Temperatures in the teens and 20s don’t make for ideal electric-vehicle driving conditions, but that was the weather presented during my week in Motor Trend’s electric Car of the Year. How’d it work? Way better than expected in every way except range, which plunged about as much as we were told to expect.

VW rates the e-Golf’s real-world range at 70-90 miles, the EPA says 83, and the range-remaining display generally started out saying 65 miles on these cold mornings, when started in the Normal driving mode. This mode automatically dials up a cozy 72 degrees on the climate control system, which is warmer than I would usually set it, but it refuses to remember my 69-degree setting upon restart. (Eco reduces the climate control power, and Eco+ switches it off, increasing the remaining range.) When I hit the buttons for electric windshield, rear-window, and side-view mirror defrosting, as well as both front-seat heaters, one morning, that range estimate dropped to as low as 48 miles briefly, but minutes later, as I toggled off the high-power glass heaters, the range rebounded to well into the 50s.

Read more: Motor Trend