Cannonball! NY-LA EV Record Drops Below 40 Hours

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Most of us won’t ever take a continuous journey from New York to Los Angeles. Why? As a result of the common individual values their sleep greater than they worth setting data. Add in the necessity to pace, keep away from rushing in entrance of police, go sleepy drivers, and slam huge quantities of caffeine, and it turns into the sort of journey few can be prepared to journey alongside for, not to mention drive a part of. Most of us are involved with how EVs carry out in day by day life and regular highway journeys, how they assist handle local weather change and air pollution, and the way they assist with extra sensible issues.

That having been mentioned, these Cannonball data do serve a sensible function: benchmarking. Having the ability to go quicker and quicker throughout the US exhibits us the state of automotive expertise, how good or dangerous the U.S. highway community is, and what sorts of issues regulation enforcement is specializing in. For EVs, it exhibits us how good not solely the automobiles at the moment are, however whether or not the infrastructure to help EVs is bettering.

This newest Cannonball report comes after the identical staff set a record in an older Porsche Taycan in 2021. Then, as now, Porsche EVs didn’t have entry to Tesla Supercharger stations. However, there at the moment are many extra CCS charging stations and the brand new Porsche Taycan expenses quicker, has extra vary, and is mostly a greater highway tripping car than the one from the earlier report.

Since that final effort, others have beat the report, with the present identified report (many individuals wait months to let statutes of limitations run out or scale back regulation enforcement curiosity) being set by a staff in a Tesla Mannequin S. So, this CCS run tells us not simply how issues are going within the EV world, however how non-Tesla EV expertise and infrastructure is doing.

Like all Cannonball runs, this one began on the Pink Ball Storage in Manhattan, however throughout the day as a substitute of beginning at midnight like many different runs historically do. This usually would suck for departures from town, however with the anticipated Porsche Cannonball time, they needed to reach in Los Angeles when it’s much less busy, and Los Angeles is a much bigger downside than New York. They have been capable of begin with 99%, which doesn’t price a lot time.

In contrast to most EVs, this rear-drive EV has a two-speed transmission, which helps with vary. However, the staff has discovered it to be a little bit clunky at instances in comparison with the smoother one-speed expertise most EVs have (at the least per drive unit).

As an alternative of making an attempt to blast at excessive speeds between chargers, the staff’s technique was to deal with getting the very best charging attainable to scale back journey time to set a report. After clearing New York site visitors, the staff deliberate to drive 150 miles to the primary charging cease. After attending to the freeway and settling in to cruise away from town, the panorama modified to appear like nearly any jap interstate freeway.

As an alternative of going 150 miles, they went 283 miles to reach with 0% and optimize charging speeds. Even at 4%, they managed to get 250 kW, rapidly rising to 276 after which as much as 300 and past after 10%. It took solely ten minutes to succeed in 48%, however thermals kicked in and the charging dropped to 200 kW. At this level, they determined to depart to keep away from spending time charging at decrease speeds, aiming for a subsequent charger at 111 miles away.

This technique continued for different charging stations alongside the route, however with 5% targets for arrival to hopefully get higher charging speeds at cooler temperatures. Challenges like charging station energy sharing (the worst was sharing with a number of Hyundais in Colorado), stations that aren’t near the freeway, ramp closures, minor thermal derating, and needing to vary charging stalls at instances all made for delays at instances, but it surely was often solely one thing that price 5 minutes and never one thing worse.

Even within the brief charging instances they’d (often 10-Quarter-hour), there was often time to refine plans for the subsequent charging station. If charging speeds drop early, plans needed to change rapidly to regulate. Protecting to this stride, good instances have been made, particularly in comparison with most EVs that may’t “rip” and get 320 kW.

One other problem they bumped into was that charging stations weren’t at all times spaced proper for excellent charging speeds and journey pace. That is one thing I explored in one other article, and this as soon as once more proves that we want charging stations to be spaced as intently as attainable alongside the best way so that nobody’s stride gets broken and we can keep on moving.

Going by means of Denver and the Rockies wasn’t dangerous for them, contemplating. Minor site visitors delays, small closures alongside the climbing aspect, and such ended up including about an hour to the journey time. Dropping again down into Utah and into the desert might give them some means to make up time. They have been additionally capable of get choosy about chargers alongside some sections, skipping Grand Junction to keep away from needing to go removed from the freeway.

The ultimate plan was to get to Baker, California for the final cease to not want any charging additional into California the place crowding and site visitors might kill their time. There was principally downhill to go for the final leg, however solely after climbing as much as Barstow after which dropping all the way down to sea stage at Portofino. This was at Electrify America’s “flagship” station with 12 chargers, and the one different car sharing with them was a Bolt, leaving loads of obtainable energy on the website. So, this one “ripped” and gave them respectable speeds of 311 kW to the battery.

The ultimate time for the journey was 39 hours and 29 minutes, three hours quicker than the final EV Cannonball report.

Vital Takeaways

Breaking into the 30s (beneath 40 hours) is essential as a result of it places EVs nearer to Alex Roy territory. For these unfamiliar, Alex Roy ran the primary Cannonball try in many years again in 2004, making a brand new report time and reviving curiosity in Cannonball runs throughout a time when police have been much more strict and bothersome. Breaking into the 30s means EVs are beginning to get into fashionable ICE territory, even when ICE runs have gone effectively into the 20s by now.

Charging has improved since its 2022-23 nadir. Kyle says that he’d fee CCS charging infrastructure at 7/10 now, and that’s higher than it has been in a very long time. So, this exhibits that charging firms are literally bettering!

Charging can be significantly aided by software program. The route planning software program within the Porsche was about the very best the staff had seen in any EV (and so they’ve examined MANY EVs). However, on the similar time, this journey time required loads of ability on the a part of Kyle. He had tens of hundreds of miles driving Taycans round the US and Europe, and knew precisely learn how to rip probably the most charging efficiency out of the automobile. So, there’s nonetheless loads of room for software program to include a few of this experience and enhance issues for all drivers.

Featured picture by Porsche.