J
jbcarioca
Guest
People who regularly do drive BEV between Florida and Atlanta or pretty much anywhere East of there they become accustomed to two things. First, the prevailing winds out of the North and Second, the effects of even modest altitude changes and hilly area. I normally plan for about a 20% penalty Northbound and a similar benefit Southbound. The difference is notable to efficiency, not so much viscerally. After driving Miami-Atlanta north and return every few months I've been accustomed to that. When I had a P85D the Northbound trip seemed to require at least three charging stops , when returning it was always two, sometimes three. . My current P3D is enough more efficient that the Northbound stop is usually two. Southbound is normally one. I admit that my typical driving is somewhat more Porsche-style than it would be Toyota-style. No question YMMV.Since there seems to be a fascination with the Taycan's range here.
Porsche Taycan Turbo Crushes EPA Range Rating On Our 436-Mile Drive
Had we been driving in 70-degree temperatures and no rain the range would have been even better. Even with the cold weather and rain, we averaged 2.96 miles per kWh over the 436-mile trip. If you multiply that consumption rate by the 83.7 usable capacity the Taycan Turbo has, you come up with 248-miles of range per charge. That's not bad, and much better than the EPA range rating of 201 miles per charge. The car's remaining range estimator was a little more conservative and if you add the miles driven with the estimated remaining range you get a trip average of 235 miles per charge, still way better than EPA.
So why the huge discrepancy? I honestly don't know. I've driven pretty much all of the EVs available today, and I usually agree with the EPA range rating. EV range is a moving target; there are a lot of factors that influence how far any EV can go. We already talked about battery temperature and weather conditions like rain we experienced above. Topography is another. We did lose 1,000 ft of elevation from Atlanta to Daytona Beach so that was helpful, but not really enough to make that much of a difference over a 436-mile drive.
As for Taycan, cars tuned for Performance do tend to more penalties in the EPA test cycle, or so it seem to me. Either way, if I did not have Tesla, the Taycan would be tempting. I had two 911 and loved them back in ICE days.