evanevery

I've owned several EV's over many years (Volt, Model-X, i8) and my Taycan Turbo S will effectively be my 4th. As with over 70% of EV owners, I charge at overnight home. In fact, I've never even visited a public charger. I expect this usage model will continue to meet my general needs for quite a while.

However, if there ever was an EV which begs for a good road trip, I think it is the Taycan. As such, I've been researching the various planning and charging options for my first EV road trip. So, I think its time I bite the bullet and give a Road Trip a try. However, I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. I will be bringing a 40A Mustart L1/L2 charging cable and a bunch of adapters in case I need them. I fully expect some complications and potentially a bit of frustration, so I'll be doing this trip alone. I'll also bring my Kindle. ;-)

Given all the reports of poor public charger availability and performance ("Electrify America", cough, cough..), I think it would be interesting to solicit some recommendations on what the realities are for planning a long distance trip. As a Pilot, I'm quite familiar with planning long trips with fuel stops, weather, available services, etc. However, I also recognize that its a learning process as to what real-world considerations need to be addressed during the planning phase. There are obviously many more folks who are much more familiar with the process and I expect there would be many other EV owners who would welcome the analysis of a real-world case as an example. My car should be arriving on the 17 of Aug so I figure now would be a good time to get some feedback on the planning phase for a 700 mile trip (each way).

I've been playing around with pretty much every EV route planner I can find (ABRP, PlugShare, ChargePoint, ChargeHub, Charging NA) and I think its safe to say that ABRP is widely accepted as the best EV Route Planner available for non-Tesla vehicles. Many will show you charger locations, but few will actually help you PLAN your trip in advance right down to suggested stops. I understand that Porsche Connect and the Intelligent Range Manager will be useful once I get rolling, but I really want to have a "plan" before I leave.

If anyone with more experience would like to "play along", I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions which can be provided.

So, to get things rolling, I'll post the sample trip case (without specific addresses) as planned by ABRP:

Start: Waukesha, WI
Dest: Brockport, NY





- The first thing to note is that ABRP will try and route me through a Ferry across lake Michigan. While this might save some electrons, and even calculate a competitive time, it does not take into account the fact that you have to arrive 1 hour before ferry departure, etc. As much as I like a good cruise, the whole point here is to plan a ROAD trip, so I selected the "alternate" route I have become quite familiar with.

- So here are some specific considerations I have been thinking of:

1. Is ABRP truly the best app to do the route planning? Any other contenders or support apps which might be suggested for specific reasons. (I would be doing all my route planning online on my PC).

2. Not a big fan of that first stop downtown in Chicago. There seems to be a lot of chargers at that location, but I'ld kinda like to get past the metro area before I make my first stop. I would even consider an earlier stop if it helped add range to get through the metro. I typically depart very early in the morning (0500) just to get through Chicago before rush hour really gets rolling (0630). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Are metro stops generally more available or better maintained?

3. Any thoughts of the filters I should be using? Right now, I'm just using the defaults. This appears to favor EA stops.

4. Any suggestions to help target stops which have alternates in the vicinity? Just look at the map? How much of this pre-planning needs to be done "manually" just by examining the maps?

5. I understand I can get real-time updates on charger availability and functionality once I get underway. How likely is the "ideal" planning going to be changed enroute based on changing conditions? Am I going to effectively waste a lot of time doing upfront planning vs what I'm going to see via interactive updates and mobile apps once I get rolling?

6. Is Porsche Connect the goto app once I get moving? Is there a better one or second one to keep an eye on enroute? Although PC and PIRM runs in the Nav system, there are a lot of options to be running on my phone...

7. Given the stops suggested by ABRP, would you change any of them? If so, why?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

WI-Ing

[/QUOTE]

2. Not a big fan of that first stop downtown in Chicago. There seems to be a lot of chargers at that location, but I'ld kinda like to get past the metro area before I make my first stop. I would even consider an earlier stop if it helped add range to get through the metro. I typically depart very early in the morning (0500) just to get through Chicago before rush hour really gets rolling (0630). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Are metro stops generally more available or better maintained?


![/QUOTE]

Stop at the Target 1200 N Larrabee St, Chicago, IL 60610. It's a parking garage with a Starbucks above it. I just live down the road and charge my etron there all the time.

evanevery

Thanks, that appears to be the first stop the route planner has already chosen...

Needsdecaf

Much, much excellent real world experience from a Taycan owner on a longer trip here.

