Related Articles
All electric car owners know that cold weather affects range. It’s a chemical phenomenon that also gives your phone, laptop, and anything else powered by lithium-ion batteries a hard time through the winter months. But since electric car chargers aren’t yet as convenient as USB sockets, it’s the EVs that really suffer, and so range anxiety prevails.
To understand how much EV range is affected by cold weather—and discover which cars are best at meeting their claimed range when temperatures plummet—the Norwegian Automobile Association conducts the biannual El Prix. Claimed to be the world’s largest EV range test, the event takes place every summer and winter, with the latter completed in late January.
Since 2020, Tesla has dominated the El Prix. A Model 3 won in 2022, and a Model S took the top spot in 2023, covering 329 miles before its battery went flat.
As well as outright range, the El Prix highlights the difference between an electric car’s WLTP range (usually slightly higher than an EPA rating)—as quoted by its manufacturer and commonly used by consumers to compare cars—and what’s really possible in subzero temperatures.
The Model S that won in 2023 deviated from its WLTP range by 65 miles, or 16 percent. This wasn’t a winning score. The Maxus Euniq 6 from China deviated by just 10.5 percent, albeit from a smaller total, but the Tesla performed much better than the Mercedes EQE (with its target missed by 128 miles, or 33.5 percent) and Toyota bZ4X (some 112 miles, or 35.7 percent).
Fast-forward to the 2024 winter El Prix, and how do you think the newly facelifted Tesla Model 3 got on? It lost. Badly.
Tesla Tested Second to Last
When comparing real range in cold weather to claimed WLTP range, the Tesla came 22nd out of 23 cars. The cold temperatures lowered the Model 3’s range by a thumping 117 miles, and only the Volkswagen ID.7 performed worse, coming to a halt 121 miles short of its claimed range.
Context is important here. The Model 3’s 274 miles of arctic driving still put it in a fairly respectable eighth place using that particular metric, despite falling well short of expectations. I’ll come back to this, and why the Tesla still did rather badly, later.
The winner was the HiPhi Z. It covered 324 miles and fell short of its WLTP target by just 21 miles, despite snow underfoot and temperatures as low as -11° Celsius (12.2° Fahrenheit).
“The Hi-what … ?” you might well be asking. The Z is a new high-end electric car from HiPhi, yet another Chinese startup poised to give Elon Musk and much of Germany sleepless nights. HiPhi is a car brand from Shanghai-based technology startup Human Horizons, which itself was only founded in 2017.
The first HiPhi car, called the X, arrived in 2021, with the Z following in 2023. It’s available in China, of course, but also in Europe, where the tech-laden newcomer is setting its sights on taking on the Porsche Taycan. We drove the HiPhi Z in 2023 and praised its handling, performance, and general level of technology but criticized its design, lack of 800-volt charging, and cabin space.
Most PopularGearPS5 vs PS5 Slim: What’s the Difference, and Which One Should You Get?By Eric RavenscraftGear13 Great Couches You Can Order OnlineBy Louryn StrampeGearThe Best Radios to Catch Your Favorite AirwavesBy Nena Farrell GearThe Best Robot Vacuums to Keep Your Home CleanBy Adrienne So
There were a good few other poor results for car brands independently tested at the winter El Prix 2024. Let's look at the losses in terms of percentage. This way, we can see more clearly how a car has fallen short of its WLTP range and not be distracted by the EVs with the biggest batteries going farthest.
It’s also worth remembering that every car in the Norwegian Automobile Association test had its cabin set to 21°C (69.8°F). What’s more, to ensure fairness, the temperature was set using a thermometer, not the vehicle’s own climate control system, since two cars may have differing ideas of what 21°C actually is.
The HiPhi Z fell short of its WLTP range by just 5.9 percent, making it the winner by this metric, too. The Tesla Model 3, meanwhile, missed its advertised range by just shy of 30 percent, putting it in 19th place.
Polestar, VW, and Volvo Were Surprise Losers
Interestingly, the four cars that performed even worse than Tesla were the Polestar 2 Long Range (30 percent, a 115-mile deficit on the WLTP figure), Volvo C40 (30.9 percent, 110 miles), Toyota bZ4X (31.8 percent, 91 miles), and the Volkswagen ID.7 (31.9 percent, 121 miles). Put simply, the range of these cars fell by almost a third compared to their WLTP-backed manufacturer claim.
The WLTP stands for Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure. Brought in as a global standard in 2017, it is intended to mimic how cars are driven in the real world. The test cycle includes four parts, each with a different average speed, and all featuring a variety of acceleration and braking phases, plus stops and starts.
