Battery consumption with roof box

[jwvbeek]

This summer we’re going on a road trip from the Netherlands to Austria and northern Italy. My car is expected at the end of April and I ordered the pano roof and roof rails.

I’m curious about the consumption numbers with highway/autobahn driving with a roof box. I’d like to decide if we need to pack light without a roofbox or the consumption is acceptable with a roof box for road tripping. In general I‘ve read 15%-20% reduction of range. But I couldn’t find numbers specifically for the Taycan on this forum.

Does anybody have experience with a roof box on their Taycan for highway-autobahn driving and share some range/reduction numbers?

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[kort]

I have no empirical data for the Taycan but past experience with both teslas and ICE vehicles have shown me that fuel consumption will take a big hit when mounting anything on the roof. even empty roof rails would impact range. a big box could cost up to 25% of the range.

 

[REIL]

While not a roof rack/box @thecoloradokid gave great real world trip data from his road trip with a bike rack from Denver to Tucson.
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...ck-with-a-mounted-bike-and-then-removed.4132/

 

[thecoloradokid]

@kort is exactly right on this one - it will be at least a 25% hit on efficiency. I saw a pretty big reduction in efficiency with just a bike on top of the car, so with the box will be a more significant loss. There are two ways to look at a the amazing trip you are planning - you can enjoy the fun of going up and down mountains and using the car as designed, but plan on getting 140 to 150 miles if you charge to near full, or you can drive below the recommended speed limit and stretch that out by 10 or 20 miles.

I just checked the Ionity map and it looks like there is a good number of chargers in Austria and northern Italy, so it should not be a big challenge regardless of how you plan to drive during your trip.

 

[jwvbeek]

Thanks for the replies and helpful information!

25% and more seems to be quite a hit in range. Although Germany, Austria and northern Italy indeed have good charging coverage, like @thecoloradokid mentioned, I'm hesitant to travel with roofbox when traveling in peak season with busy roads and possibly busy charging stations.

 

[Jrkennedy37]

With Panamera ST have done the Dallas -> Denver route with and without XL Thule box. About a 25% hit on mpg ~80mph and goes up dramatically with each tick higher on the speedometer.

I ran some mpg “tests” with roof box using cruise control over ten min intervals on the straight roads of NM (gotta stimulate the brain somehow) and found a dramatic hit on mpg above 75. Here were the numbers:

With XL roofbox
77 mph - 24.5 mpg
81 mph - 21
82 mph - 20
83 mph - below 19

Without roofbox (different trip, same road):
81+ average mph - >27 mpg

 

[John89]

It will affect it, let us know. Know why these cars don't have sun roofs....??

 

[NeilJ]

Just completed the first 1200 miles of a trip from UK to Italy with a 560l roof box on a 4S. Temperatures are currently high here, but running at a consistent 110 km/h I’ve got a consumption of 3.1mls per kWh - so I reckon the impact at that speed is around 10-15%.

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