The Polestar’s true range fell just 18 miles short of the claimed figure, but Tesla’s Model 3 Long Range dropped 106 miles
January 19, 2025 at 16:00
- The Polestar 3 came out top in a winter range test of 24 new EVs in Europe.
- Even in cold conditions, it managed 330 miles, just 18 less than claimed.
- Tesla’s Model 3 also covered 330 miles, but against an official 436-mile range.
Cold, winter weather can decimate EV range numbers, seriously hampering practicality in northern regions of Europe and North America. But some electric cars are affected much less than others, as a new test from icy Norway reminds us. And some, like the Polestar 3, are barely affected at all.
Twice a year, in summer and winter, the NAF (Norwegian Automobile Association) and the country’s Motor website get together to put EVs though their paces in real world conditions to check the range of electric cars available to car buyers in Norway, where EVs accounted for a whopping 89 percent of the market in 2024.
Many Promised At Least 300 Miles, But Only 4 Actually Delivered
Running each car’s battery down not quite to zero, but to between 10-15 percent, which is as low as most people would realistically risk going in normal use, especially when it’s snowy outside, the teams recorded a true range figure for each car. Twenty of the 24 cars had a claimed WLTP range of at least 300 miles (483 km), some of them promising almost half as much again. But only four achieved more than 300 miles during the test.
Related: Six EVs Were Driven Till They Died, Guess Which One Came Last
Some of the cars came with bigger batteries than others, of course, so there was always going to be variance in the distance achieved on a single charge. But where the real interest lies is in how close each of the car’s came to its claimed range.
Hitting the WLTP figures is a big ask for an EV, because Europe’s official range numbers tend to be more optimistic than those from America’s EPA for the same car. Throw in the harsh weather, the bigger rolling resistance of winter tires and temperatures that ranged between -3 and 7 degrees C (23-45 F), so aren’t ideal for an EV’s battery, and you’d expect to see none of the cars get anywhere near what the brochure claims.
Tesla’s Model 3 Did Really Good – Or Did It?
And in some cases, you’d be right. The Tesla Model 3’s 330-mile (531 km) effort looks pretty good – until you realize Tesla claims 436 miles (702 km). Peugeot’s E-3008 delivered 101 miles (163 km) below the claimed figure of 317 miles (510 km) and various other EVs underperformed by at least 81 miles (130 km).
Contrast those figures with those of the Polestar 3, whose true 330-mile (530 km) range figure exactly matched the Tesla’s, but the Polestar came within 18 miles (29 km) of its WLTP claim. Considering the weather, that’s an incredible achievement. Which is more than you can say for the feeble 214 miles (344 km) the Voyah Dream achieved with its huge 108.5 kWh battery.
As for the other two that managed to get over 300 miles of true range in those conditions, they were the Porsche Taycan (310 miles), which fell sort 58 miles of WLTP’s numbers, and the Kia EV3, which also achieved 310 miles, down 57 on official numbers. The EV3’s range was praised during our review a couple of weeks ago and shows that a) Kia is mastering the art of EVs, and b) in the electric world, bigger isn’t always better.
