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FAQ: Road tripping the MacanEV (or any EV for that matter)
this thread covers my current "thinking" on road tripping in North American and sort of "gear/kit" you may want to have with you…however with the growth of DCFast Charging, kits/gear like this are used even less than spare tires…but I'm providing this again because road tripping the Macan and the sort of kit you want/need is no different than the Taycan - but many Macan EV owners will not review the Taycan forums…
this thread has proven durable and well received over the years - and will prepare any future Macan EV owner for the sort of gear/kit they may choose to purchase to go beyond public charging infrastructure (fast/slow) while away from home.
but honestly these days the only 'thing" in my kit that gets routinely used when away from home is a TeslaTap (or equivalent) and in the future a CCS1/NACS Supercharging adapter - but for hard core road tripping into regions with limited public charging this sort of kit is what you need to maximize your charging opportunities with bare AC outlets (120V or 240V).
Last edited by daveo4porsche; 05-31-2024 at 09:35 AM.
this is my EV ownership "app list" - well prepared EV owners have the following app for their EV road tripping happiness - and have accounts setup/configured so you're not fumbling about setting up a new account/payment method while on the side of the road - there some regional EV charging networks I may not have represented here - but the 'core' set of apps is what you'd want for North American road trips…
this is my EV ownership "app list" - well prepared EV owners have the following app for their EV road tripping happiness - and have accounts setup/configured so you're not fumbling about setting up a new account/payment method while on the side of the road - there some regional EV charging networks I may not have represented here - but the 'core' set of apps is what you'd want for North American road trips…
Exact same on my end, the only thing is also a number of apps for parking (as seemingly every city has a contract with a different vendor).
Between that and the adapter for the Tesla SC, all set!
this is my EV ownership "app list" - well prepared EV owners have the following app for their EV road tripping happiness - and have accounts setup/configured so you're not fumbling about setting up a new account/payment method while on the side of the road - there some regional EV charging networks I may not have represented here - but the 'core' set of apps is what you'd want for North American road trips…
Can add the Tesla app for the handful of Magic Dock locations even before the adapter. I’ve sometimes forgotten about them!
I don't have an EV yet. Totally expected to happen sometime in the future. I've been watching/listening to a handful of EV podcasts. I've never heard of the out of spec one until last week. One thing I hadn't thought of until Kyle from out of spec spoke about it, was driving speeds and the impact on range and recharge times. I typically drive on the faster side of things.... So the idea of maintaining 70 MPH and expanding your range and reducing your charging stops/time versus driving at 85 MPH but maybe requiring an additional stop to cover the same distance, will be hard to do! Usually it's just factoring in your MPG's in determining the next stop.
Do you find yourself driving at "slower speeds" because you can actually make the total time less?
I don't have an EV yet. Totally expected to happen sometime in the future. I've been watching/listening to a handful of EV podcasts. I've never heard of the out of spec one until last week. One thing I hadn't thought of until Kyle from out of spec spoke about it, was driving speeds and the impact on range and recharge times. I typically drive on the faster side of things.... So the idea of maintaining 70 MPH and expanding your range and reducing your charging stops/time versus driving at 85 MPH but maybe requiring an additional stop to cover the same distance, will be hard to do! Usually it's just factoring in your MPG's in determining the next stop.
Do you find yourself driving at "slower speeds" because you can actually make the total time less?
Depends on the trip itself - if it can allow me to skip charging altogether or if I’m on a schedule, I may drive a bit more conservatively.
If not or if the road welcomes/encourages more spirited driving, I’ll be fine adding a charging stop.
That’s where having a car that can charge fast (800V architecture) becomes key.
Depends on the trip itself - if it can allow me to skip charging altogether or if I’m on a schedule, I may drive a bit more conservatively.
If not or if the road welcomes/encourages more spirited driving, I’ll be fine adding a charging stop.
That’s where having a car that can charge fast (800V architecture) becomes key.
Sorry I should have added on longer range trips. Day to day no problem, speed away! But if you're doing a 400 to 600 mi trip, number of charging stops becomes more consequential.
Macan EV can do just over 300 miles on a highway. It has been tested at 70 MPH.
Even driving 300 miles in a car means at least one stop. So, when driving 400 or 600 miles, you will definitely need at least 2-3 stops minimum. At every stop you can easily charge this EV.
Macan EV can do just over 300 miles on a highway. It has been tested at 70 MPH.
