Questions About Taycan Range and Charging

[peterjames]

I've recently received my Taycan, but I'm still waiting for a home charger to be installed. The other day, I charged my 4S 93.4kWh to 85% on a public charger, yet it only displayed 170 miles. Is that normal? I haven't driven it on the motorway yet, but I doubt it will perform well. Tomorrow, I'll test it for long-range capability. It doesn't seem to cover 170 miles in city driving. I'm uncertain whether I should return it since I have a 14-day window.

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[gtm]

I've recently received my Taycan, but I'm still waiting for a home charger to be installed. The other day, I charged my 4S 93.4kWh to 85% on a public charger, yet it only displayed 170 miles. Is that normal? I haven't driven it on the motorway yet, but I doubt it will perform well. Tomorrow, I'll test it for long-range capability. It doesn't seem to cover 170 miles in city driving. I'm uncertain whether I should return it since I have a 14-day window.

Probably absolutely normal. The displayed range is referred to as the Guess-O-Meter. It is an estimate of your range based on recent driving/usage. Your car is looking at some very inefficient "driving", factory to dock, onto the ship,... In addition regenerative braking is not enabled until the car determines that the brakes are bedded in. In town/start and stop driving is the worst for efficiency. Getting 5,000 lbs up to speed takes a lot of energy. 75+ mph isn't great either. Want to get maximum distance from a charge? Find a 40-50 mph flat road with no stopping. That kind of driving should exceed 300 miles. Once you get some miles on the car you should see roughly 220 miles at 85%. Drive like you are on a race track and you can cut that easily in half (which is true for any vehicle not just EVs). The Taycan is not an efficiency champ and your range will never be spectacular, but it's enough.

 

[W1NGE]

I've recently received my Taycan, but I'm still waiting for a home charger to be installed. The other day, I charged my 4S 93.4kWh to 85% on a public charger, yet it only displayed 170 miles. Is that normal? I haven't driven it on the motorway yet, but I doubt it will perform well. Tomorrow, I'll test it for long-range capability. It doesn't seem to cover 170 miles in city driving. I'm uncertain whether I should return it since I have a 14-day window.

100% normal I'm afraid.

Range will improve in summer / higher ambient's. 240 - 250 might be achievable.at 100% and 200+ at 85%.

Remember that the range is an estimate only.

Short drives, use of heater and larger non aero wheels will impact the estimate and actual range.

Consumption data is more relevant than range.

 

[W1NGE]

Probably absolutely normal. The displayed range is referred to as the Guess-O-Meter. It is an estimate of your range based on recent driving/usage. Your car is looking at some very inefficient "driving", factory to dock, onto the ship,... In addition regenerative braking is not enabled until the car determines that the brakes are bedded in. In town/start and stop driving is the worst for efficiency. Getting 5,000 lbs up to speed takes a lot of energy. 75+ mph isn't great either. Want to get maximum distance from a charge? Find a 40-50 mph flat road with no stopping. That kind of driving should exceed 300 miles. Once you get some miles on the car you should see roughly 220 miles at 85%. Drive like you are on a race track and you can cut that easily in half (which is true for any vehicle not just EVs). The Taycan is not an efficiency champ and your range will never be spectacular, but it's enough.

Not in UK - ambient temp impacts plus all the other range sapping usual culprits. 300 miles in UK is improbable on a 4S IMHO - 3.0 miles / kWh was my best in 2.5 years which is 259 actual miles.

Not clear if car is new or not. I've assumed not due to the 14 day return.

 

[peterjames]

Not in UK - ambient temp impacts plus all the other range sapping usual culprits. 300 miles in UK is improbable on a 4S IMHO - 3.0 miles / kWh was my best in 2.5 years which is 259 actual miles.

Not clear if car is new or not. I've assumed not due to the 14 day return.

Thanks, it's new. It falls under distance buying rights. You can return the car if you don't go to the showroom to make the purchase, for example, over the phone. However, if you visit the showroom, you can't. Today, I'll be testing the car the motorway. It's only 120 miles, but I think it will be a good test.

 

[JP_21]

That range will certainly improve as your car beds in as others have explained before.
I too have a MY2023 4s with 20” turbo wheels
I find as the ambient temperature improves and you are not using any heating the range improves dramatically. (Obviously the higher ambient temperature is also helping with battery efficiency etc)
Snapshot of today. About to do a motorway drive this morning so will post a further update after.

