Polestar Sets Production Car Record For Longest Drive On a Single Charge (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0178667080
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/13/2011212/polestar-sets-production-car-record-for-longest-drive-on-a-single-charge
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/polestar-sets-production-car-record-for-longest-drive-on-a-single-charge/
> [O]ver in the UK, a single-motor version of the Polestar 3 just set a world record for the [1]farthest drive in an electric car on a single charge . Three "professional efficiency drivers," Sam Clarke, Kevin Booker, and Richard Parker, drove 581.3 miles (935.4 km), taking 22 hours and 57 minutes to complete the task. That's an efficiency of 5.1 miles/kWh (12.1 kWh/100 km) -- more than 40 percent better than I saw in day-to-day driving in the twin-motor version.
>
> "We are very proud to say we have a world record holder in the Polestar family! This official Guinness World Record for range is another proof point that Polestar 3 is setting new standards. We will continue to push the boundaries of technology and electric performance," said Michael Lohscheller, Polestar CEO.
The report notes that the Polestar 3 was "entirely standard, on stock tires," and averaged a speed of less than 25 mph (40 km/h).
[1] https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/polestar-sets-production-car-record-for-longest-drive-on-a-single-charge/
Re:Ummm, the Chevy Silverado EV... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, at this point this is all just marketing schlock, but i guess they had the Guiness Book of World Records involved.
the 2nd half of TFA kinda calls it out, in fact:
> Wait, are you sure that’s a record?
> Booker, Clarke, and Parker drove an impressive distance on a single charge, but "longest EV drive on a single charge" is a slightly more nebulous thing. In this case, the Polestar 3 was entirely standard, on stock tires. But if you're prepared to start tweaking stuff around, longer drives are possible.
> Last week, Chevrolet revealed that it took one of its Silverado WT trucks—with a gargantuan 205 kWh battery—and then fitted it with worn-down, massively over-inflated tires and drove it around the Detroit area for 1,059 miles (1,704 km). That required a team of 40 drivers, and like the Polestar 3, the average speed was below 25 mph (40 km/h).
> Squeezing 4.9 miles/kWh (12.7 kWh/100 km) out of something the size and shape of a full-size pickup is probably more impressive than getting slightly more out of an SUV, but we should note that the Silverado drivers kept the air conditioning turned off until the final 59 miles.
> And in July, Lucid announced that it, too, had set a new world record for the longest drive on a single charge. In its case, it took a Lucid Air Grand Touring from St. Moritz in Switzerland to Munich in Germany, covering 749 miles (1,205 km) on a single charge. That's significantly farther than the Polestar, and the Lucid drivers achieved more than 6 miles/kWh (10.4 kWh/100 km), but the route also involved going mostly downhill.
25MPH (Score:3)
It's easy to get great efficiency when you're traveling at 25MPH, where drag is a minimal contributor. Most modern EVs can manage close to 5 mi/kWh at those speeds. Range is then just a question of battery capacity, so is the improvement in energy density, or just packing more batteries into the vehicle?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's a fundamental problem of EV vs ICE. ICE engine power band is very narrow in relation to engine RPM, i.e. you only get the power out at very narrow range of RPM, and operating outside of it is very inefficient. This leads to ICEs needing to operate on gearboxes that reduce engine RPM to wheel RPM quite a bit, and that shift the engine to wheel ratio to stay in the power band as long as possible. This results for most ICEs having in optimal engine to wheel RPM (where engine is operating in the most effic
"Averaged a speed of less than 25 mph (40 km/h)." (Score:3)
Sorry.... This is a useless metric.
Re: (Score:2)
Still pretty fast compared with traffic in and around Seattle.
Re: fast compared with traffic in and around Seatt (Score:2)
Absolutely and sadly true.
But the fact of that and the actual dynamics of that traffic prove that their claimed efficiency metric ids bogus.
While the traffic through areas places like seattle might average around 25mph the reality is that it is also a constant acceleration/deceleration battery eating tango.
