67 electric cars take a brutal Chinese winter range test, check out the scores

When the temperature drops to -25 degrees Celsius (-13 degrees Fahrenheit), most people want to stay inside with a hot drink. But the team at Autohome, a major Chinese car website, headed straight into the freeze. They traveled to Yakeshi in Inner Mongolia to see how modern electric cars handle extreme cold. This massive event featured 67 different vehicles and even earned a Guinness World Record for being the largest winter car test ever conducted.

Winter is usually the enemy of electric cars. Cold weather slows down the chemical reactions inside batteries, which means they hold less energy and take longer to charge. To see which brands have solved these problems, testers put the cars through seven tough challenges. These included driving until the battery died, checking how fast they could charge, and seeing how quickly the heaters could warm up the cabin. The group of cars was diverse, ranging from tiny hatchbacks costing RMB 60,000 ($8,300) to luxury machines worth over 2 million RMB ($275,000).

The most important test for many buyers is the driving range. In this category, the XPeng P7 (AWD) took the top spot. It managed to travel 53.9% of its officially claimed distance despite the freezing air. The Yangwang U7 from BYD came in second at 51.8%, and the Zeekr 001 took third place at 49.6%. Not every famous brand did well, though. The Tesla Model Y (AWD) finished in 31st place, only reaching 35.2% of its promised range. The Li Auto L8 struggled the most among the fully electric group, finishing with a 34.8% score.

Efficiency is another big deal for electric cars. This test measured how many kilowatt-hours of electricity a car used to travel 62 miles. Unsurprisingly, small, light cars performed the best here. The BYD Seagull won by using 23.5 kWh per 100 km. The Geely Xingyuan followed very closely in second place, and the BYD Seal 06 took third. When we look at the larger SUVs, the new Xiaomi YU7 used 33.7 kWh, which was slightly better than its main rival, the Tesla Model Y, which used 34.9 kWh.

Charging your car in a blizzard is never fun, so speed matters. The testers timed how long it took to charge from 30% to 80% power. The Avatr 07 surprised everyone by finishing in just 15 minutes. Other quick chargers included the Nevo 06 and the Fulwin A9L. On the other hand, the Xiaomi YU7 took 31 minutes to reach that same 80% mark, and the Tesla Model Y took 35 minutes. It is clear that some of the newer Chinese brands are focusing heavily on making their batteries charge faster in the cold.

The Xiaomi SU7 sedan was missing from the event, but its SUV sibling, the YU7, gave us a good look at what the brand can do. Overall, the test showed that EVs have come a long way, but the cold still cuts their performance a lot. Even the winners lost nearly half of their range in the Inner Mongolian frost. For drivers in cold climates, these results serve as a helpful guide for picking a vehicle that won't leave them stranded when the snow starts to fall.

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Source (Chinese)