Even driving 300 miles in a car means at least one stop. So, when driving 400 or 600 miles, you will definitely need at least 2-3 stops minimum. At every stop you can easily charge this EV.
Yeah I think the new wrinkle for me is, the faster you drive, the more your range can be negatively impacted.
With the gas Macan, I don't see much of a difference in mpg 70 vs 80, so the # of stops is generally the same for the trip. But with Electric, driving at 70mph, the 600 mile trip maybe achieved in 2 stops, while driving at 85mph requiring 3 stops; that 3rd stop negates the time previously saved by going 80 vs 70.
Then throw in slowing charging speeds (faster at 10% than 60%) and its another variable.
For experienced EV'ers, probably not a new concept. But not something I had considered previously!
"Oh yeah, driving slower may result in a faster overall trip"
the Macan EV can do 325 miles @ 70 mph based on actual road tests
that's over 5 hours of seat time - for which me personally even if the car can go father I/passengers likely need a break
that means for one 25 min fast charging stop a day you can drive 650 miles
start the day full
drive 325 miles @ 70 mph - stop 5 hours and 22 min later at 350 kW fast charging station
top off in 30 min or less while taking a break
drive another 325 miles @70 mph for another 5 1/2 hours of seat time
650 miles later either you've arrived at overnight location
fast charge or overnight charge to 100%
or continue on for another 325 miles and another 5 1/2 hours of seat time @ 70 mph for a total range of 975 miles in one day.
two 25 min fast charging stops and you can drive 975 miles for a total of 16 1/2 hours of seat time for two fast charging stops a day
personally for me I'm not seeing how that is a major problem or even that much slower than an ICE vehicle - in nearly 17 hours of continuous driving there will be 1 hour of non-driving time for me personally even with an ICE vehicle - I simply can't be in the driver's seat for that long with out at least two breaks for human comfort reasons and hunger reasons.
based on EV road tripping since 2013 for me - a 25 min stop is no big deal - arrive, park, plug-in, walk to bath room, get a snack, walk back - and the charging session is almost done.
900+ miles day at 70 mph for nearly 17 hours of continuous seat time - for two 25 min fast charging stops - which are likely to align with meal/bath room breaks is no big deal for me personally, and I'd venture most people.
also EV charging stops are better than ICE charging stops because I can walk away from the vehicle while it's charging - for ICE stops I end up spending 5-10 min standing by the vehicle to fill it up - and then I have to pull away from the pump, find a parking place, and then "do my business" separately from the fill-up time…
EV - I pull into my parking place, plug-in - walk away and do my business while the EV is charging - you'll be surprised how quickly the time goes - and normally I feel "rushed" by the fast charging process to get back to the car before I get charged idle fee's…
if you subscribe to the nascar/f1 pit-stop version of road tripping - no question an ICE can do better than an EV - no question - hands down - but in my personal reality I stopped doing nascar/f1 pit-stop-road-trip travel style decades ago - the reality is with attending to the fueling needs of the vehicle, and the bio-break, snack needs of the humans my gas stops take at least 20 min also - and sometimes longer if there is a line for the bath room, the cashier is busy, or the food order takes longer than I would like - especially with 3 kids when I was in my 30's and 40's my gas fuel stops were never less than 30 min "off road" - it's just impractical and quite frankly stressful to do a 100% pure gasoline efficiency fueling stop - realistically it's no big deal and nearly a requirement to spend 20 min once you pull off the road - in that time the Macan EV and Taycan will be pushing 90% battery capacity - add in a line at the bath room and a slow cashier at the snack counter and 8 year boy-child indecision on his snack choice and the EV is done charging before you can return to the vehicle.
30 min or less charging stops is honestly no big deal and easily covered by normal driving break activities with no real feeling of "waiting on the charge"
2 stops/day (totally less than one hour non-driving time) is 900+ miles of driving and 17 hours of drive time…and then charge overnight unattended at a hotel w/EV chargers…
I don't get what people are concerned about. 650 miles in one day for 11 hours of seat time for one 30 min (or less) fast charging stop is about all I did in my Cayenne last week when driving to washington to attend my daughter's graduation - I see _NO DIFFERENCE_ between the trip I just took in the Cayenne and the same trip if I were to do it in the Macan EV…at about the 4-5 hours mark either myself or my passengers need a break…regardless of the drive train technology - and even the Cayenne can only drive for about 1 hour more than the 'max range' of the Macan EV and five hours falls pretty close to reasonable human comfort limits.
