A Polestar 3 electric crossover driven by a team of professional “efficiency drivers” has claimed a Guinness World Record for longest EV trip without recharging.
The unmodified Polestar 3 Long Range Single-Motor, riding on 20-inch Michelin Sport 4 EV tires, managed 581 miles on its 111-kWh battery (107 kWh usable)– an impressive efficiency of 19.5 kWh per 100 miles.
But the route, which meandered through the U.K. in a mixture of wet and dry weather conditions, took 22 hours and 57 minutes with a change of drivers – there were three on the team – every three hours. That’s an average of 25 mph for a drive that covered almost half again the distance between London and Edinburgh.
Today’s production EVs average (in the U.S.) 2.89 miles per kWH, and the single-motor Polestar 3 with 20-inch wheels and tires gets an EPA efficiency rating of 2.77 miles per kWh. The record-setting team’s s 5.12 kWh per hour is a pretty impressive achievement…If you want to spend your day with the speedometer pegged 25.
While a range record like that don’t mean much in terms of real-world driving in everyday conditions, it does show that modern EV batteries can go the distance. The Polestar 3 Long Range Single-Motor is rated under the European test protocol at 483 miles of range and in the U.S,, which uses a tougher rating system that incorporates much more high-speed driving, at 350 miles.