First (and maybe last) Freezing Weather Road Trip

dflohr

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Observations from a Christmas road trip Atlanta to Nashville TN area . About 700 mostly Interstate highway miles with 7 separate charges. All charging sessions below freezing with 5 of them under 10 degrees F.

The good:
1. Taycan is an amazing highway road trip car in warm or cold weather.
2. 5 of the charges were at 3 different EA stations. Plug and Charge connected EVERY TIME in less than 1 minute.
3. With built-in Nav directed to the chargers, battery preheating worked within limits (see below)
4. One of the EA chargers enroute charged the preheated battery very quickly peaking at 215KW both times it was used. First time outside temp was 9 degrees F.

The bad:
1. As expected, the cold (and the 75-80+ mph highway speed) really hit the range.
2. The car was always outside. With 15 mile range remaining and the battery under 20 degrees when leaving for a morning charge, the preheater did not add much temperature to the battery by the time I would reach the chargers 8-11 miles away.
3. When charging from cold, the car evidently limits the charging to 40-50KW while the battery slowly heats up. Didn't matter 150 or 350KW charger
4. Getting to 75-80% charge typically took 40-55 minutes maxing at 100KW but for just a short period.
5. Needed EVGO twice. 50KW chargers. App never worked to auto start charging session. One session started with a credit card, the other required a phone call to start it. Never got more than 32KW and charged just enough to get to next EA station.

With the battery range of the Taycan, will likely not do a cold weather trip like this again. Too much time involved with dealing with the battery. Hotels with overnight Level 2 chargers would change my mind but that may be a long while in coming.
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TYKHAAAN

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Thanks for the report. I’ve done that stretch many times, but not in weather this cold. Great info. I think for weather like this I’d stick to a gas vehicle for long road trips until the infrastructure is much more robust, especially in the south. That cold hitting the range really hard in the teens and single digit temps, especially if the car is sitting outside a while in it and battery temps drop down to 20 or lower. I doubt i could get 200 miles out of it on a full charge at these temps. Be safe, plan carefully!
 

Donlam

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Observations from a Christmas road trip Atlanta to Nashville TN area . About 700 mostly Interstate highway miles with 7 separate charges. All charging sessions below freezing with 5 of them under 10 degrees F.

The good:
1. Taycan is an amazing highway road trip car in warm or cold weather.
2. 5 of the charges were at 3 different EA stations. Plug and Charge connected EVERY TIME in less than 1 minute.
3. With built-in Nav directed to the chargers, battery preheating worked within limits (see below)
4. One of the EA chargers enroute charged the preheated battery very quickly peaking at 215KW both times it was used. First time outside temp was 9 degrees F.

The bad:
1. As expected, the cold (and the 75-80+ mph highway speed) really hit the range.
2. The car was always outside. With 15 mile range remaining and the battery under 20 degrees when leaving for a morning charge, the preheater did not add much temperature to the battery by the time I would reach the chargers 8-11 miles away.
3. When charging from cold, the car evidently limits the charging to 40-50KW while the battery slowly heats up. Didn't matter 150 or 350KW charger
4. Getting to 75-80% charge typically took 40-55 minutes maxing at 100KW but for just a short period.
5. Needed EVGO twice. 50KW chargers. App never worked to auto start charging session. One session started with a credit card, the other required a phone call to start it. Never got more than 32KW and charged just enough to get to next EA station.

With the battery range of the Taycan, will likely not do a cold weather trip like this again. Too much time involved with dealing with the battery. Hotels with overnight Level 2 chargers would change my mind but that may be a long while in coming.
You should avoid fast charging in the morning when the battery is cold! level 2 charge at the hotel or fast charge when battery is warm night before.
 
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simcity

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Hotels with overnight Level 2 chargers would change my mind but that may be a long while in coming.
Level 2 charging at hotels has been a thing in the UK (even in the remote parts) for quite a while. They need to be bolstered as EV numbers grow though

Same on the continent. In fact Tesla commonly places Supercharger sites within hotel chain carparks there, rather than as standalone sites or adjunct to the 'services'. We get a mix and match of both site types here in the UK

I'm surprised there isn't a lot more Level 2 charging available in hotels in the states.
 
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dflohr

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You should avoid fast charging in the morning when the battery is cold! level 2 charge at the hotel or fast charge when battery is warm night before.
Yeah, I proposed that twice but at 11:30PM after XMAS partying and a 40 minute drive back to the hotel, my wife and kid vetoed that and just wanted to get back to the hotel to crash. And of course I was dispatched solo to charge at 7:30 am while they slept off the previous day's hangovers.....
 


inkatouring

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I'm surprised there isn't a lot more Level 2 charging available in hotels in the states.
There are a lot more on the West coast (California is dirty with them) and possibly in the Northeast (DC to Boston). Even the casino I go to for poker has them.....
 

whitex

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Yeah, I proposed that twice but at 11:30PM after XMAS partying and a 40 minute drive back to the hotel, my wife and kid vetoed that and just wanted to get back to the hotel to crash. And of course I was dispatched solo to charge at 7:30 am while they slept off the previous day's hangovers.....
Honestly, if you had to do is solo, I would have done it after dropping them off at night. Having been driving EV's for a decade, I learned on the first long trip to never leave fast charging till morning when freezing cold. HOWEVER, if you are even stuck in this situation, find a highway and drive an exit or two, accelerating as fast as it's safe, regen braking, accelerating again. I never did it with a Taycan yet (avoided morning charges except for one where the DC charger was across the street from the hotel), but in a Tesla it makes a huge difference - nothing heats up the battery faster than using it hard.
 

whitex

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Hotels with overnight Level 2 chargers would change my mind but that may be a long while in coming.
Check for Tesla destination charging. I just did a 3,500 mile trip across the USA and found that there are a lot more hotels with Tesla chargers than J1772. You can use a Tesla destination charger with an adapter, such as TeslaTap (make sure you get 80A version if you have 19.2KW charger in your Taycan, or 60A version for regular Taycan which will top out at 48A). Here is mine charging at one of the hotels on my trip.
Porsche Taycan First (and maybe last) Freezing Weather Road Trip 1677749851474
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