The El Prix winter range test also scrutinizes energy efficiency, in this case using the European metric of kWh per 100 km (62 miles). The highest efficiency was achieved by the MG4 Trophy Long Range (17.9 kWH per 100 km), but because this test focuses on how cars perform compared to their manufacturer claims, the winner is the Nio EL6, which hit 20 kWh per 100 km—a 9.5 percent improvement on the manufacturer claim. Although undeniably efficient, the MG fell 8.5 percent short of its maker’s range claim.
The Model 3 returned 18 kWh per 100km, but since Tesla doesn’t publish a claimed efficiency, this is tricky to contextualize. The HiPhi Z recorded energy consumption of 23.5 kWh per 100km, 15.2 percent higher than claimed.
Drawing conclusions from this test is, to say the least, a nuanced process. How much range an EV loses in cold weather is of little value to drivers in consistently warmer climes, and a car with a bigger battery (like the HiPhi Z and its massive 120 kWh pack) is almost always at an advantage. Similarly, a car that doesn’t go as far but charges more quickly is also beneficial, providing the local charge network is up to the job.
But the positive and negative outliers are still worthy of your attention. The Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.7, and Volvo C40 all missed their WLTP range claims by more than 100 miles, and the Hyundai Ioniq 6—a car praised for its impressive 800-volt system architecture and a a drag coefficient of just 0.21—also struggled, with a 91-mile deficit. Whichever way you slice it, a car falling 100 miles short of its claimed range is far from ideal and, as this test shows, not a universal phenomenon.
Estimated Range Winners: HiPhi, BMW, Kia, and Lotus
At the other end of the scale, praise should be given not only to the HiPhi Z (its real-world range just 21 miles short of WLTP), but also the BMW i5 (38 miles short, or a 12.2 percent deviation), Kia EV9 (39 miles, or 12.5 percent), Lotus Eletre (40 miles, or 12.3 percent), and fellow Chinese newcomer the XPeng G9 (42 miles, or 13.1 percent).
The next step is to surely question whether tests like the WLTP—plus the generally stricter Environmental Protection Agency in North America and rather more generous China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle in China—are up to the job. Nils Sødal from the Norwegian Automobile Association told WIRED, “The test results show us that we need a winter WLTP for EVs. We have suggested an official WLTP in -7°C [19.4°F]. Unfortunately, the EU is not following this up in the negotiations on Euro 7.” Euro 7 is a collection of regulations that set a new emissions standard for new cars and vehicles sold in Europe.
Most PopularGearPS5 vs PS5 Slim: What’s the Difference, and Which One Should You Get?By Eric RavenscraftGear13 Great Couches You Can Order OnlineBy Louryn StrampeGearThe Best Radios to Catch Your Favorite AirwavesBy Nena Farrell GearThe Best Robot Vacuums to Keep Your Home CleanBy Adrienne So
The Tesla Model 3’s performance, or lack of, is also startling, especially given how well the brand has performed in previous winter range tests. Sødal said the NAA was “really surprised” by the loss of range, adding, “We know that Tesla will go over the car that was in the test and see if there is anything wrong with it. In the other tests we have done Tesla cars have performed well with long range and low consumption.”
Last year’s winning Tesla Model S drove for 329 miles, falling 65 miles, or 16.4 percent, short of its WLTP range. Even if a fault is found with the particular Model 3 tested by the Norwegian Automobile Association this year, the broader picture is one of a market where some EVs suffer far more in freezing weather than others.
An unknown startup like HiPhi topping the charts for both outright range and minimal deviation from claimed range is as impressive as it is disappointing to see Polestar, Volvo, and Volkswagen languishing at the foot of the table.
HiPhi said its car’s cold-weather stamina can be attributed to a thermal management system developed in-house by Human Horizons, owner of the HiPhi brand. This, the Chinese auto startup says, “combines an efficient heat pump AC HVAC system with an intelligent E-Powertrain thermal management system.” It's this integration, HiPhi claims, that allows its car to outperform competitors.
Thermal management is key to EV efficiency. We’ve already seen how makers of electric performance cars such as Rimac and Porsche strive to keep battery and motor temperatures down in a bid to always deliver breakneck acceleration. But it’s clear that many manufacturers—and especially Tesla, from the results of this particular arctic marathon—still have much to learn about both performing in extreme cold and, crucially, reliably hitting claimed ranges.
Until the likes of Tesla, Polestar, Volvo, and Volkswagen have worked out how to make their EVs as thermally efficient as HiPhi, for many drivers range anxiety could still be just a cold snap away.
