Story of our life (at least in the US)

FlyingPoint

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Same here -- alas.

I ran a somewhat interesting yet unintentional driving experiment the past three days:
  • Audi A6 Allroad for ~362-mile roundtrip (for skiing of course), both b/c the VT DCFC infrastructure seems intended to deter out-of-state CCS1 travel, and b/c I was carpooling with a friend who would have been even more upset than me (as well as, upset with me) at waiting to charge -- and for extra bonus points, the parking lot he chose to carpool from in southern VT had 16 Tesla Superchargers, as compared to the ≥150kW CCS1 count for the entire state of ... based on PlugShare checkins of the few that claim that speed (while ignoring what seems to be a recent mistake of counting all shared 62.5kW ChargePoint chargers as 200kW?!?) and that actually get into the triple digits ... exactly zero.
  • BMW i4 M50 for ~180-mile roundtrip, of which I drove half (for a family visit), for which we could have used the Taycan, but my wife was driving the other half, and she prefers using her [smaller] car.
  • Taycan 4CT for ~175-mile roundtrip (for more skiing of course).
As much as I had loved driving the A6ar when I bought it in Aug '22, the i4 drives even better, and then the Taycan somehow improves even further on that (okay, perhaps not a great mystery, since that's the point of any Porsche!), even with speed limits (plus some enforcement tolerance of course) of 65mph interstate and 50mph secondary highways.
Even just driving around town, and in parking lots, I think the RAS makes it so maneuverable.

But the additional driving pleasure just isn't worth the long wait for the potential unavailability of a plug at a typical station of just one or two chargers followed by the certainty of a long sub-100kW charging session.
Taycan is so perfect though when staying within its range, or being able to count on L2 charging, whether either overnight or when parked at a ski resort.
Either Mt Snow or Stratton, I suspect. Had a home in Stratton for 20 years, alas those were the days….
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Jonathan S.

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Either Mt Snow or Stratton, I suspect. Had a home in Stratton for 20 years, alas those were the days….
Not too far off for yesterday, just a bit further north: Okemo opened in the morning with lifts, then allowed us to skin up once the lifts shut down for the day.

Wednesday had been Stowe. Lifts were not yet open for the season but the skiing on natural snow was far better and more extensive than for the opening day on Friday.

Stratton opens this coming Wednesday, with skinning allowed 24/7.
I'll probably stop there both on the way to and on the way back from Burlington VT for Thanksgiving with the in-laws.

When I skinned at Stratton a couple weeks ago on leftover snowmaking, afterwards I confirmed the presence of the eleven ChargePoint L2 plugs.
(I didn't check to see how many were broken, but I don't they'll have much competition so early in the season.)
At the more expensive of the two banks, if the kW rate is being shared, then based on the $/hr rate, the per/kWh price would be 77 cents!
Although that's still only slightly twice what we pay at home. (My brother-in-law in Burlington pays only five cents after 10pm!) Plus worth it to bring the Taycan without any charging delays. (My wife and daughter can easily take the i4 straight to Burlington then charge overnight.)
 

whitex

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Same here -- alas.

I ran a somewhat interesting yet unintentional driving experiment the past three days:
  • Audi A6 Allroad for ~362-mile roundtrip (for skiing of course), both b/c the VT DCFC infrastructure seems intended to deter out-of-state CCS1 travel, and b/c I was carpooling with a friend who would have been even more upset than me (as well as, upset with me) at waiting to charge -- and for extra bonus points, the parking lot he chose to carpool from in southern VT had 16 Tesla Superchargers, as compared to the ≥150kW CCS1 count for the entire state of ... based on PlugShare checkins of the few that claim that speed (while ignoring what seems to be a recent mistake of counting all shared 62.5kW ChargePoint chargers as 200kW?!?) and that actually get into the triple digits ... exactly zero.
  • BMW i4 M50 for ~180-mile roundtrip, of which I drove half (for a family visit), for which we could have used the Taycan, but my wife was driving the other half, and she prefers using her [smaller] car.
  • Taycan 4CT for ~175-mile roundtrip (for more skiing of course).
As much as I had loved driving the A6ar when I bought it in Aug '22, the i4 drives even better, and then the Taycan somehow improves even further on that (okay, perhaps not a great mystery, since that's the point of any Porsche!), even with speed limits (plus some enforcement tolerance of course) of 65mph interstate and 50mph secondary highways.
Even just driving around town, and in parking lots, I think the RAS makes it so maneuverable.

