Hi all. So, I ordered the Macan 4 and selected a number of options. Was thinking that, unlike say a Tesla, you can go crazy on extra gizmos - many of which seem like they could affect range a little. When combined, maybe it's not a little.

For example, I have the rear axle steering, heated / ventilated seats, augmented HUD, heated windshield, upgraded radio and other options selected. Sounds like even the rear wiper could affect the drag coefficient. Does anyone know if these things can add up to noticeably affect range? Thanks.

 

I don't think anyone except Porsche engineers really "know" how these options affect range, given the car isn't really available yet.

That said, I doubt any of what you've listed here affects the range in a non-negligible way. Exterior options like tires affect the car’s drag coefficiency much more.

 

very very little in terms of electrical consumption can be significant vs. the consumption of the motors and the thermal management (battery, ev motors, cabin HVAC)…thing that can affect range beyond that are aero choices - but again that's going to be noise vs. the over all capacity and motor consumption when moving the vehicle.

10 mph greater speed is way way way move expensive than say running the heated seats - or driving in 30F weather at night in cold dense air at 65 mph is also much much more expensive than any accessories probably over the lifetime of the car…

it's the EV motors and the speed only then followed by thermal management - after that everything else drops off into the realm of noise.

 

yes for Tires - my 2020 Taycan was a 230-270 mile car with less grippy all-season EV tires - I swapped to "summer" performance EV tires and ranged dropped to 190-220 miles - swapped back to all seasons - and boom we're right back to 230-270 miles…

it's hard to have _ANY_ consumption signficiant power beyond the drive train given the sorts of power/capacities we're talking about…

typical EV consumption is 3 miles/kWh or about 330 wh/mile - and you're doing 1 mile/minute - so you're consuming 330 watt hours every mile you drive - or 20 kWh worth of power for each hour you drive at 60 mph...every minute you're driving is about an hour's worth of time for a heated seat…so each hour you drive is about 60 hours of heated seat time.

EV motors, tires, air temperature, aero dynamic loads (head winds), speeds over 50-60 mph, and thermal management will trump _ALL_ other things in an EV.

aero loads are non-linear - it's more expensive incrementally to go from 60 to 70 mph vs. 50 to 60 mph - if you're driving into a 15 mph head wind at 70 mph - the aero loads will be the equivalent of 85 mph which has a huge non-linear increase in costs - range will drop significantly for 85 mph sustained aero loads vs. 70 mph aero loads…

EV motors, tires, air temps, weather, speed, thermal management, driver behavior and way way way down the list is accessories…any and all accessories.

 

The UK site used to have a range calculator based on some options like tire/wheel size, but I don't see it anymore. I recall that the biggest hit was for higher HP models and large wheels. They didn't make adjustments for different options though.

 

Actually in the French configurator (for the Macan EV), the WLTP estimates vary according to the chosen options.

 

I would suggest wheels, tire sizes, and summer vs. all season (which are all options) will have much more effect on range than any vampire load from various options - or design facia changes that affect aero dynamics - I'm not saying these additional electrical loads have no effecxt, but they pail in comparison to moving the vehicle and keeping it's battery at the right temperature - for any given 350 miles driven it would be surprising to me if accessories load had a +/- 10 mile affect for any given battery "cycle" - if you could turn everything "off" - sure you could probably drive 370 miles to battery exhaustion vs. 362 miles to battery exhaustion - but vehicle speed, acceleration, weather, thermal management, tires, aero-loads will always be dominant - if the 3-7 miles of range your "accessories" suck off the battery is the difference between you getting to your destination or not - I"m suggesting you're doing it wrong - also it's not like the car lacks status about your remaining range and how much further you can drive it - as your approach your intended destination you'll know if you have enough battery power to get there or need to stop at a fast charger for a few min to get some extra range - if the nav/dash board says you're runing out of battery - stop and charge for 5 minutes and then resume driving - no different that a gas car.

