[Trip Report] - I'm peddling as fast as I can to generate electrons… PEC ATL to Santa Cruz in a Macan EV Turbo?

Team,

if you should care - Porsche has finally acquiesced to provide me a potential Atlanta Delivery date for my 2024 Macan EV Turbo…

they have provided me a range of possible pick up dates and asked me to pick my top 3 - I have provided my top 3 and I'm simply awaiting Porsche Atlanta's response/confirmation…

If/when we have those dates I will be hustling to pick up my Macan and will Road trip it home from the PEC Atlanta…

the trip will be ~2500 miles and in balancing all factors season, personal time, distance, etc - hwy 40 looks to be the least dramatic way to get an EV from Georgia to the San Francisco Bay Area…

I will use this thread to keep people updated and allow all of us to "play from home" while I embark on this adventure…at a minimum I'll get a good sample of the quality of EV charging options along this route - I will also be packing a pretty robust "ev road warrior kit" for L1/L2 charging should it be necessary…

my primary plan is 1-2 fast charging stops a day at high quality chargers pre-selected based plug-share date and route information - and then select hotels with known good L2 chargers for an overnight top-up…

if things go to plan and the Macan presents no issues it looks to be a 3 to 4 day trip and a good friend from college is joining me on the adventure to share the driving duties…

I'll look forward to sharing my experience and photos from along the route and hopefully I don't have to use Porsche road side assistance - fingers crossed…

I'll update this thread once we have confirmed dates and it looks like I'm committed to this boondoggle…

it's already painful apparently in planning that Supercharger access would make this trip far easier and offer greater certainty- let's hope VW/Audi/Porsche make good on their 2025 proposal for North American supercharger access - having access to both the NACS fast charging network and the CCS1 fast charging network is a no-brainer for everyone and gives us all more freedom and choice and resilience against variables…

CCS1 looks like it can do it - but there is an excellent set of NACS fast chargers that I do not yet have access to for this trip…and that means less choice and more constraints.

I look forward to following your journey, thank you very much!

Exciting prospect, fingers crossed it all goes well!

I’m just back from a NE road trip (NJ/NY/ON/QC/VT/NY/NJ), with all charging done at either Electrify America or Electrify Canada and it was butter smooth!
Only once did I need to wait (15 minutes) for a stall at a charger, no wait otherwise. Charged at 350kw most times, 150kw the rest - very happy!

I'm going to give Porsche a "pass" if I encounter any plug&charge problems - I never had this feature with my 2020 Taycan (was not an option) and I Know how to start charging sessions with app's or via the stall and Point-of-sale credit card reader - I'll be happy if it works - and I'll try and make it work - but I"m not going to "harp" on it not working - I will report charging results and how the session was started…

I will however be ruthless with regards to charging sites and the "uptime/availability" of functional stalls vs. out of commission or unavailable…

plug&charge still seems to be something that needs to be ironed out for EV to achieve wider adoption and we already know there are sometimes issues…

I expect it not to work and I'll sort that after I'm home and not rushed to make up miles on a daily basis to get home.

i pray you don't have any issue with the car... that's a long trip. Plenty of time to find that weak link

tmrqs said:

Exciting prospect, fingers crossed it all goes well!

I’m just back from a NE road trip (NJ/NY/ON/QC/VT/NY/NJ), with all charging done at either Electrify America or Electrify Canada and it was butter smooth!
Only once did I need to wait (15 minutes) for a stall at a charger, no wait otherwise. Charged at 350kw most times, 150kw the rest - very happy!

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how long did the 150 kw charges take?

krissrock said:

i pray you don't have any issue with the car... that's a long trip. Plenty of time to find that weak link

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I hope so also - but Porsche is supposed to make quality products - time to put them to the test.

I would have zero concern about doing this with any car I would consider purchasing - I see no reason to treat my Macan EV any differently.

krissrock said:

how long did the 150 kw charges take?

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To be clear, I was driving a Ioniq 5 (Macan is arriving in a few weeks) - but it also has a 800v architecture like the Macan. Charging times were long-ish because I charged over lunch/dinner and went to 100%, knowing 80 to 100% is much slower.

To answer the question however: on 150kw, I got 56-96% in 34 min and 19-100% in 50 minutes.
From 80% to 100%, it would take about 20ish minutes.

Macan's battery is larger than the Ioniq 5's so times would be a bit longer.

tmrqs said:

To answer the question however: on 150kw, I got 56-96% in 34 min and 19-100% in 50 minutes.
From 80% to 100%, it would take about 20ish minutes.

Macan's battery is larger than the Ioniq 5's so times would be a bit longer.

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interesting... i only have 150 kw charges near me, and realizing that the 10-80% in 20 mins would work with the free 30 min charging from EA....but is that under the assumption of 300 kw charger. So it just came to me that the on the 150 kw chargers, am i gonna hit 80% in 30 mins...?

krissrock said:

interesting... i only have 150 kw charges near me, and realizing that the 10-80% in 20 mins would work with the free 30 min charging from EA....but is that under the assumption of 300 kw charger. So it just came to me that the on the 150 kw chargers, am i gonna hit 80% in 30 mins...?

