- Volunteers drove 41 different EVs on the same 621-mile course in freezing Finland.
- It took most of them less than 14 hours to make the trip, including charging stops.
- That's on par or faster than combustion cars.
Range anxiety and charging anxiety are two of the biggest pain points for electric vehicle owners, especially those who bought a battery-powered car for the first time. This, coupled with the inescapable truth that EVs lose some range in the winter compared to when it’s nice and warm outside, can seriously affect the ownership experience.
That said, things are improving fast, and there are multiple EVs on the market today that can easily replace one’s combustion-powered car as the go-to daily driver. And with the continued expansion and improvement of the DC fast charging infrastructure, electric road trips are now easier than ever before. (Let’s just hope infrastructure investments will continue to make things even better.)
So, provided there is adequate DC fast charging infrastructure, what cars are better suited to long trips in the winter? According to an independent real-world test from Finland, dubbed the Finlandwide Light Vehicles Testing Procedure, quite a few.
In total, 41 different electric car models were driven on the same 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) route with temperatures ranging from 33.8 to 24.8 degrees degrees Fahrenheit (between 1 and -4 degrees Celsius). The test aimed to see how much time it would take and whether driving an EV would be worse than driving a combustion car on the same route.
I’ll get the biggest piece of information out of the way first: most of the EVs fared better than a gas- or diesel-powered car.
According to a Gallup poll, most combustion car drivers in Finland said a 621-mile trip would take between 14 and 15 hours. Except for four cars on the list, all the EVs in the test completed the trip in less than 15 hours. What’s more, 15 EVs managed to finish the drive in under 13 hours. The average time was a smidge under 13 hours and 33 minutes.
The table below shows all the data recorded during the trip. Bear in mind that the test was performed by volunteers and that the total number of cars involved was 46, but some models are overlapping, which is why the model count is 41. The columns include the driving time, charging time, the total trip time and the average energy efficiency including charging losses.
The overall winner was a 2021 Tesla Model S Long Range, which had an energy efficiency of 2.91 miles/kilowatt-hour (21.3 kWh/100 km). It had a total trip time of 12 hours and 15 minutes, with 1 hour and 6 minutes spent charging for the whole trip. It was closely followed by a 2025 Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor, which completed the trip in 12 hours and 19 minutes–with exactly 1 hour for charging and an efficiency of 3.06 mi/kWh.
At the other end of the list is a 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter, which needed 15 hours and 35 minutes to travel 621 miles.
The car that needed the most time to charge was a 2013 Tesla Model S 85, which spent nearly three and a half hours charging. Meanwhile, the fastest-charging cars were a 2021 Audi e-tron GT and a 2025 Xpeng G6 AWD, both needing 52 minutes to charge for the whole trip.
FLTP 1,000-kilometer test results (scroll down to see more data)
| Model | Total time | Driving time | Charging time | Charging stops | Energy efficiency (mi/kWh - kWh/100 km) |
| Tesla Model S Long Range (2021) | 12:15:00 | 11:09:00 | 01:06:00 | 3 | 2.91 (21.3) |
| Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor (2025) | 12:19:00 | 11:19:00 | 01:00:00 | 3 | 3.06 (20.3) |
| Nio ET7 Long Range (2022) | 12:20:00 | 11:06:00 | 01:14:00 | 4 | 2.39 (25.9) |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 AWD (2023) | 12:22:00 | 11:17:00 | 01:05:00 | 3 |
3.13 (19.8) |
| Kia EV3 81 kWh (2024) | 12:22:00 | 11:04:00 | 01:18:00 | 3 | 2.94 (21.1) |
| Audi e-tron GT Quattro (2021) | 12:31:00 | 11:39:00 | 00:52:00 | 3 | 2.59 (23.9) |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 AWD (2023) | 12:31:00 | 11:29:00 | 01:02:00 | 3 | 3.15 (19.7) |
| Kia EV6 RWD 77 kWh (2021) | 12:37:00 | 11:09:00 | 01:28:00 | 4 | 2.62 (23.7) |
| Xpeng G6 AWD Performance (2024) | 12:40:00 | 11:48:00 | 00:52:00 | 3 | 3.01 (20.6) |
| Kia EV6 GT-Line (2025) | 12:40:00 | 11:31:00 | 01:09:00 | 3 | 2.97 (20.9) |
| Kia EV6 GT (2022) | 12:44:00 | 11:61:00 | 01:28:00 | 5 | 2.42 (25.6) |
| Tesla Model 3 Standard Range+ Highland (2023) | 12:44:00 | 11:14:00 | 01:30:00 | 4 | 3.23 (19.2) |
