How much energy does sitting in traffic use?

[daveo4EV]

 

[daveo4EV]

I have a 115 mile trip to visit my son in New York City. Most of the driving is on highway traveling 80 miles per hour. As you approach NY, there is often a large traffic jam and I can sit in traffic for 1/2 or longer. The whole trip takes 2.5 hours. I have the small 76 kw battery. At full charge the car says I can go 230 miles. I have paid to have my son install a 230/50 amp line.
1. Can I make the trip without stopping with all systems on. It’s hot and my wife will want the AC at 72 degrees. It’s an annoying trip so we will not feel like stopping on the way to charge.
2. if the car says 230 miles , how much overhead does the car functions use? Does it really go 230 miles? If I drive 115 miles in varying conditions, what percent of battery will I use?
3 what does range mode actually do? I set it to max speed, 85 MPH
4. How much energy use is there sitting in stop and go traffic?
5. My friend with a Lucid says he has to add 20% battery use for just the operation of the car. Is the Taycan similar?

I’m not sure how to figure this stuff out so I’d appreciate any information or insights.

this will also help - you can enter temp, destination, car type and what not and how much over the posted speed limits you plan to drive -it's pretty accurate

that is if you want to choose to ignore the in car data…

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-better-routeplanner-abrp/id1490860521

 

[daveo4EV]

also carplay now supports battery information @ destination and charge route planning

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...ay-now-supports-ev-charging-for-taycan.15848/

 

[daveo4EV]

you have several tools to tell you how much battery you're going to have at your destination

1. PCM Navigation - will show you battery percentage at destination
2. A Better Route Planner
3. Carplay Maps if setup/paired with the vehilce will show you battery at destination
4. historical trip data in the car's computer (for past consumption) will allow you to estimate your battery usage per mile.
5. the car's own range estimate (230 miles - which while sometimes optimistic is not 50% wrong)

all of this is available to you with just a small amount of effort which would all indicate 115 miles is no big deal for a Taycan on a full charge.

 

[Mikegrr]

Thanks for the great info. I’ll put it in the nav and see how it goes.

 

[Tooney]

also if you put the destination into the PCM navigation the car will "show you" the expected battery percentage upon arrival - it's pretty accurate +/- 3% - even with some traffic you will not lose a lot.

+1.
You can trust the Taycan's nav unit for battery percentage at arrival.

For a trip of less than 200 miles, range mode is not going to do much for you. Biggest variable is speed, which other posters have described previously.

 

[DoctorLife]

Just remember if you do use Range mode on the highway, which I do, when you get into a city with plenty of speed humps, make sure you change to Normal mode.

Ride height is lower in Range Mode, and you will scrape the underside if you’re not careful.

 

[j.w.s]

I have a 115 mile trip to visit my son in New York City. Most of the driving is on highway traveling 80 miles per hour. As you approach NY, there is often a large traffic jam and I can sit in traffic for 1/2 or longer. The whole trip takes 2.5 hours. I have the small 76 kw battery. At full charge the car says I can go 230 miles. I have paid to have my son install a 230/50 amp line.
1. Can I make the trip without stopping with all systems on. It’s hot and my wife will want the AC at 72 degrees. It’s an annoying trip so we will not feel like stopping on the way to charge.
2. if the car says 230 miles , how much overhead does the car functions use? Does it really go 230 miles? If I drive 115 miles in varying conditions, what percent of battery will I use?
3 what does range mode actually do? I set it to max speed, 85 MPH
4. How much energy use is there sitting in stop and go traffic?
5. My friend with a Lucid says he has to add 20% battery use for just the operation of the car. Is the Taycan similar?

I’m not sure how to figure this stuff out so I’d appreciate any information or insights.

The Taycan LOVES stop and go traffic, at least compared to any ICE. On highway road trips at speed I get 2.4-2.6 miles/kwh - while making 'excellent progress'. In an hour of stop and go San Francisco bay area traffic I'll get 2.7 to 3.0 miles/kwh - so significantly better than fast highway driving.

You'll of course see slightly (not enormously) worse results if it's cold or really hot, or the roads are wet, etc. but in general an EV does great driving slowly, even stop and go driving. And, as mentioned by others, the range estimators are surprisingly good.

Now for your short 115 mile trip, charge to 80 or 85% before you go - no need to go higher for that distance - and just drive however you want to, arriving with tons of juice left over no matter what the traffic looks like.

 

[Mikegrr]

Ok so I put the destination in the nav system at 85 % charge/190 miles and it says I will have 34% left at the end, after 115 miles. I guess that leaves me ~75 miles left to drive. I’ll verify that after I make the trip.
i wonder what speed it anticipates I will drive on the NJ Turnpike? The traffic usually maintains ~80 mph For most of the trip, but slows down as you approach the city and jams up when you’re really close. .
Does it assume I will use range mode or does it adjust the percentages as you change modes?

Cool…should be enough so I don’t have to worry or stop. I’ll probably charge to 100% just for that trip, as I don’t make the trip very often.

Apple Maps indicates the same thing…no surprise there.

Right now the car says I get ~3.5/kWh , but I mostly drive local at slower speeds.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[daveo4EV]

Ok so I put the destination in the nav system at 85 % charge/190 miles and it says I will have 34% left at the end, after 115 miles. I guess that leaves me ~75 miles left to drive. I’ll verify that after I make the trip.
i wonder what speed it anticipates I will drive on the NJ Turnpike? The traffic usually maintains ~80 mph For most of the trip, but slows down as you approach the city and jams up when you’re really close. .
Does it assume I will use range mode or does it adjust the percentages as you change modes?

Cool…should be enough so I don’t have to worry or stop. I’ll probably charge to 100% just for that trip, as I don’t make the trip very often.

Apple Maps indicates the same thing…no surprise there.

Right now the car says I get ~3.5/kWh , but I mostly drive local at slower speeds.
Thanks for all the advice.

35% is ample budget even for excess speed - as long as you know you can charge at the other end - range doesn't matter…you have plenty to get there - and if you can charge you can clearly get back - so range doesn't matter if you're destination charging is reliable

 

[Mikegrr]

Thanks, you’ve been a big help.

 

[daveo4EV]

Thanks, you’ve been a big help.

also the battery estimate is "live" - it's not static - you can watch it while you drive and see if it's trending down/up/staying-the-same - so if it starts dropping pull back on the speed

summer 2021 - Germany - rental Tesla Model 3 - drive from Amsterdam to Nurburg (supercharger at destination) - Navigation estimate showed 44% upon arrival - but didn't count on me "max" speed on the unrestricted parts of the Autobahn - no problem I simply watched the estimate as I drove (knowing I could definately charge when I arrived) and it dropped to 22% by the time I got there - because of some very very fast driving - but I was able to "monitor" the estimated battery at destination and modify my driving to suite what was happening - I knew 22% was going to be fine…

so bottom line: the battery estimate is "live" - and changes as you drive and make progress - 2 weeks ago I drove from Willows, CA to Aptos, CA - PCM Nav said 8% estimated battery upon arrival - I arrived with 11% and watched it "grow" while I was driving knowing I was "doing the right thing" to get home with no charging stop…

Sponsored