Out of Spec races 9 EV sedans (+ 1 ICE) across the U.S.A., I-90 from Seattle to Boston

[roger-on-taycan]

The Out Of Spec crew picked the 8 most efficient EV sedans available in the U.S., plus an ICE Acura and a 10-year old Model S for contrast, and drove them non-stop across the country to see which one would make it first.

The rules were no speeds over the speed limit + 10, making it mostly a contest of efficiency and charging speed (and strategy).

Warning: in true Out Of Spec style these videos are super long -- like over 3 hours long ?.

Racing From Seattle To Boston In The Best Road Tripping EVs! The Cross Country I-90 Surge - Pt. 1/4

The Race Is ON! Longest Range & Fastest Charging EVs Depart Seattle Starting The I-90 Surge -Pt. 2/4

The I-90 Surge Continues! Racing EVs Across USA: Leaders Pull Ahead Pt. 3/4

I-90 Surge Race To The Finish Line! This Is The Fastest Electric Car To Drive Across USA - Pt. 4/4

The Taycan did well, primarily on the strength of being a charging monster.

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[Flying ace]

Ha! The Lucid and Genesis stopped at the same EA station in Smelterville that I planned on my trip.

I experienced the Taycan's max charging speed during my session.

Coincidentally, I also had the Ritzville EA and Post Falls EVgo as alternatives on my trip but did not need it as Smelterville was juicing!

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...ycan-pickup-delivery-report.21721/post-339402

 

[BjörnfromHamburg]

The Taycan overall just needed 2 hours more than the ICE vehicle. (Some 46 hours to 44 hours)
Around 5% more time on such an epic distance is really impressive.
It's all about charging reliability and charging speeds.
And that is how I experience travelling with the Taycan also:
My TS CT pre-facelift has about the worst range throughout the Taycan line-up, but I don't care at all. Especially in Europe the charging network is so dense and reliable, I really enjoy high-speed travelling with this car.

 

[rs38]

did someone find a sum of the charged energy per vehicle?

 

[Zcd1]

did someone find a sum of the charged energy per vehicle?

Thank you for posting this screen shot.

On principle, I refuse to watch any of this channel’s videos because they are SO poorly edited. Meaning they take at least 4x the time that would actually be required to convey the information.

 

[SergeyIndy]

I interpret the chart (did not watch the video) as a a total sweep by the new Taycan with the following variables contributing to the win: efficiency with great Cd and aero, improved recoup strategy, and charging speed especially at lower temps. I am surprised that Lucid is so far behind with superior Cd of .197 vs Taycan .22 and much longer range on a single charge.

 

[gtm]

I interpret this as a a total sweep by the new Taycan with the following variables contributing to the win: efficiency with great Cd and aero, improved recoup strategy, and charging speed especially at lower temps. I am surprised that Lucid is so far behind with superior Cd of .197 vs Taycan .22 and much longer range on a single charge.

The Lucid ran out of electrons and got stranded. It was pretty consistently positioned between 2nd and 4th, depending on who was stopped to charge. They were counting on a sizeable buffer below zero which they used early in the trip. This time when they were counting on it it had disappeared. The fact that they got going again as quickly as they did was something of a miracle. Way too long, as usual with Out of Spec, and I can't really recommend watching 10 hours of other people driving but it was somehow addicting.

 

[roger-on-taycan]

I thought that one of the interesting takeaways was that the Supercharger network didn’t provide as much advantage to the Teslas as they expected it would, and EA was not as much of a disadvantage to the rest of the cars as they thought it would be.

 

[Flying ace]

I thought that one of the interesting takeaways was that the Supercharger network didn’t provide as much advantage to the Teslas as they expected it would, and EA was not as much of a disadvantage to the rest of the cars as they thought it would be.

yeah, the EA issues has been WAY overblown. It appears EA has made massive uptime improvements in the last 12 months.

