Minneapolis to Fargo Trip - June 2026

[Davescharf]

Last weekend we drove from Minneapolis to Fargo with a stop in a small town for dinner. Google Maps says the distance from door to hotel was 251 miles. I’ve had the Macan 3 months and this was our first road trip.

This was the first time I charged my Macan 4 to 100% and after a couple short trips in town we left with 95% SOC. It was 90F and we had 4 people and a trunk full of luggage. We were so full that even the frunk came in handy. The trip up was mostly 70-75 mph.

When we stopped for dinner I used a nearby 7.5kw/h charger. The 36 miles of range it added was enough to get us to Fargo with 17% SOC. Given we were running seat coolers and the AC all the way I was happy to not need another stop. We got 3.0 miles per kWh according to the Porsche App.

The trip home was very different. We drove all freeway and without the dinner stop it was 230 miles. There’s an EA charger halfway and I had 60% SOC when we left. I put the route in the planner and it advised me to top off at the Fargo EA station before leaving (it was nice that it was only a mile from the swim meet we were at).

I was pretty confused as to why I’d need to stop to top off until we started driving. There was a front coming in and I was driving 80mph with a full car on another hot summer day. The added fun was a strong headwind all the way. 109 miles to the EA station took my SOC from 80% to 26%. The second half of the trip had us arriving at 18%. This all came out to a total efficiency of 2.4 miles per kWh.

Besides the slow charger and the 2 EAs I used an EV Go charger by the hotel. I’d never setup the app so initialization was a bit clunky (turns out that station is part of their extended network) but before I went inside I saw the charge rate go over 240 kw/h and I charged from 17% to 80% in 21 minutes. I didn’t precondition the battery but it was pretty close to optimal when I got there. The EA station on the way home charged from 26% to 80% in 18 minutes and it was seamless.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first road trip, use of DC chargers and max charge experience. All in all it was pretty easy although it took me a few minutes at the EA stations to remember that I’m auto billed

The thing though I didn’t expect was that the planner would take that headwind into account before we left. I hadn’t read anything about that although I’m sure it’s mentioned here somewhere and I never really noticed.

The ride was great even on the sometimes terrible Minnesota roads. I can’t wait for the next road trip

Posting a couple pics from the EV Go station just because…

Sponsored

 

[PrudentOcean]

If you wind up having to use a DC charger from a network you haven't used before (such as the EVgo), you usually don't need to create an account or install an app. The vast majority will allow contactless payments using your phone or by tapping your credit card.

The exception is Tesla's SuperCharger network since they have no LCD touchscreen or payment interface. You'll need to use the Tesla app to create an account and to initiate charging.