your accessory choices are not your range problem - your pure unadulterated joy at pure linear torque and 3.1 sec 0-60 sprints at each stop light while tooling around your soccer-mom approved luxury SUV will have dramatically more impact on your range than any accessories load.

also range doesn't matter on a daily basis - cause you charge overnight and it's full again in the morning for another go like your cell phone on your night stand…

range only matters when road tripping and hoping form fast charging station to fast charging station

now let's do some math -

fill up the Macan - you have 340 miles range "in the tank" - easy based on early test drives and feedback - and you can fill it to 80% in 22 minutes - (based on my experience with Taycan you'll get deep into the 90% battery soc w/one full 30 minute stop which is the "free" session time for EA)

start with 340 miles range
average speed 65 mph
drive for 5 1/4 hours to a fast charging stop (pulling in at less than 10% remaining battery)
stop for 28 minutes at fast charging stop (it goes quicker than you can imagine if you stretch, bathroom, buys some snacks and walk off 5 1/4 hours of seat time)
unplug at 93% because you're about to run out of "free" 30 min juice
drive another 330 miles in 5 hours @65 mph average speed
pull into your hotel w/EV charging overnight or nearby fast charger

you've just driven 670 miles for 10 1/4 hours seat time in the car, and one 28 minute fast charging stop

the reducation in your range from your accessories choices was where in that equation? and what would it matter?

if you drive at 75 mph it will have way way way way more negative effect on your range vs. any accessories choices loads - probably dropping you in to the low 300 miles range vs. the mid 300 miles range…

Macan is easiliy a 4-7 hours of seat time EV before stopping for charging (less than 10% SOC) - any accessories choices might be 10-15 minute of seat time in that battery cycle (probably way less) - speed, head winds, acceleration, tires, less efficient wheel choices, and thermal loads for battery and passengers is the dominate consumption.

 

Can you do the math again for me at -30C ?

 

-30C is a different ball of wax - it's well known EV's take a 20-35% "hit" on battery capacity when temps get "cold" - the affect starts to happen once temps start approaching 40F and get's worse from there…

EV range is greatly affected by cold weather due to the following factors

• LiON batteries have less power "to give" once they are cold - they are simply less efficient if they are too cold
• modern EV's will spend battery power to "warm" the battery moving it closer to better temps - this essentially drains the battery to save the battery
• running "heaters" to warm the occupant cabin is also expensive - double hit on power consumption to both warm the battery and the occupants
• cold weather also tends to go along with less than ideal road conditions there by increasing rolling resistances for the wheels and tires
• cold air is much more dense than warm air increasing aero dynamic losses/drag by quite a factor - couple this with higher speeds and you get quite the hit in terms of cost per-unit distance for consumption to over come aerodynamic drag in very cold very dense air
• regeneration is also reduced given slow speeds and less charge capacity for the battery to accept high current loads - you may not recover as much kinetic energy when braking because there is less energy to "give" and the battery is likely in a state where it can not optimally accept high power "contributions".

if you are routinely tooling around in 32F/0C conditions or worse then you can expect at least a 30% hit on range - so a 350 mile Macan EV should be treat as though it's a 245 mile vehicle in below freezing conditions - but the good news is when the temperatures return so will the range - so this is pure an environmental impact and will go away when the weather changes…

 

My understanding is that the drag in cold air vs. warm air is negligible compared to wheel size and tire materials (i.e., air drag is important, but air drag as a function of temperature is not so much). I recall seeing a physics analysis of cold air vs. warm air that found that they are similar because the moisture content is an important factor (and warm air holds much more water moisture than does cold air).

 

What about when you drive in HOT conditions like Las Vegas in the summer where it's 110+? That shouldn't effect the range much because the battery is around it's optimal temperature or will it begin to cool itself and drain the battery capacity?

 

cooling is cheaper than heating consumption wise - but there is some - but the spring/summer/fall are pretty good for EV range - extreme hot will take a hit to cool the cabin to have occupant comfort - it’s the sub 30f where you take huge hits to range due to additional consumption