Norway's automobile federation NAF and Motor magazine have published the results of the summer 2026 El Prix, the world's largest independent real-range test — and for the first time in years, no Tesla was on the start line. Twenty-four electric cars left Oslo on 3 June and were driven until their batteries gave out, in close to ideal conditions: dry roads, 12–18°C, and a mixed route climbing to 929 metres.
BMW iX3 goes furthest
The new BMW iX3 50 xDrive won outright, covering 781 km on a single charge — 11 km beyond its 770 km WLTP rating. The Lucid Gravity followed at 720 km, with the Mercedes-Benz CLA third at 675 km. At the other end of the size spectrum, the Kia EV2 squeezed 325 km from its 42.2 kWh pack at a test-best consumption of 12.4 kWh/100 km, according to Hybrid.cz.
| Car | WLTP | Tested | Deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW iX3 50 xDrive | 770 km | 781 km | +1.4% |
| Lucid Gravity | 748 km | 720 km | −3.7% |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA | 708 km | 675 km | −4.7% |
| Xpeng X9 | 580 km | 646 km | +11.4% |
| Polestar 3 | 625 km | 601 km | −3.8% |
| Toyota bZ4X | 506 km | 506 km | 0% |
| MG IM6 | 505 km | 446 km | −11.7% |
| Hyundai Inster | 360 km | 373 km | +3.6% |
| Kia EV2 | 308 km | 325 km | +5.5% |
The honesty index
El Prix is less about absolute distance than about how truthful the window-sticker number is. The Xpeng X9 was the surprise of the test, beating its WLTP figure by 11.4% — the largest positive deviation of the summer field. The MG IM6 sat at the opposite pole, falling 11.7% short of its claimed 505 km. The Toyota bZ4X matched its official 506 km exactly, and most of the 24-car field landed within about ±5% of WLTP — in summer conditions, the official numbers are broadly honest.
Where was Tesla?
Tesla entered no car this year, and neither did Volkswagen, while Toyota returned after sitting out recent editions, as MojElektromobil.sk notes. That makes this the rare large-scale European range benchmark without a Model Y or Model 3 datapoint. The freshest independent figure for Tesla remains Edmunds' US loop, where the Model 3 RWD beat its rating and topped the efficiency chart earlier this month — useful context, though Edmunds' methodology is not directly comparable to NAF's drive-to-empty format.
What it means for European buyers
Summer figures are the best case a car will ever post; NAF's winter editions routinely show real-world losses of 20–30%, so the gap between rivals matters more than the headline number. Two practical takeaways: the Chinese newcomers are no longer a uniform bloc — Xpeng under-promised while MG over-promised — and with the iX3 setting the summer benchmark at 781 km, that is the number to beat in the class many European buyers cross-shop against a Model Y — and the one Tesla will have to answer when it next enters the El Prix.