The Poledancer record is just a vanity award.
dupe (Score:1)
I would link to the original but I don't work without a paycheck.
Impressive (Score:3)
I expected to call this a stunt but the two things I suspected turned out to not be true:
1. Its not so hilariously slow that its pointless. 25 Mph is slow don't get me wrong, but its not "we're not really moving" slow. That's around the speed in many metro areas.
2. I also suspected that this might be some hilariously stripped down glorified golf cart, but no it appears to be a "real" car of normal size.
Increased range will be nice for adoption of EV's. I suspect charging speed is a bigger hurdle, but I'm sure they're working on that too.
BFD (Score:2)
" like the Polestar 3, the average speed was below 25 mph (40 km/h)"
Call me NOT impressed.
How far will it go driving at NORMAL speeds? Like 35/45/55/65 MPH? below 25 MPH is a JOKE!
NONE of these tests are real world tests for driving/distance.
Come back to me when you drive 500+ miles at those speeds.
More than traffic at rush hour in LA... (Score:2)
In LA at rush hour average speed is below 20mph
In may other metros it is probably the same...
Hold on a minute... (Score:1)
How did Polecat come up with the longest drive at 581.3 miles when a Chevy Silverado EV traveled 1,059.2 miles without recharging its battery?
Right here on /. [1]https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
[2]https://www.theverge.com/news/... [theverge.com]
Did I miss something?
As for using imperial units - relax you overly sensitive clod... I'm just using the same units to make the comparison easier. I could have just as easily done it in furlongs, rods, or chains.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/09/0517212/chevy-silverado-ev-drives-10592-miles-on-a-single-charge-surpassing-world-record
[2] https://www.theverge.com/news/718442/chevy-silverado-ev-longest-drive-single-charge-record
Neat I guess (Score:3)
...but charging speed improvements would minimize the importance of this metric. I don't care if I can only go 200miles on a single charge if it takes less than 3-5 minutes to recharge it.
Best way to spec efficiency? (Score:3)
> That's an efficiency of 5.1 miles/kWh (12.1 kWh/100 km)
This appears to be a repeat of the mess the metric system made of petrol consumption. The imperial mpg made sense in how it presents the data but for metric instead of going with km per liter they went with liters per 100km which annoyed me as I never drive 100km.
The figures here are history repeating. The imperial mile/kWh make sense if you are in the USA, but it is annoying to see kWh/100 km. I have seen Wh/km and that seemed reasonable and is what I use in my calculations.
Being a lead foot in a performance car I get thru about 200Wh/km. I hear people who care about such things use about 150Wh/km. By that metric Polestar used 121Wh/km. It will interesting to see the final figures for the Aptera.
For those in the USA it looks like you have a valid way to spec BEV efficiency but for the rest of the world is this not a chance to get rid of that stupid 100km part and just have km/kWh or Wh/km?
"Professional Efficiency Driver" (Score:2)
Sounds like one of those made-up job titles you see in those "what do you think" bits on theonion.com .
Re: (Score:2)
> Sounds like one of those made-up job titles you see in those "what do you think" bits on theonion.com .
Like Department of Government Efficiency, that probably ends up costing more, in funds and actual efficiency, than it "saves".
Re: (Score:1)
>> Sounds like one of those made-up job titles you see in those "what do you think" bits on theonion.com .
> Like Department of Government Efficiency, that probably ends up costing more, in funds and actual efficiency, than it "saves".
Or it could be like the Department of Government Efficiency which has saved the United States $202 billion thus far. [1]https://doge.gov/savings [doge.gov]
[1] https://doge.gov/savings
Re: (Score:2)
Most people realize DOGE's claims have never had much relationship to actual reality. At this point, we've all seen many reports over the past several months where DOGE's fantasy math repeatedly gets thoroughly dismantled.
Most recently: as of August 12, DOGE's actual savings appeared to be just 5% of what they claimed -
[1]https://www.politico.com/news/... [politico.com]
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-doge-contract-claims-savings-inflation-00498178