porsche_coyote

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Our family took a brief trip to Death Valley last week, and we piled into the Taycan Turbo for the drive down and back (in the park we had rented a jeep from Farabee's--highly recommended given that some of the best sites are only accessible via unpaved roads). Note that all units are Imperial (degrees Fahrenheit, miles, etc)

This is the first trip where I've had the confidence to rely on the charge planning in the car and in the Connect app. The charge planner leaves a huge amount to be desired (topic for a different post, I suppose), but it is pretty good at doing planning for the 'next hop' on a trip--wherever you are to wherever you want to be. I also looked at ABRP, but its range estimates are so pessimistic that it's not nearly as useful.

We did each direction with three stops.

On the way down, charge stops were at Harris Ranch, Bakersfield Plaza, and Coso Junction. Charge stops were no longer than 15-20 minutes.

The return trip had stops at Coso Junction, Bakersfield Plaza, and Panoche Shell. I will note that this stop schedule was dictated by biology rather than the car needing a charge (the last stop was going to be in Gilroy...).

EA was good-- all charges were successful on the first attempt, and charge rates were all in keeping with what I'd expect given the state of charge and the battery temp at each stop. I did use the Porsche nav to set each charging station as a destination so that the battery was appropriately pre-conditioned, and it did that beautifully.

Overall, the Taycan performed a like a champ. The route is a mix of long flat sections (I-5), and mountain passes (basically you cross at least four mountain ranges each way). On those long flat sections I had cruise control set to 85 mph, with some stretches at 90 mph. Other sections of freeway (US-101, CA-58) were set at 70-80 mph depending on speed limits. Average speeds were brought down by some traffic associated with heavy trucks (I-5), construction (CA-99), and poor road conditions due to rain (CA-58, I-5, CA-152).

Efficiency was poor-ish, but very similar to my Los Angeles/Anaheim trip last month. There were four of us in the car (me, my wife, and our teenage son and daughter) and the front and rear trunks were loaded with luggage, so this was a pretty heavy car on both trips. Tire pressure was set just before departure to the door plate recommendations, given the full load. The car has 21" all-season tires on the Mission-E wheels.

Consumption was around 37 kWh/100 mi on the way down to Death Valley at an average speed of 67 mph, and 37.4 kWh/100 mi on the return at an average speed of 64 mph. While the weather was fair and cool (temperatures varied from the 60s in the Central Valley to the 30s crossing mountain passes and when we charged at Coso) on the outbound trip, the return was cool to cold and rainy, with temperatures mostly in the 30s and 40s. Battery temp on the return departure was super low, as the car had sat in low 30s overnight temperatures since I couldn't leave it plugged into a L2 charger. It looked like the car burned a fair amount of power getting temps up for our first charge at Coso Junction, where ambient temperatures were around 38-39° F.

All in all, I was very pleased with the car's performance. More efficiency might have been nice, but it was more than adequate for us to make the stops we wanted to make. The EA charge network worked flawlessly for the first time in a while. This EV roadtrip thing might work...
Porsche Taycan Quick report: San Mateo, CA to Furnace Creek (Death Valley), 1060 mi round trip in Taycan Turbo IMG_1605
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yama

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Thanks for the report! Cool to see another San Mateo person here. ?
 

ciaranob

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Thanks for the report! Cool to see another San Mateo person here. ?
Thx for sharing - curious if you customized the ABRP consumption metrics for your car manually based on your own prior stats/performance data or just used the default - latter would be more pessimistic?
 
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porsche_coyote

porsche_coyote

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Thx for sharing - curious if you customized the ABRP consumption metrics for your car manually based on your own prior stats/performance data or just used the default - latter would be more pessimistic?
Unfortunately ABRP only lets you customize with one datapoint--consumption @ 65mph. I long ago took those measurements and applied them to my profile. The issue is that their model is too pessimistic about how to adjust consumption with speed, and I haven't had the time/patience to go and figure out the fudge factor that would allow me to create new (and intrinsically wrong) profiles for 65 mph consumption that net out to the right consumption at speed. Basically, ABRP is too opaque for that right now.

It would be lovely if they had Taycan support for their new live data feature, as that would allow for real calibration at a range of speeds...
 