Last edited by daveo4porsche; 06-01-2024 at 11:35 AM.
I timed one of my stops on the road trip to washington in my 2021 Cayenne TurboS the other day
pull up to pump
activate the pump with credit card & enter my chevron/safeway "rewards" number for $0.40/gal discount - 1 1/2 minutes - most of that time was Chevron's painfully slow "terminal" - it apparently takes them like 30 seconds to "lower" my fuel prices - honestly it could be faster - most of that time was "processing" delay to the slow performance of the pumps built in screen/computer/console - but it is what it is…and it's sub-optimal.
fill the tank - and top it off (wer'e on a road trip) - several clicks to get the tank "really really" full with no spillage - 6-8 minutes
clean the windshield - lots and lots of bugs in oregon - and rain - so front & back - 4-6 minutes
pull away from the pump - find another parking space - 1 minute
leave the vehicle to find/use bath room - 4-6 minutes
back in the car and on the road again…
1.5 + 6 + 4 + 1 + 4 = 16 + 6 min of "slop" in my calcs - so best case it was a 15 min stop wrose case it was a 22 min stop - no snacks were purchased - and no walk/stretching was done which I normally do these days - getting older lacks full disclosure when you're younger
the Macan EV stop would've been 25 min - so yeah 3-10 min longer than the Cayenne stop - frankly I'm not optimizing for that 3-10 min in my day - If you are more power to you…but the Macan EV stop would've been less "stressful" for me personally - because I would've parked, plugged in, and walked away and left the car charging while I did other things…(I lost more than 10 min on congestion on North Bound 97 in eastern oregon on my way to bend oregon - with a 20 min delay due to road conditions/traffic - my Cayenne burned gas the entire time - my Macan EV would've consumed virtually no power while dealing with traffic)
my typical road trip days are in the range of 1 fast charging stop - less than 650 miles with a gas car or otherwise - so for me we're talking about a 10 min incremental difference/day to drive 650 miles with as gas car vs. Macan EV - 4 driving days for my recent road trip to walla walla, wa - so the Macan EV would've added 40 minutes - lets call it an hour - over the course of a 6 day trip - 2 days to walla walla, 2 days in walla walla, 2 days back to Santa Cruz - the days in walla were low range easy peasy for an EV w/hotel charging overnight while in the walla walla area - no time penalty for charging…
but when I'm not road tripping my EV is charging at home overnight so I _NEVER_ have any charging penalty/time penalty for the rest of hte year - it's in fact "faster" for me to drive the EV around town cause I never need to spend time at the gas station…I save way more than an hour/week with home charging - so 1 hour time penaty for a 6 day road trip - vs. saving more than 1 hour a week when I'm not road tripping.
40 min incremental time "cost" to drive an EV on a 6 day road trip - vs. never going to the gas stations when I'm not road tripping…it's easy trade off for me to make personally.
NOTE; yestereday I spent 25 minutes in line at Costco Santa Cruz gas to fill up the Cayenne - so it's not always "fast" to fill a gas car - my god they were doing business the other day - soooo much business.
Last edited by daveo4porsche; 06-01-2024 at 12:11 PM.
I owned a Taycan Turbo since July 2020 - did 38,000 miles with - fast charged when I needed to on road trip. In my ownership period I rarely exceeded the EA 30 min "limit" - so 90% of the fast charging I did was with EA's 150/350 kW CCS1 DC fast chargers…
in my real world experience with the Taycan what I saw in practice was a 30 min EA charging sessions got you to 88-96% battery capacity - 95% was very common in 30 minutes - regardless of the % when you pulled in…
the Macan should charge the same or faster than the Taycan but can do about 80 miles further on the charge.
5% of Taycan's range was about 12-15 miles driving range - the charging stops are not that precise/granular - so that last 5% doesn't typically matter so you don't need to top off - you only need enough range + buffer to get to the next available charging location…
in my real world experience you get enough charge for your next stop in 30 min or less…it doesn't matter what SOC you actually get to as long as it's enough - and in 30 minutes or less it will be "enough" with a 150/200/350 kW DC Fast Charger…
I never waited for 100% - it's didn't matter - I unplugged in 30 min or less - so all stops were "reasonable" with EV.
I have no reason to believe the Macan will be any different than the Taycan (they have identical fast charging performance according to Porsche) - but the macan can go 70-100 iles farther for the same 30 min or less charging stop…
one 30 min or less stop a day and you're good to go nearly 700 miles…Macan is going to be a great road trip EV - and the incremental compromise in fueling time vs. an ICE is minimal in my opinion given practical realities of a road side stop - and driving an EV the rest of the year make the road trip trade off acceptable.
