How much energy does sitting in traffic use?

[Mikegrr]

I have a 115 mile trip to visit my son in New York City. Most of the driving is on highway traveling 80 miles per hour. As you approach NY, there is often a large traffic jam and I can sit in traffic for 1/2 or longer. The whole trip takes 2.5 hours. I have the small 76 kw battery. At full charge the car says I can go 230 miles. I have paid to have my son install a 230/50 amp line.
1. Can I make the trip without stopping with all systems on. It’s hot and my wife will want the AC at 72 degrees. It’s an annoying trip so we will not feel like stopping on the way to charge.
2. if the car says 230 miles , how much overhead does the car functions use? Does it really go 230 miles? If I drive 115 miles in varying conditions, what percent of battery will I use?
3 what does range mode actually do? I set it to max speed, 85 MPH
4. How much energy use is there sitting in stop and go traffic?
5. My friend with a Lucid says he has to add 20% battery use for just the operation of the car. Is the Taycan similar?

I’m not sure how to figure this stuff out so I’d appreciate any information or insights.

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[Mikegrr]

So if I get 1 mile/kWh I can go 76 miles and if I get 2 miles per kWh I can go 154 miles. Is this simple math the correct way to figure out mileage. ?
so I need to get better than 1.5/kWh to go 110 miles and that leaves very little to spare. so how do I figure how many kWh / hour Im using?

 

[Mikegrr]

Is the standard battery 79 kh? Not 76.

 

[daveo4EV]

the car does not use a lot of energy battery wise if it's not moving - there is some power used for Airconditioning and running the electronics - but EV's are very very efficient - you'd have to be sitting in traffic for many many hours with out moving to notice any major battery draw and even then it's way less than actually moving the vehicle.

 

[daveo4EV]

So if I get 1 mile/kWh I can go 76 miles and if I get 2 miles per kWh I can go 154 miles. Is this simple math the correct way to figure out mileage. ?
so I need to get better than 1.5/kWh to go 110 miles and that leaves very little to spare. so how do I figure how many kWh / hour Im using?

the car can show you miles/kWh in various trip computers - Taycan is normally at least 2 miles/kWh - average 2.6 to 2.8 miles/kWh - and sometimes as high as 3.2 miles/kWh

you can rely on 2.3 or more miles/kWh unless you're really really heavy with the accelerator or it's all uphill "both ways"

 

[daveo4EV]

also if you put the destination into the PCM navigation the car will "show you" the expected battery percentage upon arrival - it's pretty accurate +/- 3% - even with some traffic you will not lose a lot.

80 mph is much much less efficient than even 70 mph - speed is the range killer - if you're finding that it's not going to make it reducing speed can greatly greatly extend range - aero-dynamic drag on all cars has a velocity squared V^2 component to drag - so each 5 mph is more expensive than the previous 5 mph - it grows geometrically rather than linearly…at 40 mph Taycan is a 350+ mile vehicle - after 40 mph all the loss in range is due to speed/aero-drag.

put the destination into the navigation (you don't even have to be driving it you can just "test it out" setting in the garage)…if you're driving over the legal limit by a quite a margin then take another few % points off the navigation estimate - you can monitor the estimate while driving - and if it's falling like a rock reduce speed…

but 115 mile for 230 miles range - you should be fine - traffic sitting could consume 3-10 miles of that "budget" to run the airconditioning and computers while idle.

sitting in traffic is not your problem for range 70/80/90 mph is way way way way worse for range vs. sitting in traffic…

 

[daveo4EV]

last weekend I drove from Willow's california to Aptos, CA in my 2020 Taycan turbo - 220 miles point to point according to maps - I left with 98% charge and arrived with 11% charge - speeds were posted limits +/- 5 mph for the first 1/2 of the trip and slightly more for the 2nd 1/2 of the trip

car estimated 8% battery arrival when I was in willows, arrived home with 11% - this was the bay area - so there was some traffic "sitting".

 

[tchavei]

After spending an hour converting your miles into my SI km standard ?, my very personal opinion is: it's a nobrainer.

Your car says it can do 230 miles at 100% (370km). Your voyage is 116 miles (185km) which is like 50%. AC doesn't consume too much. I once spent 45 min waiting for family at a Shopping mall in a VERY hot day and I lost 1% of battery in the process. I'd expect you arriving with plenty to spare (30-40%+) even with an extra hour stuck in a traffic jam,.

 

[Neptune]

My worst case policy is you can always count on 50% of the estimated range no matter what.

- Range mode helps for long trips.

