Two tone, black top

RacerX00 said:

Definitely, but I also have sun and sound spec'd which I think probably heats it up more as you're absorbing the heat and subtracting insulation.

I'd want to know what the actual impact is on battery life and cabin temperatures before I go further than selecting colors from the factory. If it's a 30F difference in the cabin for a black top, that could be obviously compelling. If it's a 5F difference because the car is mostly white with just some black accents, do I really care?

Right now I have a theory on temperature based on how cars have always worked. You watch any YouTube right now on colors and they'll show double digit temperature differences. How that translates into practical impacts on EV batteries remains the open question.

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I feel like (no actual data) the difference in terms of battery temperature will be less than other factors. After all, the temperature of the roof and the temperature of the battery is separated by a compartment full of air, which is a pretty good insulator. And the battery is underneath the car, which is effectively in shade (no direct sunlight on the battery itself). Also, the battery has a lot of thermal mass, so I suspect that other factors like DCFC charging and the ambient temperature of the air has greater influence than the color of the car. So sitting outside in 100F weather will warm up your battery by a similar amount regardless of whether your car is black or white.

Put the opposite way, do you think that a black car will warm up the battery in winter? Or would the cold air have a greater influence in cooling down the battery? Would leaving a black car outside in 20F winter weather result in significantly warmer battery temperatures? It might make the cabin a few degrees warmer, but I don't think it would make much difference for the battery underneath the car.