Toronto, Ontario – In this weekly electric and autonomous vehicle report, Polestar’s Model 3 vehicle comes in first in this year’s El Prix winter driving test; while the United States finalizes a rule to ban Chinese technology in American vehicles.
Winter winnings
Polestar’s Model 3 has officially won this year’s El Prix winter range test, which evaluates how far an electric vehicle model can travel in freezing temperatures before running out of charge.
Organized by the Norwegian car magazine Motor and the Norwegian Automobile Federation, the testing took place on January 15, 2025, on a course that led registered cars from Oslo to Dombås.
This year’s test was conducted in temperatures between minus six and seven degrees Celsius. In total, 24 new EVs were charged to their full capacity and then driven on the pre-determined route to see how far they could go when compared to their manufacturer-predicted charge limits.
The winner, Polestar’s Model 3 had an initial range of 348 miles (560 kilometers) and reportedly drove 330 miles (531 kilometers) in the cold before it was no longer able to move.
Following this, the BYD Tang, a Chinese-made SUV came in second, with a starting range of 329 miles (529 kilometers) and driving 300 miles (428 kilometers) before dying.
Comparatively, in last place came the Tesla Model 3 with a 24 percent difference between its advertised range and real-world results.
For more information, or to see other results from this year’s test, click here.
Border bans
Last Tuesday, the United States government finalized a rule that bans Chinese technology from entering cars in the American market.
In an official statement, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo commented that cars are no longer just tools for travel, but rather, computers on wheels.
As a result, this new ruling currently applies to passenger vehicles under 10,001 pounds.
Notably, under the latest rule, even if a passenger car was originally U.S.-made, manufacturers with a ‘sufficient nexus’ to China or Russia will not be permitted to sell new vehicles incorporating the hardware or software for external connectivity and autonomous driving.
This specific sales prohibition will take effect starting in 2027.
