Seriously, read this article very, very closely. This is incredibly absurd. Reminds me of that television commercial extolling an EV 18-wheeler -- going downhill -- LOL. The Brits set the record doing it their way and Guinness accepted it. LOL.
A bog-standard Polestar 3 crossover just set a new world record for the longest journey travelled by an electric SUV on a single charge.
The EV, fitted with the Long Range battery and a single rear motor, went a whopping 581.3 miles before needing to be recharged. That’s a lot more than the Polestar 3’s official EPA range rating of 350 miles. LOL.
The record-setting trip was done on public roads in the United Kingdom, taking 22 hours and 57 minutes to complete. 350 miles / 23 hours / three blokes.
That’s a very long time, which is why the team had three drivers who took turns driving the electric crossover. Exactly how I plan my trips when driving cross-country across the US.
It’s rather impressive, but doing some quick maths reveals that the average speed during the record run was 25.3 mph.
The team left at 2 a.m. to take advantage of clear roads in the morning, sticking to the flat roads of the Norfolk area. At the end of the very long trip, the car had an average energy efficiency of 5.1 miles/kilowatt-hour (19.5 kWh/100 miles).
The record was made official by Guinness World Records’ own judge, Paulina Sapinska, while UK-based fleet management company Webfleet was responsible for gathering independently verified video footage, odometer readings, GPS readings and battery state of charge data. The car was not modified in any way and used standard 20-inch wheels fitted with standard Michelin Sport 4 EV tires.
The Polestar 3 is assembled in Ridgeville, South Carolina, as well as in Chengdu, China. In Long Range Single Motor guise, the BMW iX rival is powered by a rear-mounted electric motor that makes 299 horsepower and 361 pound-feet of torque. The battery, supplied by China’s CATL, has a usable energy content of 107 kWh and can be fast-charged at up to 250 kW, making for a 10% to 80% top-up in 30 minutes.
At the end of the day, this was simply a publicity stunt.
