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Porsche Taycan Range is Making United States EPA Rating Look Bad

Porsche has invested billions into the development and marketing of the Taycan and despite all the amazing reviews of the all-electric 4 seater, the one major consideration for customers is the overall range of the car.

Despite having a similar sized battery of 93.4 kWh, Porsche purposely holds back 10 kWh for buffering in order to extend battery life, which sounds in line with how Tesla recommends to their customers to charge up to 90%. There are two different strategies, but it looks like Porsche’s strategy came back to bite them in their beautiful rear end.

The United States based EPA recent gave the Taycan Turbo a rating of 201 miles and the young sibling, Taycan Turbo S, a measly 192 miles. For electric vehicles that represent the very high end of electric cars, this was a shocking number that some would say helped Tesla stock skyrocket.

But now, it’s being reported by InsideEVs.com that EPA rating may be a bit off as Porsche invited some writers down to Atlanta Georgia to again test drive the Taycans.

Not for the pure acceleration over and over, but to see what a 450 mile road trip will look like from Atlanta to Daytona Beach, Florida with the hopes of occassional Model 3 sightings along the way.

“On one occasion when I was driving I happened to pull next to a Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor long range and had to show off a little. We were going about 80 mph and lined up next to him, looked at the driver and punched the throttle. When I looked at the speedometer a couple seconds later I was already at 115 mph. The Model 3 didn’t try to follow, and that was probably a wise decision on their part. I own a Model 3 with that same configuration and I can say with confidence a race wouldn’t have ended well for them.”

There was some great data being recorded on the trip and I highly recommend going over to read the post to understand all that went into the testing for Porsche.

Starting SOC 98% 96% 96%

Ending SOC 39% 41% 34%

SOC Used 59% 55% 62%

Miles Driven 134 143 159

Remaining Range Est. 91 mi 98 mi 81 mi

Total Range w/Estimate 225 mi 241 mi 240 mi

Miles Per kWh 2.71 3.11 3.06

Observed Total Range 227 mi 260 mi 256 mi.

From the looks of it, the EPA rating of 201 pales in comparison with the 225-241 mile range being shown here. There were real-life weather conditions such as rain and wind, but note that there was also an overall 1,000 foot elevation drop from Atlanta to Daytona Beach.

It would have been great, if they ran the test back the same route from Daytona Beach to Atlanta to see what kind of numbers will fill the above graph, but overall, this helps give a great perspective on where Porsche is right now and what the average customer will be handing $100,000+ over for.

What are your thoughts? How many more years until Porsche catches up to the range that Tesla Model S owners are experiencing?

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3 Comments

  1. I’ve done the math…

    That 1000 foot drop accounts for about 1.9 kWh of potential energy. That does not account for an extra 40 miles of range. The EPA rating is dead wrong.

    1. no This does NOT prove the EPA rating is “wrong”.
      EPA is a standard measuring procedure, done the same way on ALL cars and Brands
      One short trip downhill to prove an EPA rating (done by independent authorities) is “wrong”
      is not going to work, whats next a proof-trip from Manua-Kea to Hilo?
      This Taycans lowest efficiency per mile is proven in so many tests already, (about 500wh/mi is plain bad compared to ALL other BEV cars regardless type or brand)
      All this trip proves is that tricks are used and honesty seems overrated with German brands, but we know that already.

  2. Living in Switzerland i find it very hard to get reliable wh/km readings as often the startpoint is lower or higher than the endpoint, making a very big difference! (in a TM3p)

    The fact that the finish is at least 1000Ft lower than the start is very convenient, and does not
    really help to give the impression of a “fair” realistic test.

    Lifting 2370Kg over 1043Ft takes (7534382 joules)2.1Kwh mathematically, and thats excluding efficiency (not a highlight of the Taycan) and mechanical conversion.
    So this offsets the measurements by 2.1 to maybe 4Kwh…
    If you bother to google of wiki the math you will find out this neat little trick adds 10 to 20 miles to all “measured” ranges…

    So much for honesty, so much for proof..

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