 

[anonymouse]

Why do people obsess over the range guess-o-meter so much? To the point of thinking of returning such a brilliant car??
I travelled all over Europe in a Tesla with less than 200 miles range and it was a complete non issue. Focus on getting home charging installed first - then you can forget looking at range for city driving as your car is full every morning. Unless you are a taxi driver, or have particularly unusual travel patterns, you should never have any real range issues with a Taycan. You just need a wee bit of planning.
As you are in the UK, remember that the Highway Code tells you to stop for a 15 minute break every 1.5-2 hours, which on a road trip almost exactly maps on to a charging stop every 140 miles, especially as you now have one of the fastest charging EVs on the market.

 

[simcity]

Respectfully, in 2024 with the volume of new (and upcoming) public charging infrastructure in the UK and Europe a car (any car!) with a 90 kWh pack does not have range issues.

It's a case of (unfounded) anxiety. Typically shamelessly exploited by the mass hysteria...but I digress

You'll be totally fine.

 

[anonymouse]

It's a case of (unfounded) anxiety. Typically shamelessly exploited by the mass hysteria...but I digress
You'll be totally fine.

You have a good point. The ONLY thing that petrol and diesel car owners can cling to is this notional idea of "range" (unless they are right at the loony fringe and believe all the FUD about lithium mining and so on). There is a massive vested interest, both the car industry and all those people who want to be proud of their polluting cars, who continue to promote fear about range. It's nonsense in UK/Europe (except for a few edge cases where there are gaps in the infrastructure eg parts of Wales). All sensible EV owners know it.

 

[simcity]

There is a massive vested interest, both the car industry and all those people who want to be proud of their polluting cars, who continue to promote fear about range.

AT the risk of taking this thread off topic...whoelheartedly agree.

There is a huge vested interest - either blithely ignored by the mass hysteria - or actively channeled in social media by, well frankly nobodies, who's only interest is in monetising their streams or channels or whatever they want to call their garbage.

It's certainly not journalism. It's gutter trash, designed to attract clicks for the alogorithm to feed you more of this incessant rubbish.

 

[gtm]

Not in UK - ambient temp impacts plus all the other range sapping usual culprits. 300 miles in UK is improbable on a 4S IMHO - 3.0 miles / kWh was my best in 2.5 years which is 259 actual miles.

I kind of forgot about the effect of ambient temp. Where I am ranges from moderate in the winter (50F highs) to hot in the summer (90+). Haven't dealt with range killing cold temps and heater use in a number of years. I must say that 3.0 miles/kWh is pretty poor for a "best". I've managed 3.8 m/kWh twice when the stars are aligned perfectly. 3.4/3.5 isn't rare on longer highway drives. 20" Turbo Aero wheels and the terrain is about as flat as it gets. I suggest a move south to improve on that 3.0 best reading.

 

[Randylip]

I've recently received my Taycan, but I'm still waiting for a home charger to be installed. The other day, I charged my 4S 93.4kWh to 85% on a public charger, yet it only displayed 170 miles. Is that normal? I haven't driven it on the motorway yet, but I doubt it will perform well. Tomorrow, I'll test it for long-range capability. It doesn't seem to cover 170 miles in city driving. I'm uncertain whether I should return it since I have a 14-day window.

 

[Randylip]

You may have the car set to only charge up to a certain percentage. You can control the amount of charge, ie 85% in the charge settings.

 

[Dr Bob]

Not in UK - ambient temp impacts plus all the other range sapping usual culprits. 300 miles in UK is improbable on a 4S IMHO - 3.0 miles / kWh was my best in 2.5 years which is 259 actual miles.

To the OP, Peter,

All perfectly normal. Ignore the range 'guessometer'. As others have said - that's all it is. Set up one of the displays to read 'miles/kWh hour' as W1nge posted. Once the car is run in (regen breaking working) you should be able to see your range. Up here in the central belt, I usually get up to around 2.5 miles/kWhr in the winter (dark, lights on, wipers etc, heater) average over a 12 mile journey from cold starts. If you start driving and warm the car up (say 10 miles) then do another 10 miles at 50mph, you should be getting up to 3.0miles/kWhr (which is a full range of over 250miles) this time of year - it'll be better in a few months. On the motorway at 70mph, I typically get 2.7-2.8.

 

[azraeil]

Completely normal. When I got my car, the range was 180 miles. Was a bit shocked but I read about regen not activated until the brakes are bedded and GoM being GoM so I was relieved. Now after 8k miles, my GoM is saying 275 miles for a full charge with the way I drive.

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