Road Trip Report - Texas to California Round Trip

[KensingtonPark]

Easily one of the most informative posts on this forum. Thank you for taking the time!

P.S.: Coalinga was the stop that I could never make with my kids because of the smell from the cattle ranch. I remember it fondly nonetheless!

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[Chief]

Two weeks a

 

[DerekS]

Feeling much better after washing the car. I packed a collapsible bucket, microfibers etc.

 

[Chief]

My first post, so hopefully this comes out: Two weeks ago I left the Southern California Desert on Monday at 4a in my Taycan Turbos S Cross Turismo and arrived in the Chicago suburbs before 11p on Tuesday. Just me, by myself. On purpose, I only used EA for charging. The Porsche App allows you to plan the whole trip but it is too many waypoints for the actual vehicle (Porsche fix that). I actually printed out the pages from the app so I knew where I wanted to stop. I could force or ignore the on board planner to take me to the stops I wanted. As one prior poster pointed out, if you put in "shorter destinations" it would take you to those destination. I think the CT can handle 10 stops. I had to watch the on board planner's alternative routes -- to see if anything better was suggested -- because it would sometimes suggest slow charging stations even though I had set parameters to avoid same. I made 15 stops -- I could have made a couple less, but I wanted to use EA only. Also, it is a Porsche and I wanted to go fast. All in all, Walmarts are now "gas stations" with better food options. Point of all of this is Range Anxiety has been with us since the 1840's when pioneers had to figure out how to cross the country. A CT is better than a Conestoga wagon and I would not fear traveling anywhere in the US. However, it does require some planning and a little more patience -- a little extra planning and some paper backup made my trip stress free.

 

[B61]

My first post, so hopefully this comes out

Welcome…i’d suggest to make your own thread, hopefully with some photos as well…otherwise we are not going to believe you

 

[snstevens]

Thanks for sharing your story with us!

Could you please clarify your route planning approach.

Step 1 - You started out by designing your entire trip with ABRP.
Step 2 - Then each day of travel you put the daily destination target into the Porsche Charging Planner in the navigation system, and looked at where it was going to take you. When that disagreed with ABRP, you ignored the Porsche system and just kept going.

Did I get it right, or am I missing steps?

Thanks again for detailing the journey!

 

[DerekS]

Could you please clarify your route planning approach.

Step 1 - You started out by designing your entire trip with ABRP.
Step 2 - Then each day of travel you put the daily destination target into the Porsche Charging Planner in the navigation system, and looked at where it was going to take you. When that disagreed with ABRP, you ignored the Porsche system and just kept going.

Great question and something I could have clarified better!

I pre-planned with ABRP so I knew, big picture, where my stops would be. However I tried to let the charging planner dictate my plan as much as possible, only overriding it when it tried to do dumb things (like route me to 3rd party 50kW chargers.)

As others have pointed out, the route was too long for the planner to handle, so I entered Tucumcari NM as my destination to get started, then changed it to Flagstaff AZ after my first two stops. It seemed ok to handle it at that point.

When the charge planner would update to suggest unacceptable chargers, I would simply cancel the route and re-enter my destination. Usually that was enough to get me back on the EA path.

Initially I considered this a bug, but I actually think it was trying to do me a favor and was being smart! In the cases it sent me to weird chargers I think it was because the EA charger it wanted to use was fully occupied...and by cancelling and restarting, I was able to catch the charger when there was an open slot. So that is actually pretty cool.

It would be nice if the planner had an option: [X] Include full charging stations.

I will say overall I was happy with the charging planner and I didn't have to force correct it very often.

 

[Chief]

Welcome…i’d suggest to make your own thread, hopefully with some photos as well…otherwise we are not going to believe you

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a number of videos that I took along the way. I'll see if I can figure out how to start a thread.

 

[snstevens]

Great question and something I could have clarified better!

I pre-planned with ABRP so I knew, big picture, where my stops would be. However I tried to let the charging planner dictate my plan as much as possible, only overriding it when it tried to do dumb things (like route me to 3rd party 50kW chargers.)

As others have pointed out, the route was too long for the planner to handle, so I entered Tucumcari NM as my destination to get started, then changed it to Flagstaff AZ after my first two stops. It seemed ok to handle it at that point.