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/th...al.879/page-32

daveo4porsche

the major thing is to check charger reliability ratings in Plugshare - nothing harshes an EV buzz like a dysfunctional charger - you're looking for a good score (close as possible to 10) and recent check-ins noting the charger is functional - if you can not determine recent charging status beware that stop and realize you might be taking a risk relying on it.

the charge planning you posted shows most charging stope are only 100 miles apart or slightly closer - you should be able to easily drive the Taycan 200 miles- and that will bring you in at lower battery percentage (SOC - state of charge) - lower SOC allows for greater charge rate and optimizes the down time - there is a certain overhead to getting off the road, find the charger, getting it started and then finding something to do - my experience has been that 2 fast charging stops a day = 600+ miles of driving - or about 10 hours of actual driving seat time - for me that's a lot of driving in one day and I need a rest after that - plan on no more than 3 fast charging stops a day - otherwise charge fatigue is a real issue…

also if you're going to be staying overnight somewhere use plug-share to find a hotel that has L2 charging so you can leave in the morning with a full charge.

a table with internet is a great tool for the EV road warrior with al the various charging apps installed on it - so you can do real time checking and updates int he car without the need to haul out a "full" lap top - a bigger screen is great for using plug share and other charging apps to find an plan chargers…

good luck and you'll have fun - you should be fine - make sure you have active accounts with all the charging networks - it can sometimes be tricky with a crappy cell phone signal to get an account setup on the fly at the charging station…

evanevery

Yeah, I've read the whole thing. Its a good read with lots of info. ...but no real recommendations on the planning aspect. About the only relevant planning info presented (early on) was to plan with ABRP but verify with PlugShare. (Which is also what Dave04Porsche is recommending - Thanks!)

I think it would be really useful for someone with experience to post a summary planing guide for Road Trips. I would also expect it would need to be generated based on experience with our particular vehicle as the software and options change as you move between platforms.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this?

whiz944

ABRP and plugshare are your two main tools. I agree with Dave - plan with ABRP and verify each potential charging site with plugshare. Be sure to do a plugshare checkin and give feedback at each charging site to "pay it forward" to future road trippers. (Funny thing - I almost never do plugshare checkins at Superchargers, but almost always do anywhere else.)

Tell ABRP you want to do the first leg starting with 100% charge. It is one of the "tunables" in the Settings area. If you are the type who likes driving 10-20% over, and what Porsche driver doesn't..., set that in ABRP as well.

As a private pilot, the trip planning should quickly become second nature to you. My dad was an avid private pilot. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, we'd fly privately on most of our family vacations. I loved helping him plan the trips back then. Probably one major reason I enjoy planning, and sometimes doing, long road trips now. (One of my brothers flies, and still owns three of dads old airplanes.)

evanevery

- 10-4 regarding paying it forward!

- Yeah, I saw the default 90% starting range and just figured I would take the extra 10% as insurance...

- Similarly, many suggest adding an additional 10-20% over the default range set by ABRP?

- Yeah, I can pretty much plan the $hit out of any cross-country flight! You are right, that's one of my driving factors on getting a leg up on the cross-country EV planning process. I used to fly my Cirrus SR22 back and forth to the Bahamas, Regina SK (Canada), and Denver quite frequently (originating in the Milwaukee area). Somewhat sadly, my bird is currently for sale as I really have too many other things taking up my time. Its the old pilot issue of "Currency vs Proficiency". Its just not safe to fly the distances I want to fly and not be maintaining my Commercial IFR proficiency at the level I want it to be. IOW: Its possible for a Pilot to be "legal" without necessarily being "safe"... Maybe when I finally retire, I'll get another airplane, buff off the rust, and once again enjoy epic international cross-country flights to/from my boat in the Bahamas!

daveo4porsche

I've not yet road tripped with a Taycan so I'm don't know what % buffer I'm comfortable with - given my extensive road tripping with Model S' and Model X's I'm now comfortable with plans that are +/- 5% battery SOC according to the web planners and in car planner…i.e. if the planner says I'll arrive with 8% battery - I know 3% would be worse case - also monitoring of usage during the drive and minor reductions in highway speed early in the trip pays huge dividends at the charging stop in terms of confidence in your battery % buffer - as you get closer to your charging destination and battery % remaining is more clear adding speed is acceptable - as I've said in other threads I've never ever in my life under any circumstance driven well over 90 mph in an EV covering the last 10 or 20 miles to a charger because I could see from remaining charge I would easily make it…never ever, not once -

evanevery

I'm re-running the trip on ABRP. Setting the origin SOC to 100% is pretty straight forward.