But the additional driving pleasure just isn't worth the long wait for the potential unavailability of a plug at a typical station of just one or two chargers followed by the certainty of a long sub-100kW charging session.
Taycan is so perfect though when staying within its range, or being able to count on L2 charging, whether either overnight or when parked at a ski resort.
I wonder if the rear bike rack mount points could accommodate a generator. Perhaps hire some starving MIT student to help you build the first diesel-electric Taycan! Easily removable for local trips and once DCFC infrastructure improves. Maybe Porsche should design one if they plan to resist using Tesla superchargers.
 

FlyingPoint

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Very interesting design for the new RAM Charger 1500 due out in 2025. Certainly eliminates range anxiety. This truck might cost a small fortune:


POWER MEETS RANGE

The All-New 2025 Ramcharger delivers innovative performance with a liquid-cooled 92-kilowatt-hour battery pack paired with a 130-kilowatt generator. The Pentastar® 3.6L engine generates mechanical power, which is converted to electrical power by the onboard generator for maximum efficiency. The generator can also increase the power to the motor and gearbox when serious power is needed.
Translation? The All-New 2025 Ramcharger delivers a Best-in-Class Targeted 690 total miles of Range( Disclosure2) and is set to be a game changer in the world of electric pickup trucks.

TARGETED BEST-IN-CLASS DRIVING RANGE (MILES)
690
( Disclosure20)
TARGETED TOTAL HORSEPOWER
663
( Disclosure21)
TARGETED TOTAL TORQUE (LB-FT)
615
( Disclosure21)
TARGETED 0-60 MPH (SEC)
4.4
( Disclosure21)
TARGETED BEST-IN-CLASS MAXIMUM PAYLOAD CAPACITY (LB)
2,625
( Disclosure22)
TARGETED BEST-IN-CLASS MAXIMUM TOWING CAPACITY (LB)
14,000
( Disclosure22)
 


Edward

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I have a Tesla Model 3 as a rental car from Avis this week, and ... it just works. Despite all the usual criticisms about the Model 3 as a car, the charging experience is so seamless.
  1. Navigate to a Supercharger station
  2. find an open stall (there's always an open stall that I've seen at every Supercharging station)
  3. back in
  4. open the charging flap from the center display
  5. plug in the charging connector
  6. Walk to the nearby McDonald's, Whataburger, restaurant, etc. and hang out for 20-30 minutes. Or just chill in your car.
Not present -- any frustration with broken chargers or fumbling around in an app to start the charging session.
 

ciaranob

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I have a Tesla Model 3 as a rental car from Avis this week, and ... it just works. Despite all the usual criticisms about the Model 3 as a car, the charging experience is so seamless.
  1. Navigate to a Supercharger station
  2. find an open stall (there's always an open stall that I've seen at every Supercharging station)
  3. back in
  4. open the charging flap from the center display
  5. plug in the charging connector
  6. Walk to the nearby McDonald's, Whataburger, restaurant, etc. and hang out for 20-30 minutes. Or just chill in your car.
Not present -- any frustration with broken chargers or fumbling around in an app to start the charging session.
You are obviously having very different experiences which I can certainly appreciate but by contrast, in my 2 years with my Taycan your pts 1 to 6 perfectly describes all of my DC charging to date with the Taycan and EA and better still, I've never had to muck with the app as Plug and Charge has also worked 100% for me. But also see you have the early model year 2020 so PnC missing initially but added recently no?
 


Edward

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You are obviously having very different experiences which I can certainly appreciate but by contrast, in my 2 years with my Taycan your pts 1 to 6 perfectly describes all of my DC charging to date with the Taycan and EA and better still, I've never had to muck with the app as Plug and Charge has also worked 100% for me. But also see you have the early model year 2020 so PnC missing initially but added recently no?
I don't think Plug and Charge was ever added to the 2020 due a HW limitation?