When the charge planner would update to suggest unacceptable chargers, I would simply cancel the route and re-enter my destination. Usually that was enough to get me back on the EA path.

Initially I considered this a bug, but I actually think it was trying to do me a favor and was being smart! In the cases it sent me to weird chargers I think it was because the EA charger it wanted to use was fully occupied...and by cancelling and restarting, I was able to catch the charger when there was an open slot. So that is actually pretty cool.

It would be nice if the planner had an option: [X] Include full charging stations.

I will say overall I was happy with the charging planner and I didn't have to force correct it very often.

Thanks for the clarification!

Perhaps you could clarify one other thing. When I set up a route on my iPhone using the Porsche App, and then send it to the car, it seems to take forever for that connection to happen. What did you do to make it work?

 

[DerekS]

That takes FOREVER and I usually don't bother.

"Hey Porsche, route me to Tumcumcari, NM."
"Hey Porsche, route me to Doubletree by Hilton in Flagstaff, NM"

 

[Chief]

Thanks for the clarification!

Perhaps you could clarify one other thing. When I set up a route on my iPhone using the Porsche App, and then send it to the car, it seems to take forever for that connection to happen. What did you do to make it work?

I had the same experience -- multiple times the route never arrived from the Porsche App or it arrived an hour (literally) after I started. Also, because I did not know I had too many waypoints, the route I thought I created on the App (which I had printed out to be safe) could not be installed so the backup was Hey Porsche Navigation to a Waypoint as far down the road as I could get without going over 10 Waypoints...or so that is what I think.

 

[jvincent]

Feeling much better after washing the car. I packed a collapsible bucket, microfibers etc.

The road trip isn't finished until the car is clean!

Thanks for posting details of your trip. Great info and a pain to compile, so much appreciated. I'll be heading down to Sedona and you've hit some of the stops I'll be making.

That Tesla installation under construction at Harris Ranch is almost scary. If it ever reaches capacity, the traffic in and out will be constant and horrendous. Maybe the 500 mile range of the Lucid isn't as excessive as it sounds; stop just to take a break and bypass the charging zoos.

The 350kW versus 150kW situation is going to get worse as the stations get busier. You can't blame an ID4 owner for taking the first available stall and the new trucks like the Rivian have large batteries and relatively slow charging. There are better solutions and hopefully EA will start using them. Kempower has it right with their dynamic power distribution; the dispensers are all the same and the power is dynamically offered up based on what the vehicle is requesting.

Apple Music? How was the Verizon experience?

 

[DerekS]

That Tesla installation under construction at Harris Ranch is almost scary. If it ever reaches capacity, the traffic in and out will be constant and horrendous. Maybe the 500 mile range of the Lucid isn't as excessive as it sounds; stop just to take a break and bypass the charging zoos.

It was frankly stunning to see such a giant charging farm being built. Almost like something out a sci-fi movie.

The 350kW versus 150kW situation is going to get worse as the stations get busier. You can't blame an ID4 owner for taking the first available stall and the new trucks like the Rivian have large batteries and relatively slow charging. There are better solutions and hopefully EA will start using them. Kempower has it right with their dynamic power distribution; the dispensers are all the same and the power is dynamically offered up based on what the vehicle is requesting.

That does sound like a better way to go.
I guess for now we gotta dance with the girl what brung us.

Apple Music? How was the Verizon experience?

Really good! Worked except for a few times where all connectivity was spotty.

 

[B61]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a number of videos that I took along the way. I'll see if I can figure out how to start a thread.

That's simple
Go to Forums and select some category.... and you will see button "Post Thread" (somewhere on the right side of the screen).
See attached screenshot:

 

[Teufel Hund]

It would be nice if the planner had an option: [X] Include full charging stations.

Not having one to play around with……. can I ask what ARE the planning options? It would seem to be a no brainer to have options such as specifying the type and/or size of chargers. “Normal” nav systems have had options to include or avoid toll roads, freeways etc so I’d think it would be very convenient for the Porsche software to isolate fast charger’s ESPECIALLY since the Taycan is currently the fastest charging EV correct?

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