Twice a year, the Norwegian Automobile Federation carries out the El Prix study, an exhaustive examination in which electric vehicles are tested on roads at extreme temperatures, to see how these influence their autonomy. Tesla had been dominating the tests since 2020, but this winter, Chinese electric vehicles have beaten it by far.
To carry out the tests, 23 models travel the same road with an outside temperature between -2ºC and -10ºC. In this way, they observe how much their WLTP standard – which approves their energy consumption and autonomy – decreases when exposed to this weather. Let's see what the results were, because to the surprise of the promoters of El Prix, Tesla comes out badly.
The Tesla Model 3 Great Autonomy has a 75 kWh battery that predicted a promising result, but that has not been the case. It was able to travel only 441 kilometers, compared to the 629 that its WLTP boasts, with a performance difference of -188. It was thus positioned among the worst results of the test in which 23 vehicles were tested.
The best performance was that of the Chinese electric car HiPhiZ, which traveled 522 kilometers with a 120 kWh battery, while its WLTP standard promised 555 kilometers, with a difference of only 33 less.
The Chinese XPeng G8 was not badly positioned either, which traveled 452 kilometers, 68 less than the 520 of its WLTP. It is followed by the Chinese BYD Dolphin, whose WLTP standard promised a range of 427 kilometers compared to the 339 it was able to travel in the Norwegian cold (-88).
For its part, although the Lotus Eletre is from the English brand, it is produced in its facilities in China. It demonstrated a loss of only 65 kilometers, as it was able to travel 465 compared to the 530 promised in its WLTP.
The Nio ET5, designed by the Chinese company precisely to compete with the Tesla Model 3, demonstrated better performance, traveling 481 kilometers compared to the standard 560, with a difference of 79 kilometers. It was surpassed by the Nio EL6, which only lost 73 kilometers between the 456 it traveled and the 529 it promised. The MG4 Trophy Extended Range, from a British company with Chinese capital, traveled 400 kilometers, 120 less than the 520 predicted by its WLTP standard, also surpassing the Tesla Model 3.
The vehicle that lost the most autonomy in the cold was the German Volkswagen ID.7, with a loss of 194 kilometers, as it was able to travel 414 compared to the 608 of its WLTP standard.
The test results show that the WLTP standards are not as precise as they should be, since the impact of cold, insulation, the use of air conditioning and road conditions in extreme climates significantly reduce the autonomy of electric vehicles, something especially relevant in countries with climatic conditions as cold as is the case of Norway.
