The Chinese car HiPhi Z won the El Prix in Norway, held by the Norwegian Automobile Association to test Electric Vehicles’ ability to drive in cold weather.
The biannual El Prix is claimed to be the world’s biggest EV range test and is conducted every summer and winter. Since 2020, Elon Musk’s Tesla has won the competition, but this year the Chinese startup HiPhi claimed the title as winner.
The victory of the relatively unknown brand was a surprise to the Norwegian Automobile Association, according to representative Nils Sødal. He adds that Tesla will go over their car and see if it is a faulty car, as other Tesla cars have performed better in previous tests.
The El Prix measures both the car’s outright range and the so-called WLTP range, which is a more complicated mathematical formula to calculate the car’s range. The Chinese HIPHi Z drove 324 the impressive distance of miles and only fell short of its WLTP target by 21 miles. The temperature at the time was minus 11 degrees Celsius at its lowest.
A cold weather test is important to electric car clients that live in cold climates, as electric cars struggle with the cold and affect the cars driving range. This is due to a chemical occurrence in lithium-ion batteries that is triggered by the cold. The same phenomenon affects computer and phone batteries in cold weather and makes them lose power more quickly.
Source: wired.com
