20-02-2025
What I Learned Driving a Porsche Taycan from Detroit to L.A.
At Road & Track, we like to live the dream. Sometimes that means driving supercars in exotic locations, and sometimes that means impromptu road trips to pick up impulsive car purchases from the other side of the country. My love of a bargain led me to buy a 2022 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo in Michigan, having only appraised it through online pictures. The next challenge was to get this luxury EV home to California.
I did make it, eventually, without having to resort to either cannibalism or gasoline. This proved to me that it is possible to drive an EV 2300 miles, in winter, with zero preplanning. But not zero thought—there was plenty of time for that in the five days it took me to make the trip. Which is what I wanted to share here.
The first revelation was that driving on New Year's Eve—when I started the journey—and also New Year's Day is incredibly luxurious. It was like heading back to the Sixties or Seventies, or like the early COVID-19 era but without the fear of dying. For three whole charge cycles in the boondocks I was able to leave the adaptive cruise control to regulate speed and not touch a single pedal between entering and leaving the highway.
Yet, despite what might seem like optimal conditions for huge velocities, speeding was futile. EVs are not particularly efficient at highway speeds, especially in winter, and range drops precipitously above 70 mph. So, even in a Porsche, I spent hours and hours doing 74 mph and being passed by everyone because driving any faster would increase the number of charge stops and offset speed-related gains. While frustrating at first, I quickly entered a zen-like state of acceptance. This is how EVs road trip.
I used the time to call people I hadn't spoken to in a while (Porsche's CarPlay interface is excellent), think up ideas for The Smoking Tire podcast and listen to other people's podcasts. Providing you know how long a journey will take, the mental freedom from stress feels pretty good.
Range is also less important than you might expect if you are a human being with bodily functions. In ideal circumstances, with thoughtful planning, the Taycan will do up to 300 miles. But with no planning, in cold weather, constantly cruising at 74 mph saw me stop to charge for 20 to 30 minutes every 150 to 160 miles. Having a car that forces you to stop so often can be frustrating, but it is definitely better for spinal health than trying to one-hit a long trip.
Driving in the cold reduces range, with most EVs losing about 20 percent when temperatures drop to freezing. I watched the range estimates increase steadily as I headed west and it grew warmer, from 160 miles at 19 degrees Fahrenheit to 240 miles in 70 degrees.
Despite the fact that 19 of my 21 visits to DC fast-chargers were seamless and trouble-free, I didn't end the trip with a complete trust in the infrastructure, that any charger will work as reliably as a gas pump. Of the two unsuccessful charge stops, one featured an appropriate alternate just up the road; the other resulted in a stressful reroute in which range dropped to an indicated three miles. I then hooked up at slow Level 2 charging unit for a half-hour to juice up enough to get to the next fast-charger.
The bigger frustration is where charging places tend to be located. Few of the fast-chargers seem to be in the sort of small, quaint towns you might want to explore or have lunch while you're adding electrons. No fewer than 13 of my DC stops were at a Walmart, and six others were fundamentally identical to an extended gas-station experience. Only two were in or near cute town squares.
A bigger hiccup in EV road tripping is, surprisingly, "destination charging" at hotels. Sadly, major booking websites do not accurately reflect the reality on the ground. Of three attempts to spend nights at hotels with EV charging units, all failed. At one, the units didn't work. At another, they were all occupied. At the third, they were Tesla Superchargers, and I didn't have an adapter. Had I begun those three drive days with a full charge and the car preheated from shore power, life would have been much easier. Instead, I had to start with a low battery and do an early-morning charge, which, because the car was cold, went slow. Put me in charge of U.S. transportation, and I would insist every hotel with at least 40 parking spaces be required to install at least four Level 2 charge points.
Yet the trip took much less brain power than I was expecting it to take. There are a core number of chargers out there, and even if one doesn't function properly, you have a very high chance of getting to a working one nearby. Porsche's route-planning software is good, and learning to use it on the fly was an excellent primer. In the Porsche, range was also commendably accurate. If I had four miles of range and the charger was two miles away, I knew I would make it—there is none of the inaccuracy of a gas car's generally pessimistic distance-to-empty reading.
My view? If we quadrupled the number of fast-chargers, focusing on densely populated areas first, we would have a viable infrastructure for long-haul EV trips. If there were even 10 percent as many fast-chargers as gas stations we would get there. And for any economically distressed but otherwise charming small towns, install a bank of DC fast-chargers, and you'll soon be drawing a regular stream of relatively well-off people looking to kill time and spend money in your town while charging.
But will we get there? Given the apparent priorities of the current administration, it seems entirely possible my experience in early January won't improve significantly even as the number of EVs on the road continues to rise. Without public subsidy, charging infrastructure is unlikely to get better at the rate it needs to. We might already be at the high-water mark. And yes, that would be sad. So sad.
But if you want time to think, there's plenty if you choose to road trip an EV in winter. At 74 mph.
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