New Canadian Winter Tests Show How Much EVs Lose Range
Earlier this month, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) hosted a special EV drive event with a number of staff members and auto journalists—including The Car Guide’s Julien Amado—testing 13 different electric vehicles until their batteries ran out of power in order to find out which ones perform best in the cold.
The list featured many of the most popular electric cars, SUVs and pickups among Canadian shoppers.
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For consistency and fairness, all the vehicles were driven at a similar pace, with no hard acceleration, and no faster than 5 km/h above the posted speed limits. In every one of them, cabin temperature was set to 21 degrees Celsius, the heated seats and heated steering wheel were turned off and the HVAC system’s fan ran at half speed.
The convoy departed from a heated parking garage in Ottawa and headed to Hawkesbury, then to Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci and finally Mont-Tremblant—a trip of approximately 330 km. The weather was fair, but temperatures dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius in the mountains of Quebec.
Some of the vehicles failed to go the entire distance, as you’ll see in the results posted below. Models are ranked in order, from the biggest range loss to the smallest.
13. Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Motor
Official range (ideal conditions): 409 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 248 km
Range loss: 39%
12. Toyota bZ4X LE FWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 406 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 255 km
Range loss: 37%
11. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Preferred AWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 410 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 262 km
Range loss: 36%
10. Kia Niro EV Wave
Official range (ideal conditions): 407 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 285 km
Range loss: 30%
9. Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat Extended Range
Official range (ideal conditions): 515 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 296 km*
Range loss: 35%
*Actual distance travelled. Adjustments were made using calculations since the truck started with an 89-percent battery charge.
8. Honda Prologue Touring
Official range (ideal conditions): 439 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 334 km
Range loss: 24%
7. Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium Extended Range AWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 483 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 334 km
Range loss: 31%
6. Chevrolet Equinox EV RS FWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 513 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 337 km
Range loss: 34%
5. Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S AWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 423 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 338 km
Range loss: 20%
4. Kia EV9 Land AWD GT-Line
Official range (ideal conditions): 435 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 350 km
Range loss: 20%
3. Polestar 2 Dual Motor AWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 444 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 384 km
Range loss: 14%
2. Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD
Official range (ideal conditions): 584 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 410 km
Range loss: 29%
1. Chevrolet Silverado EV 4WT
Official range (ideal conditions): 724 km
Real-world range (winter conditions): 456 km*
Range loss: 14%
*Actual distance travelled. Adjustments were made using calculations since the truck started with a 73-percent battery charge.
