Here's What Arctic Car Testing Is Really Like

When we bring you a winter testing-related news story, it’s usually that a development mule has been spotting doing skids on a frozen lake. Now it’s time we actually showed you a bit of what really goes on when cold-weather-stressing a new model.

Seat has released a video showing some of the tests the new Ateca SUV was put through on the road to production. For starters there’s an 18,600-mile (30,000km) drive in temperatures as low as -35 degrees Celsius, with no more than refuelling stops and driver changes.

Then there’s a series of braking and stability challenges with the wheels spread across surfaces with different levels of grip, a 30-mile tailgating challenge to see whether the air intake blocks with ice, and, of course, some drifting. Why wouldn’t you?

Every year, Seat sends around 150 engineers to a testing facility close to the Arctic Circle to test new models. Gonzalo Giminez Lardies, the engineer in charge of brakes and stability control at Seat, said:

“The behaviour of the car must be guaranteed in cold temperatures. That means all systems are working properly in all weather conditions, including snowy and icy surfaces.

“All this testing is more necessary than ever due to the integration of increasingly complex electronic systems.”