EA broke my wife's patience when on a trip between Houston and Austin (that normally takes ~3 hours) ended up taking over 4 hours due to needing to wait for the only 2 working EA chargers in Columbus, Texas to free up from the Bolt and Leaf that were slowly charging there.
 

ciaranob

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I don't think Plug and Charge was ever added to the 2020 due a HW limitation?

EA broke my wife's patience when on a trip between Houston and Austin (that normally takes ~3 hours) ended up taking over 4 hours due to needing to wait for the only 2 working EA chargers in Columbus, Texas to free up from the Bolt and Leaf that were slowly charging there.
Can empathize - charging etiquette a whole other issue unfortunately :)!

2020 Taycans can if they fork out for the massively expensive onboard AC charger upgrade:
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en_US/2022/products/porsche-taycan-on-board-charger-reduces-charging-times-30721.html#:~:text=One benefit specifically for 2020,hours for the previous charger.

Thought somewhere that someone mentioned that the uPdate sw release might have enabled a sw upgrade but prob incorrect i.e. may be a hardware only solution.
 
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tigerbalm

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Thought somewhere that someone mentioned that the uPdate sw release might have enabled a sw upgrade but prob incorrect i.e. may be a hardware only solution.
It fixed plug & Charge for those of us with the 2021 22 kW charger – but only if you had it from the factory – where Plug & Charge was advertised but didn't work until that update.
 

jld1

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We do not believe any US Moon landings in Russia. With all the iPhones making movies now, US still cannot get "back" there that late in the 21 century. We believe in Hollywood film making of the landing.
People have this odd perception that we only went once in 1969. We made multiple trips after the initial landing. So we in fact have been "back there" but because we haven't gone in 40-something years doesn't mean we can't. In the 1960s, we were funding NASA far more than we are now; it took up a massive amount of our budget. "Not going back" argument proves exactly nothing. Not to mention if you've truly looked into it, there are a few things that Hollywood could not have faked about the landing.

This is logical of course. However, my firsthand knowledge is that some kind of deal behind the scenes went on to benefit the win for humanity.
How was this determined, by a game of rock, paper, scissors? Give me a break. Who honestly believes the Soviets let us have this achievement? I can only imagine what they got in return if true! Hey you give us the moon landing and we'll give you... I don't know, Vietnam? Sounds like the propaganda machine is still quite strong. And don't worry, I'm not naive enough to think I'm not influenced by American propaganda as well.

For whatever it's worth: There are reflectors on the moon that are still in use, including Soviet ones. The first of which was placed by... the Apollo 11 crew.

Sorry for off-topic. I'm fascinated by moon landing deniers. Back to Taycans. Also want to say I'm overjoyed there are some Europeans left who can stomach complimenting us. 😂
 

Hirschaj

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People have this odd perception that we only went once in 1969. We made multiple trips after the initial landing. So we in fact have been "back there" but because we haven't gone in 40-something years doesn't mean we can't. In the 1960s, we were funding NASA far more than we are now; it took up a massive amount of our budget. "Not going back" argument proves exactly nothing. Not to mention if you've truly looked into it, there are a few things that Hollywood could not have faked about the landing.



How was this determined, by a game of rock, paper, scissors? Give me a break. Who honestly believes the Soviets let us have this achievement? I can only imagine what they got in return if true! Hey you give us the moon landing and we'll give you... I don't know, Vietnam? Sounds like the propaganda machine is still quite strong. And don't worry, I'm not naive enough to think I'm not influenced by American propaganda as well.

For whatever it's worth: There are reflectors on the moon that are still in use, including Soviet ones. The first of which was placed by... the Apollo 11 crew.

Sorry for off-topic. I'm fascinated by moon landing deniers. Back to Taycans. Also want to say I'm overjoyed there are some Europeans left who can stomach complimenting us. 😂
Should we move on to flat-earthers now? 🤣 For some people, everything in life is a conspiracy.
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