My experience on my road trip from Montana to California with EA was great. 3 of my 6 sessions topped out at Taycan's max speeds and the other 3 sessions were at 150-160kw average. I only experienced one incident of having to swap dispensers.

 

[Flying ace]

I interpret this as a a total sweep by the new Taycan with the following variables contributing to the win: efficiency with great Cd and aero, improved recoup strategy, and charging speed especially at lower temps. I am surprised that Lucid is so far behind with superior Cd of .197 vs Taycan .22 and much longer range on a single charge.

I've only watched most of part 2 (Washington and Idaho.) But based on highlights, this race was less of a practical approach most owners will take, but more akin to hyper-mileing and stretching range down to zero, risks that no sensible owner will actually do on a road trip. It appears only the first stop was the most reasonable stop for everyone in which every car planned a 10% buffer.

 

[Flying ace]

The Taycan overall just needed 2 hours more than the ICE vehicle. (Some 46 hours to 44 hours)
Around 5% more time on such an epic distance is really impressive.
It's all about charging reliability and charging speeds.
And that is how I experience travelling with the Taycan also:
My TS CT pre-facelift has about the worst range throughout the Taycan line-up, but I don't care at all. Especially in Europe the charging network is so dense and reliable, I really enjoy high-speed travelling with this car.

Also note the operators of the ICE car already knew they were going to win, so they actually took their time and made many unnecessary stops for food and sight seeing.

In any long distance competition whereby it's thousands of miles over multiple stops, the ICE typically wins (by a lot)

I think the part that is misleading regarding all these long distance test is that it's not practical for the driver. Just because the car can provide a non stop range of 200 to 400 miles, doesn't mean the driver has the ability to actually do it. Over the course of the video, there's a ton of comments about needing to pee. Personally on any long distance drive especially with my kids, I have to stop every 2 hours or about every 120 miles. On my recent road trip by myself, I still had to stop every 2.5 hours or about 150 miles for a restroom and food break.

 

[2P168S]

The Lucid was done a major disservice in the way it was driven and optimized, often undercharged and then run at lower speeds to make the next charger. This is never the fastest way to travel; the math here is very simple (hell, Tesla even puts mph on the charging screen. If it's faster than you can drive, it's faster to add more energy than to slow down!)

But I have no doubt that even a competently driven Lucid would have lost to the Taycan, which was truly impressive.
Also very impressed by the Ioniq 6, for the cost. Charged consistently well with decent efficiency.

And I agree the way these videos are edited is frustrating. I tend to watch them over many days with lots of skipping.

 

[roger-on-taycan]

The Lucid was done a major disservice in the way it was driven and optimized, often undercharged and then run at lower speeds to make the next charger. This is never the fastest way to travel; the math here is very simple (hell, Tesla even puts mph on the charging screen. If it's faster than you can drive, it's faster to add more energy than to slow down!)

It seems like the Lucid guys were trying to optimize pretty aggressively, and (evidently) they went too far. The thing with optimizing your charging stops is that the price of being too aggressive is much higher than the price of being too conservative -- you fall off a cliff.

The other thing about the Lucid was that its real-world efficiency (in this case, anyway) was just 3.3 mi/kWh. That's not bad, certainly. But it's not the kind of "miles ahead" level that Rawlinson talks about either. 10% better than the Taycan is good but not amazing.

 

[2P168S]

Agree. The Lucid appears to be very efficient at lower speeds with a significantly lower advantage at real US highway speeds.

 

[tropical]

The videos were way too long yet somehow I watched about half!

They claimed that Luicd told them the car had a huge buffer and they should use it, which worked well earlier in the trip but then the buffer disappeared.

I was really surprised by just how bad the BMW was. Only allowing a couple of fast charges before rate limiting seems crazy.

Also the Kia’s charging plan. It seemed to want them to arrive at a charger with 50% charge remaining.

Would love to know how a J1 with non aero wheels would compare.

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