However, how are folks pushing the range by 10-20%? I guess I can reduce the "Charger Arrival SOC" from 10% to 0% but that would only buy me 10%. I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable doing any more than that, but is there some other setting I'm not seeing?

EDIT: Oh wait! ...are we talking about a DIFFERENT 10-20% over? ;-)

daveo4porsche

yeah the first road trip should be conservative with buffers - as you gain experience with he car you can push it more - but I agree with your approach

one thing I have noticed about EV's I that their consumption is wicked consistent - trips that take 18% battery almost always take 18% battery - so once you get "dialed" in to your Taycan you can travel with confidence - they are soooo precise that you can trust accuracy to with in 3 or 4% - but the first trip is going to need some wiggle room

I'd suggest a 250 mile round trip "day" trip if you could - 2 hours one direction - 2 hours back - and carefully note consumption vs. plan - I'm pretty confident that once experience will give you a pretty good gauge of how close you can come with planners…

whiz944

In the Settings -> "Batteries & Chargers" area, you can set the arrival percentage for both intermediate charging stops and at your destination. Use these for your 'insurance' en-route, and also to allow for some charge for driving around at your destination. There are other ABRP settings to allow fine tuning based on weather conditions, etc.

One thing you alluded to in your OP, and bears mentioning is charging networks. At any given site, plugshare will usually tell you what charging network it belongs to. However because you specified a Taycan, ABRP is prioritizing EA for charging for you - so obviously one would want to get set up for that. (Since I don't own a Taycan, someone else will have to speak up on how to get signed up for the Porsche free charging stuff.)

As far as other charging networks go, at least out here in California, it is good to have a Chargepoint account active. Preload the account with like $25. I also have an EVgo account. Normally EVgo is like EA and requires a monthly subscription in order to qualify for lowest charging rates. However I don't have a monthly subscription charge on EVgo thanks to a special program that our Northern California AAA has with them. Perhaps a similar deal is available elsewhere.

Note that the charging networks typically have a phone app that you need to install from the app store. Once on your phone, and linked up to your account with them, you can check station status, start&stop charging, and so on. Makes the experience more seamless than messing with credit card readers and screens that have faded from the sun or vandalized. There are phone app versions of plugshare and ABRP too.

Also - are you thinking of doing the 13 hour trip in one shot? Or staying somewhere in between? If the latter, and the hotel/motel has some form of overnight charging, you can set a waypoint in ABRP and tell it you want it to arrive with a certain charge level, and charge there at ?? kW for ?? hours. Plugshare can help here as well. Turn on the Amenities->lodging filter, and also turn on J1772, 14-50, and Wall filters.

I hope you are able to find the time to fly again!

My brother still has dads 310R, Twin Comanche, and Stearman. He regularly flies all of them.

evanevery

I have already set myself up with Electrify America, Porsche Connect, PlugShare, and ChargeHub accounts. I also have pretty much every major mobile app installed as noted in the OP and accounts already established with services that support them.

- I believe Porsche Connect will ultimately enable my access to the free 3-Years of service with Electrify America. (I have my Porsche Connect account already set up while I wait patiently for the vehicle to be delivered). I will also ultimately enable Credit Card payment through the EA app to cover any "overages" on the EA network...

- ChargePoint reportedly has a Roaming agreement with EVGo, so that should give me access to both networks with my ChargePoint login/payment. Why do you have BOTH EVGo and ChargePoint accounts?

So, I think I should already be covered on EA, EVGo, and ChargePoint networks. Are their some other networks/apps I should consider?

Yup, I typically do that 700 mile trip all in one day. I enjoy driving and I'ld sooner watch the view through my windshield than the view from a chair to a TV in some hotel room. I've even done the entire trip (11 hrs) nonstop in my 36 gallon diesel pickup (minimizing personal fluid consumption for obvious reasons). So, no hotels necessary...

OttawaSteve

Another good reason to not take the ferry route is that it crosses into Canada, which is currently a no-no and will be until at least September and likely longer. Hopefully everyone can get this pestilence under control soon and we can welcome our American friends back into Canada.

evanevery

Yeah, WE really are failing miserably at this...

[Rant]
Somehow you're a hero if you jump on a grenade to save your trench-buddies, but wearing an effing face mask is simply a "bridge too far" for some folks... Too much of a personal sacrifice to protect others I guess.

Its a free country, right? Therefore I should be able to drive at any speed I want, right?
[/Rant]