 

[Porsche-Guru]

I have a 115 mile trip to visit my son in New York City. Most of the driving is on highway traveling 80 miles per hour. As you approach NY, there is often a large traffic jam and I can sit in traffic for 1/2 or longer. The whole trip takes 2.5 hours. I have the small 76 kw battery. At full charge the car says I can go 230 miles. I have paid to have my son install a 230/50 amp line.
1. Can I make the trip without stopping with all systems on. It’s hot and my wife will want the AC at 72 degrees. It’s an annoying trip so we will not feel like stopping on the way to charge.
2. if the car says 230 miles , how much overhead does the car functions use? Does it really go 230 miles? If I drive 115 miles in varying conditions, what percent of battery will I use?
3 what does range mode actually do? I set it to max speed, 85 MPH
4. How much energy use is there sitting in stop and go traffic?
5. My friend with a Lucid says he has to add 20% battery use for just the operation of the car. Is the Taycan similar?

I’m not sure how to figure this stuff out so I’d appreciate any information or insights.

You have 230 mile capacity and a 115 mile journey.
There shouldn't be much to worry.... even with A/C and and sitting in traffic for a while.
There is no way you are going to achieve less than 50% real world mileage against expected, especially on a 100 mile+ trip.

 

[Mikegrr]

Does the car show instantaneous miles per kWh or an average?

 

[daveo4EV]

Does the car show instantaneous miles per kWh or an average?

average - I'd recommend spending some quiet time in the car in the garage and play with the digital dash board... you can have all these stats in front of you if you customize the dash display settings…and the "trip" scope on the dash board will show you miles/kwh since last start, since last charge, and since "ever"

if you want to know what your Taycan does for miles/kwh the data is in the car right now!!! just go call up the trip computer info from the PCM right now!!

my guess is it's no worse than 2.5 miles/kWh…probably at least 2.6 mi/kwh

the navigation software and the car itself will tell you exactly all the answers you're looking for - you don't have to guess - it's not a secret - all it takes is spending some time learning how to use the displays…and then if you like customize them to show you the data you are requesting - it's all there in the car, in real time, with your actual driving consumption history.

 

[Deleted member 6348]

115 miles isn’t going to be a stretch with the standard Performance Battery. That being said, given that you’re new to the longer trips. Start out with a full charge so that you won’t be worrying about it at all. Run in ECO mode, not ECO+ for some additional piece of mind.

It sounds like you’ve got charging at your destination covered.

Traffic, stop and go, generates a bit of regen — you’ll outperform pure highway range. I’ve sat, completely stopped, for nearly an hour and the A/C power consumption was on the order of miles.

No way does running the A/C in a Taycan use 20% of the power. I am not surprised that Lucid would have those issues.

Use the built-in navigation and you’ll know the percentage left when you arrive.

 

[W1NGE]

I have a 115 mile trip to visit my son in New York City. Most of the driving is on highway traveling 80 miles per hour. As you approach NY, there is often a large traffic jam and I can sit in traffic for 1/2 or longer. The whole trip takes 2.5 hours. I have the small 76 kw battery. At full charge the car says I can go 230 miles. I have paid to have my son install a 230/50 amp line.
1. Can I make the trip without stopping with all systems on. It’s hot and my wife will want the AC at 72 degrees. It’s an annoying trip so we will not feel like stopping on the way to charge.
2. if the car says 230 miles , how much overhead does the car functions use? Does it really go 230 miles? If I drive 115 miles in varying conditions, what percent of battery will I use?
3 what does range mode actually do? I set it to max speed, 85 MPH
4. How much energy use is there sitting in stop and go traffic?
5. My friend with a Lucid says he has to add 20% battery use for just the operation of the car. Is the Taycan similar?

I’m not sure how to figure this stuff out so I’d appreciate any information or insights.

No precise answer here.

Try not driving at 80mph - high consumption at 70mph+

Beyond that, switching AC to ECO mode (or ECO Plus when in Range Mode) will contribute the most battery saving - clearly not ideal when warm.

Range Mode will not contribute a lot depending on how you have it configured - AC ECO Plus (essentially 'off') makes the difference. Range Mode with AC on normal equates to < 10 miles additional range.

As @daveo4EV points out, use the NAV to give you the battery level at your destination as this will take various (current) conditions into consideration.

 

[daveo4EV]

you don't have to guess at this stuff - the car will tell you the answers you seek - including how much battery you'll have at your destination - I'm for example at 82% battery right now and a 120 mile trip from Santa Cruz, Ca to Sonoma Raceway will land me at Sonoma w/31% battery - that's well with in the estimate error (+/- 3%) that I don't have to worry about making it

simply put your destination into the navigation in the garage and the car will tell you how much battery you'll have when you get to the destination.

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