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To hit 10-80% in 21 minutes, you need a 350kw charger.
At 150kw, you'll definitely be closer to 30 minutes.

the difference between 150 kW and 270 kW maximum charge rate is less than most people surmise given the reality of the charging taper curve - when I've done the maths the real world difference between a working 150 kW charger and a 270 kW charger is about 6-8 minutes ideal case

the reason?

you do not get the benefit of the extra 120 kW for the entire charge session after about 50% battery SOC %, the charging taper curve drops the charge rate to 150 kW or less - so the only time you can actually charge "faster" at a 270 kW charge rate is from where your started to about 50% - after that there is _NO_ difference in charge rate for a 350 kW stall vs. a 150 kW stall, because the maximum charge rate for they battery at 50% or more is 150 kW or less…

6-8 minutes is the best case "improvement" for 270 vs. 150 kW - and for me personally once I've stopped and gotten out of the car I'm going to let the session run the full 30 min while I relax and do something else…

the new Taycan peaks at about 320 kW charge rate and can hold that charge rate deep into the 60%'s - it's benefit is much more significant given the longer duration the battery can spend at 320 kW - but for gen1 Taycan and the Macan which is very similar to gen1 Taycan - the charging time improvements are less pronounced.

daveo4EV said:

the difference between 150 kW and 270 kW maximum charge rate is less than most people surmise given the reality of the charging taper curve - when I've done the maths the real world difference between a working 150 kW charger and a 270 kW charger is about 6-8 minutes ideal case

the reason?

you do not get the benefit of the extra 120 kW for the entire charge session after about 50% battery SOC %, the charging taper curve drops the charge rate to 150 kW or less - so the only time you can actually charge "faster" at a 270 kW charge rate is from where your started to about 50% - after that there is _NO_ difference in charge rate for a 350 kW stall vs. a 150 kW stall, because the maximum charge rate for they battery at 50% or more is 150 kW or less…

6-8 minutes is the best case "improvement" for 270 vs. 150 kW - and for me personally once I've stopped and gotten out of the car I'm going to let the session run the full 30 min while I relax and do something else…

the new Taycan peaks at about 320 kW charge rate and can hold that charge rate deep into the 60%'s - it's benefit is much more significant given the longer duration the battery can spend at 320 kW - but for gen1 Taycan and the Macan which is very similar to gen1 Taycan - the charging time improvements are less pronounced.

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simplifying assumption: 50% is where Macan EV's taper curve drops below 150 kW - exactness doens't matter here since it's a "curve" and below is a simplfied model that mirrors "real world" observed behaviors without the need to be 100% precise…read on if you dare.

question: how much of the battery can charge at 270 kW?

answer:

• 95 kWh "usable" in Macan
• assumption: start charging at 8% on a road trip…most people will start even higher.
• assumption: charging is reduced to 150 kW (or less) at 50% (is this 100% accurate - maybe maybe not - but it's close enough to make the point)
• kWh's subject to "faster" charge rate: well thats 50% - 8% - or 42% of the capacity
• 42% of the capacity of 95 kWh is: 39.9 - lets call it 40 kWh

how long does it take to deliver 40 kWh @ 270 kW?
answer: 40 kWh @ 270 kW takes 8m 24 seconds - call it 8 1/2 minutes
how long does it take to deliver 40 kWh @ 150 kW?
answer: 40 kwh @ 150 kW takes 16 minutes

the "benefit" of charging at 270 kW vs. 150 kW is therefore the difference for the first 42% of the charging curve - of 16 minutes vs. 8.5 minutes - net benefit is 7.5 minutes

the charge time from 50% battery to 90% battery is the same at a 350 kW stall and a 150 kW stall since for that portion of the charging session the maximum charge rate is limited by the battery's taper curve and is at/below 150 kW from 50% to 90%

NOTE: in the real world w/North American EA stations - most of the 150 kW stalls actually do 175 kW in my experience so the math is actually…
how long does it take to deliver 40 kWh @ 175 kW?
answer: 40 kWh @ 175 kW takes 13 m 45 seconds - so the net benefit with a typical EA 150 kW stations is 13 3/4 - 8 1/2 = which is a net improvement of 5 1/4 minutes…

when I stop Im' stopping for at least 30 minutes, unplugging at 31 minutes (or later) and with my taycan that always meant I unplugged at 88-94% regardless of if I was using a 150 kW/350 kW stall…

the faster charging speed is only beneficial for less than 50% of the entire batteries capacity - so you only "win" for about 1/2 (or less) of the charging session - after that the charging speed is the same for both charging speeds.

math!

confirmed for November 15th - so we're doing this!!

not sure what I'm thinking - but what the heck!

daveo4EV said:

confirmed for November 15th - so we're doing this!!

not sure what I'm thinking - but what the heck!

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I love it, good luck but I doubt you need it! You only live once