Last edited by daveo4porsche; 06-01-2024 at 12:32 PM.
15 minutes or less - honestly too fast - I fell "rushed" and it's a bit hectic to get everything done
30 minutes of less - this is acceptable and easy it kill 30 min if you can walk away from the car while it's charging - don't be surprised if you're rushing back to unplug before the idle time penalty - it really goes quite quickly if you have normal road trip break activities
45 minutes - you start to notice this -but can kill the time with catching up on eMail and your phone activities and some internet surfing - not ideal but still acceptable
60 minutes or more - this is when "charging" time becomes a "slog" and no joy - frankly there is simply nothing to do while you wait for the car to be done - this is acceptable as long as there is no idle fee timer - and you're doing something else. like a long meal, a hike, or an activity - shopping, golf, bowling, road side attraction, etc…but this is not a "fast" charging stop…
150/350 kW charging stops should fall into the 30 min or less category - which in my experience go very very quickly and are only incrementally "slower" than a solid road trip gas stop for car & humans - once you get beyond 45 minutes that's when road tripping an EV starts to become a liability - unless you have something to do while you're waiting that long for charging - 30 min or less goes faster than people realize and most of the time it's only one stop a day like this so honestly no big deal.
I agree with you @daveo4porsche . The new Macan, regardless of configuration/wheels, will be a great road tripper. I do think winter range is still TBD, but hopefully not too reduced. The biggest challenge, as always, will be finding working and available chargers that go up to 270kW, which is a sometimes a little bit of rolling the dice. Other than that, 100% agree.
NOTE: both Tesla and Porsche in car navigation will show estimate battery percentage @ destination (I'm going to assume other EV's do this as well but I have no personal experience) - in practice these "estimates" are quite accurate +/- 3% - so if you dial in your destination/next-stop and simply watch the battery estimate @ destination you can tell if you're driving too fast and sapping battery - if you're estimate battery at destination is dropping like Taycan values then you can back off on the speed a bit - if you're staying equal or gaining battery @ destination you can "add some speed"…the estimated battery at destination is a great feature of the build in nav (both Porsche-PCM and Tesla's native Navigation)…NOTE: this is _NOT_ guess-o-meter number of miles left on your battery in the center dash or battery display on the Taycan for example - this is the actual battery percentage estimate in the Navigation when you have an actual destination dialed in and a route with time estimate/ETA and what not - this estimate in my 12+ years of driving EV's has proven to be quite effective and an excellent guide to your driving pleasure - watch it go up/down as you drive and eat up the miles - and adjust as necessary … you'll find you are not that constrained in terms of speed if you just make some minor accommodations early in the segment - the rest of the segment can be quite fun.
I use it as a real time consumption meter and simple drive at what ever speed I wish until it shows that I won't make it ;-)
for those not familiar with EV road tripping you'd be amazed at the range difference between say 68 mph, 70 mph, 72 mph, 75 mph - even shaving a 2-3 mph off your speed may be enough to make the range work…
typically I'll spend the first hour or two of a charge being a "model citizen" and once I have the destination "in the bag" with sufficient range to get when I need to be - then I add speed until I'm no longer comfortable…
I for hypothetical example never, ever, anytime, on any road trip was perhaps landing at a fast charging stop doing north of 80 mph in the last hour or two because I knew I had sufficient range to make it to the charger based on battery % estimate from the in vehicle navigation - no I would never do that in my Tesla's or Taycan - simply won't/can't and wouldn't be prudent -
coming in "hot" is an understatement when you've been using the full torque of a dual motor AWD EV to drain the battery for the fast charging session you're about to engage in …
use the battery percentage estimate @ destination of your EV's navigation system and honestly you can drive however you want - and just make minor adjustments to your desired speed to gain/spend battery - +/- 5 mph is all I've ever had to do to extend/spend range - and the time difference on any given battery-segment is trivial…
banking some extra electrons int he "first hour" by driving more conservatively will honestly gain you sooo much buffer that the rest of the segment can be pretty much what ever is safe/sane in terms of speed…and the car has the tools to tell you if you're consuming too fast - use them.
Last edited by daveo4porsche; 06-02-2024 at 02:35 AM.
05-31-2024, 09:33 AM
FAQ: Road tripping the MacanEV (or any EV for that matter)
