[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by JulianEdgar

I didn't say that a battery electric vehicle needs to dissipate as much heat as a internal combustion engine car.

I said that the proportional drag of the cooling system appears to be at least as high, if not higher, in battery electric cars as it is with internal combustion engine cars.

Happy for someone to check my figures:

Tesla Model S -

Palin, R., Johnston, V., Johnson, S., D'Hooge, A. et al., The Aerodynamic Development of the Tesla Model S - Part 1: Overview, SAE Technical Paper 2012-01-0177, 2012

Porsche Taycan -

Hinterbuchinger, M., Aerodynamics, electrified - Porsche Taycan Turbo, 12th FKFS conference, 2019

I understand what you were saying in the first post.
In the leaf the charging system really builds heat in the summer under the hood.
That may be the main reason for the what seems like an overly large cooling system opening.
The first year I had the leaf it was a pretty normal summer, had a lot of 7 temperature bar days. On the hottest days the radiator fan kicked on to cool the charging system while it was active. Then I started opening the hood on hot days like that, with the hood up I had fewer 7 bar days and never heard the fan kick.
With a tiny opening the heat build up woud be far worse.