent charging.
We're seeing more and more new EVs come with heat pumps as standard. Arguably a used EV with a heat pump is worth more secondhand compared to an identical model without one but the difference may be marginal and again does not necessarily justify the extra initial cost.