| Tesla Model 3 Performance (2021) | 12:46:00 | 11:24:00 | 01:22:00 | 6 | 2.74 (22.6) |
| Kia EV9 GT-Line AWD (2023) | 12:47:00 | 11:37:00 | 01:10:00 | 3 | 2.38 (26) |
| Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer (2024) | 12:55:00 | 11:30:00 | 01:25:00 | 3 | 2.77 (22.4) |
| Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer GTX (2024) | 13:10:00 | 10:59:00 | 02:11:00 | 4 | 2.49 (24.9) |
| Volkswagen ID.7 GTX (2024) | 13:11:00 | 11:53:00 | 01:18:00 | 4 | 2.82 (22) |
| Ford Explorer RWD Extended Range (2024) | 13:15:00 | 11:42:00 | 01:33:00 | 4 | 2.85 (21.8) |
| Polestar 3 Long Range Dual Motor (2024) | 13:16:00 | 11:30:00 | 01:46:00 | 3 | 2.3 (26.9) |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range (2022) | 13:17:00 | 11:38:00 | 01:39:00 | 4 | 3.25 (19.1) |
| Audi e-tron 50 Quattro (2019) | 13:20:00 | 11:07:00 | 02:13:00 | 6 | 2.28 (27.2) |
| Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo (2021) | 13:24:00 | 11:33:00 | 01:51:00 | 5 | 2.1 (29.5) |
| MG4 Luxury 64 kWh (2022) | 13:28:00 | 11:45:00 | 01:43:00 | 4 | 3.1 (20) |
| Volkswagen ID.7 GTX (2024) | 13:29:00 | 11:53:00 | 01:36:00 | 3 | 2.57 (24.1) |
| Tesla Model Y Performance (2022) | 13:30:00 | 11:30:00 | 02:00:00 | 4 | 2.53 (24.5) |
| BMW i4 M50 (2021) | 13:35:00 | 11:56:00 | 01:39:00 | 4 | 2.83 (21.9) |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD 77 kWh (2021) | 13:42:00 | 11:54:00 | 01:48:00 | 5 | 2.68 (23.1) |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range (2019) | 13:43:00 | 12:01:00 | 01:42:00 | 4 |
2.7 (23) |
| Tesla Model 3 Performance (2019) | 13:43:00 | 11:48:00 | 01:55:00 | 5 | 2.34 (26.5) |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range (2022) | 13:46:00 | 12:10:00 | 01:36:00 | 4 | 3.13 (19.8) |
| Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor (2021) | 13:53:00 | 11:29:00 | 02:24:00 | 5 | 2.79 (22.2) |
| Tesla Model Y Performance (2022) with a roof box | 13:58:00 | 12:11:00 | 01:47:00 | 5 | 2.66 (23.3) |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range (2023) | 13:59:00 | 12:01:00 | 01:58:00 | 4 | 2.97 (20.9) |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range (2022) | 14:00:00 | 11:40:00 | 02:20:00 | 4 | 2.82 (22) |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range (2022) | 14:01:00 | 11:59:00 | 02:20:00 | 4 | 2.68 (23.1) |
| Volvo EX30 Twin Motor (2023) | 14:01:00 | 11:41:00 | 02:20:00 | 6 | 2.74 (22.6) |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range | 14:09:00 | 12:04:00 | 02:05:00 | 4 | 3.01 (20.6) |
| Mercedes-Benz EQE 300 (2024) | 14:19:00 | 12:30:00 | 01:49:00 | 4 | 2.71 (22.9) |
| Kia e-Niro 64 kWh (2020) | 14:32:00 | 11:42:00 | 02:50:00 | 4 | 3.21 (19.3) |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range AWD (2021) | 14:46:00 | 11:40:00 | 03:06:00 | 4 | 2.31 (26.8) |
| Volkswagen ID.3 Pure Performance (2021) | 14:47:00 | 11:53:00 | 02:54:00 | 6 | 3.13 (19.8) |
| Volkswagen ID.5 Pro (2022) | 14:55:00 | 12:00:00 | 02:55:00 | 4 |
2.78 (22.3) |
| Volkswagen ID.3 Pro 58 kW (2020) | 15:15:00 | 11:47:00 | 03:28:00 | 7 | 2.9 (21.4) |
| Tesla Model S 85 (2013) | 15:16:00 | 11:47:00 | 03:29:00 | 7 | 2.52 (24.6) |
| Volkswagen ID.Buzz (2022) | 15:18:00 | 12:22:00 | 02:56:00 | 5 | 2.24 (27.7) |
| Mercedes-Benz eSprinter (2024) | 15:35:00 | 12:56:00 | 02:39:00 | 3 | 1.77 (35.1) |
Some cars have charging times of over two hours, but on a trip this long, it would be downright dangerous to drive the whole distance without taking a break, no matter what car is involved. For reference, Google Maps says the drive from Helsinki, Finland's capital, to Lapland takes around 12 and a half hours. That's a very long time to drive without stopping.
At the end of the day, a more important metric is how much time the whole trip takes–including charging stops. Doing a 600-mile trip in 12 hours is quite different from doing it in 16 hours and can mean the difference between getting to your destination the same day or having to stop for the night for some well-needed rest. Besides spending more time, the latter also means you’ll be spending more money.
In the case of the top performers on the list above, they needed three stops of around 20 to 40 minutes each—perfect for resting, drinking a coffee and eating a snack. Not bad at all.
Other interesting stats from the test
| Average time (driving + charging) | 13:32:44 |
| Average driving time | 11:41:09 |
| Average charging time | 1:51:35 |
| Number of vehicles | 46 |
| Number of models | 41 |
| Average charging stops | 4.2 |
| Average time of each charging stop | 0:26:44 |
| Average charging power | 90.1 kW |
| Average efficiency (including charging losses) | 2.68 (23.1) |