B61

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Thx for sharing. :clap:
just curious: have you forgotten your camera at home? :angel:
 


submatrix

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Unfortunately ABRP only lets you customize with one datapoint--consumption @ 65mph. I long ago took those measurements and applied them to my profile. The issue is that their model is too pessimistic about how to adjust consumption with speed, and I haven't had the time/patience to go and figure out the fudge factor that would allow me to create new (and intrinsically wrong) profiles for 65 mph consumption that net out to the right consumption at speed. Basically, ABRP is too opaque for that right now.

It would be lovely if they had Taycan support for their new live data feature, as that would allow for real calibration at a range of speeds...
I'm not sure I understand -- ABRP doesn't know how fast you plan to drive, so it assumes 65mph since that's the standard freeway speed limit. If you are planning on going 85-90, and know your consumption will be ~370 Wh/mi, why can't you just put in 370 as your estimated consumption, even if it is at "65mph"? Are you worried that the time estimates will then be off?
 
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porsche_coyote

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I'm not sure I understand -- ABRP doesn't know how fast you plan to drive, so it assumes 65mph since that's the standard freeway speed limit. If you are planning on going 85-90, and know your consumption will be ~370 Wh/mi, why can't you just put in 370 as your estimated consumption, even if it is at "65mph"? Are you worried that the time estimates will then be off?
Actually, I do put in my planned speeds (ABRP lets you set speed as a percentage of the posted limit).
 


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I've never understood how to properly set ABRP, so my estimates are always off. But it does a good job in telling you where the chargers are, so that's helpful.

My last "long trip" I relied 100% on the NAV system to map it all out. It was ok, but along hwy 5, a Bakersfield charging spot (I wish I could remember which one) was a disaster. People use the EA spots to park and go get a burger, other people didn't know what they were doing, there was a pond of water in front of the pump, the pumps didn't work. I will actively work to avoid that spot in the future.
 
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porsche_coyote

porsche_coyote

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I've never understood how to properly set ABRP, so my estimates are always off. But it does a good job in telling you where the chargers are, so that's helpful.

My last "long trip" I relied 100% on the NAV system to map it all out. It was ok, but along hwy 5, a Bakersfield charging spot (I wish I could remember which one) was a disaster. People use the EA spots to park and go get a burger, other people didn't know what they were doing, there was a pond of water in front of the pump, the pumps didn't work. I will actively work to avoid that spot in the future.
My Bakersfield stop was at the Bakersfield Plaza, which is actually closer to CA-99 (I was heading East, so it made sense to be on the East side of Bakersfield). There are two 'Bakersfield' EA stations that are closer to 5, the Countryside Shell Market station, which is West of I-5, and the Target on Stockdale Hwy, which is several miles East of I-5.
 

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At those speeds w/ aero drag and cabin heating for your ambient temps, I think your efficiency is actually decent!
 

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I'm not sure I understand -- ABRP doesn't know how fast you plan to drive, so it assumes 65mph since that's the standard freeway speed limit. If you are planning on going 85-90, and know your consumption will be ~370 Wh/mi, why can't you just put in 370 as your estimated consumption, even if it is at "65mph"? Are you worried that the time estimates will then be off?
You would be covering less ground at that config than true speed so planning would be off still
 

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Pretty encouraging that fully loaded, in a Turbo, winter and wet, you were able to get a 71 mpg equivalent (assuming $5/gal and $0.19/kWh [Palo Alto price]). And you were able to cover each 510 mi leg with only 45 mins of break time for charging.

I just picked up my Turbo S on Friday and am looking forward to making similar trips to yours!
 
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porsche_coyote

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Pretty encouraging that fully loaded, in a Turbo S, winter and wet, you were able to get a 71 mpg equivalent (assuming $5/gal and $0.19/kWh [Palo Alto price]). And you were able to cover each 510 mi leg with only 45 mins of break time for charging.

I just picked up my Turbo S on Friday and am looking forward to making similar trips to yours!
Will note that the car is a Turbo, not a Turbo S. I have no idea how the efficiency compares between the two powertrains, though I suspect it's quite similar since I have both the power charge ports and the 21" Mission E wheels on my Turbo.

Congrats on the new car!
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