Trip onto the tropical island

[feye]

After driving my Taycan for over 6 months, it was time to take it on a longer trip and see how it is to travel with an EV. How will it work out with charging along the way?

The plan is to travel to Sanya, the tropical Florida of China.

The 11 hours are purely theoretical, since we arrived at the ferry terminal at 9:28, but the ferry only departed 11:00 and took almost 2 hours to cross and unload including additional checks due to COVID.

Since we left late afternoon we planned on having an overnight stop at Zhanjiang, which is a bit over half the distance.

After charging the car to 100% and loading it up we left home.

First highway stop.

They are much nicer now compare to 10 years ago.

Still had plenty of charge at this first stop, but since the APP said there are chargers, I wanted to check them out. 180kW is very good in China.

Off we go on brand new highways, the infrastructure is amazing!

Next stop we were ready to charge, but of course one charger was broken, the other busy. Never mind the next station isn't that far away.

In this southern province it seems that every highway rest place has fast chargers. This charging station was empty. Charging with only 400V so only getting around 100kW. Charging for about 40 min and off we went to our stop for the night.

After checking in at the hotel, we found out that there was no "destination charger". So I headed out to charge the car nearby the hotel in at the stadium car park.

This time I got 800V and the charging was faster - almost 120kW. Charging completed, back to the hotel and a few hours of sleep.

Really nice to see, how far EVs have come already. Charging is almost everywhere, even a DC fast charger never seems to be more then a few km away. The chargers are not specified to the highest level, so it takes more time.

 

[REIL]

@feye Thank you for taking the time to show us how great your travel and infrastructure are. Looks like a wonderful trip. Enjoy the beach!

 

[BayAreaJay]

After driving my Taycan for over 6 months, it was time to take it on a longer trip and see how it is to travel with an EV. How will it work out with charging along the way?

The plan is to travel to Sanya, the tropical Florida of China.

The 11 hours are purely theoretical, since we arrived at the ferry terminal at 9:28, but the ferry only departed 11:00 and took almost 2 hours to cross and unload including additional checks due to COVID.

Since we left late afternoon we planned on having an overnight stop at Zhanjiang, which is a bit over half the distance.

After charging the car to 100% and loading it up we left home.

First highway stop.

They are much nicer now compare to 10 years ago.

Still had plenty of charge at this first stop, but since the APP said there are chargers, I wanted to check them out. 180kW is very good in China.

Off we go on brand new highways, the infrastructure is amazing!

Next stop we were ready to charge, but of course one charger was broken, the other busy. Never mind the next station isn't that far away.

In this southern province it seems that every highway rest place has fast chargers. This charging station was empty. Charging with only 400V so only getting around 100kW. Charging for about 40 min and off we went to our stop for the night.

After checking in at the hotel, we found out that there was no "destination charger". So I headed out to charge the car nearby the hotel in at the stadium car park.

This time I got 800V and the charging was faster - almost 120kW. Charging completed, back to the hotel and a few hours of sleep.

Really nice to see, how far EVs have come already. Charging is almost everywhere, even a DC fast charger never seems to be more then a few km away. The chargers are not specified to the highest level, so it takes more time.

good update. Sounds like a good trip.
The new highway looks fun to drive. Enjoy the beach.

 

[Genau]

The plan is to travel to Sanya, the tropical Florida of China.

Wow, Hainan has made incredible progress recently! My ancestors lived there as Presbyterian missionaries, and I visited 36 years ago, and remember it as very rustic by Chinese standards. When I visited they had just established a free enterprise zone, and more recently a space port, and now 800V chargers. What's next?!?

 

[Kingske]

Great trip report. Thanks @feye !

 

[SwissTaycan]

@feye I am always amazed at the great consumption you get!!! Consistently under 20 kWh/100km in most of your posts. Looking forward to warmer weather to see what I get in Spring/Summer.

But you do floor it every once in a while, don‘t you?

(I did that yesterday getting on the motorway while enjoying a song at perhaps a little too loud a setting and freaked myself out how fast I was at 140 km/h as I thought an undercover cop just happened to be behind me... Damn is the car fast and thankfully no cop).

 

[feye]

The next morning, we had about 150km to the ferry terminal.

Waiting for all the trucks to get on.

Amazing car!

The larger of two ferry terminals between the mainland and the island. Crossing took an hour, but we had to wait over an hour before departure time.

After a long late lunch break in Boao, we headed further south towards Sanya, our final destination for the weekend.

Driving slowly, I could have made it, but part of the trip was to checkout the charging infrastructure. So I picked a larger charging station in a small town right at an highway exit.

However, to our frustration, none of these chargers worked. They looked like brand new StarCharge chargers. This is the second largest charging network in China. Don't know why we just could not get it to work.

Slightly annoyed for wasting half an hour, we went into town to find another charging station.

No problem here, charging right away at about 90kW.

Since there were restaurants here, we used this break to have dinner. Lucky, the other charger did not work, since we enjoyed the simple local food.

Finally arrived at the hotel.

With golf club next door.

And a large beach.

Besides no "destination charging" at this hotel, there is nothing else we need for a good weekend in the tropics!

A) Since I had an appointment at Boao, I was driving with a little bit more gusto to reach the ferry.

B) Since the ferry crossing took more time than anticipated, I was driving "Porsche style" following a local S-Class. Luckily he really did know the cameras.

C) Last bit to the final destination.

 

[feye]

@feye Thank you for taking the time to show us how great your travel and infrastructure are. Looks like a wonderful trip. Enjoy the beach!

Thanks. Beach is really nice here.

 

[feye]

Great trip report. Thanks @feye !

Thanks, I know for most of you it is not relevant living in other parts of the world, but it might still be interesting to see how EV things develop elsewhere...

I will post a bit more on my way back...

 

[feye]

@feye I am always amazed at the great consumption you get!!! Consistently under 20 kWh/100km in most of your posts. Looking forward to warmer weather to see what I get in Spring/Summer.

The last 3 months I really pushed myself to see, how low I can get the consumption without hypermiling. Really wanted to get to know the car.

But you do floor it every once in a while, don‘t you?

(I did that yesterday getting on the motorway while enjoying a song at perhaps a little too loud a setting and freaked myself out how fast I was at 140 km/h as I thought an undercover cop just happened to be behind me... Damn is the car fast and thankfully no cop).

At the beginning yes. Now only if time is running out, or I have a passenger who wants to feel the LC roller coaster...

 

[feye]

Wow, Hainan has made incredible progress recently! My ancestors lived there as Presbyterian missionaries, and I visited 36 years ago, and remember it as very rustic by Chinese standards. When I visited they had just established a free enterprise zone, and more recently a space port, and now 800V chargers. What's next?!?

36 years ago is a long time. China is completely different now.

A year ago the regulators announced a new DC charging standard with up to 1500 Volt and 600 Amp. That would be nice to have, but even now, the proliferation of decent DC charging is really so cool.

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