Taycan Shatters Guinness EV World Record
Record-breaking Taycan travels from one end of the US to the other with a remarkably low 2.5 hours of total charging time.
The Porsche Taycan is taking the world by storm. Considering its total number of deliveries doubled from 2020 to 2021, that’s certainly no secret. With up to 300 miles of range, it makes the perfect compromise for going electric and driving an iconic sports car. However, we can’t say we foresaw the Taycan taking this record. Even if we had, we couldn’t have possibly predicted the margin it would take it by.
Recently, Porsche announced that the Taycan managed to shatter the record for the least amount of time spent charging driving across the US. From Los Angeles to New York City, the Taycan in question traveled a total of 2,834.5 miles with a cumulative charge time of just 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 48 seconds. Seriously. Less than 2.5 hours of charging to make it over 2,800 miles. Curious minds want to know; how exactly is that possible?
High Charging Rates and an Experienced Driver in This Field Brought the Record to Its Knees
The most prominent factor that enabled this record was the charging used to achieve it. The Taycan’s charging was done with high-power 350 Kilowatt chargers using the Electrify America CCS DC Fast Charging Network. According to Wayne Gerdes, the driver for this challenge, the 350KW chargers took the Taycan from six percent charge to 82 percent charge in just 22 minutes.
This isn’t Gerdes’ first rodeo, either. He owns a handful of records for achieving remarkable fuel efficiency in everything from trucks to diesel vehicles. In fact, he was even the first hypermiler to achieve an average of over 150 miles per gallon with a remarkable 181 mpg average in a Honda Insight. He uses various hypermiling techniques to achieve these numbers and presumably used the very same to achieve this record with the Taycan. However, the Taycan did far more than just break the record. It blew it entirely out of the water.
Previously, the record was 7 hours, 10 minutes, and 1 second. This means that the Taycan broke the record by nearly five hours. Needless to say, we think this record will stand for quite some time.
Can the Average Taycan Driver Expect These Type of Results?
To be quite frank, the answer is no. Most people don’t drive with a sole focus on maximizing economy and range like Gerdes. However, this record isn’t entirely pointless. Without getting too deep into the hypermiling mindset, Taycan owners can expect to achieve great success in long road trips with reduced charging times thanks to the widespread Electrify America DC Fast Charging network. The biggest highlight to pull from this story is undoubtedly the remarkably quick charging rate that Taycan owners can achieve with 350KW charging. With enough of these chargers implanted, Taycan and other EV owners could spend no more time at a charger than one would at a gas pump and still achieve a remarkable increase in range.
So, we’re certainly not discrediting this impressive feat, and we’re more than happy that a Taycan holds the record. We just wouldn’t want everyone getting their hopes up to achieve similar numbers. After all, it is a world record for a reason. Generally, they aren’t all that easy to achieve.
Photos: Porsche