A sub 40 hr. Coast to Coast result is complete with the fastest charging EV on the planet. That being the new, second gen, 2025 Porsche Taycan. Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – Dec. 1, 2024 The newly redesigned, second gen 2025 Porsche Taycan entered the year with some eye-opening results as previously documented below. Namely, Porsche’s top of the line, Turbo GT trim with a peak 1,019 hp and 1092 hp boost for two seconds achieved the fastest lap of any EV ever driven on the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, in California this with a time of 1:27.87. The same Taycan trim set a new EV record on the Nürburgring with a lap time of 7:07.55 AND it was the fastest four-door of any powertrain type. During that record setting run - see the 7 min and 00 sec mark above, the Taycan Turbo GT reached a top speed of 189 mph on the “Betonschleife” or "Concrete Loop" straight. Two months ago, Car and Driver drove the same Turbo GT trim and from the 0 to 60 mph test – 1 foot rollout, it was the first production car of any vehicle to break the 2-second mark to 60 mph with a 1.898 second run in one direction and 1.910 in the other. Meet the 2025 Porsche Taycan Porsche Expands Its 2025 Taycan EV Lineup And now, it achieves something far more practical to the average consumer proving that charging performance means everything to the average consumer and boy did Porsche knock it out of the park as previously written about when it comes to all-out charging performance. Of all the things an EV manufacturer can do in terms of design, charging performance is key to moving EVs out of a charging spot and allowing the next ones in. And to date, ALL have failed outside of Porsche and the mighty Taycan. And I mean ALL outside of Porsche, Lucid, most Hyundai and Kia's, Tesla's, and a few large GM EVs! Why Charging Speed Matters Some back of the envelope math so feel free to work out my estimates below and reply in kind so I can provide a more accurate depiction. Currently in the U.S., there are almost 200,000 gas stations with probably 2-million pumps available to refuel the existing 288 million cars and truck fleet in the U.S. Of those 288-million vehicles, maybe 20-million are on the road at any given time. When those 20-million vehicles need to refuel after an average 400-miles, every single one could begin and complete a 7-minute refuel at the stations available in just over a 1-hour period. That is every single car and truck on the road, and they only need to do that every 400-miles. A bit optimistic since few drive down to empty between refuels so let us call it 325 miles. With the avg. driver covering ~ 40-miles per day, that refuel spreads out to once every 8-days. Now onto EVs. Tesla currently has an installed DCFC charge port base of just over 28,000, Electrify America provides just over 5,000, and EVGo with 3,780. The vast majority of those 37,000 charge ports - not all capable of supporting anywhere close to the Taycan's peak 327 KW charge rate, must service approximately 4,000,000 EVs on the road of which maybe 1,000,000 are on the road at any given point in time. Fortunately, at home charging takes care of 90% of the necessary charging periods. Those 10% relying on the public DCFCing network however is where the problem arises. At any given time, ~ 400,000 EV drivers are trying to connect to < 40,000 public DCFC charge ports, the majority of which have 150KW peak rates or less and taking well over an hour to get to the magic 100%. Meaning well over an hour of charging time per vehicle while others are waiting to plug in at those cluster of DCFCers any one of us are trying to charge at. I will not even bring up the 200 or so miles range between DCFC sessions… The math does not math. A 1.5 hour wait to attach a Taycan to a DCFC in Orlando, FL. A 50 kW LEAF ahead and (3) Transit Connects with peak 115 KW rates attached. If they all charged 5 to 80% in 18-min, there would be no wait. All told, Kyle and his friends crossed with an average speed of ~ 71 mph which is finally competitive with an average gasoline fueled automobile taking the same journey. All thanks to Porsche getting charging times down to acceptable levels with their world class charging hardware built in. Now let us hope the rest of the industry gets off their respective @$$es and follows Porsche’s lead. Wayne
Not exactly an affordable EV for most of us, whereas the Kia/Hyundai and Teslas are "cheap enough" and fast (enough) charging with decent ranges. I would love to have a Taycan in my stable though unlikely to happen. Right next to the Rivians and Lucids (need 1 sample of each). And if doing that, I guess I'd need a GMC Sierra Denali EV, too. I just did 450 miles with 3 charging stops. I could have done it with 1 stop, but I started near empty (no convenient charging at or near the condo and I wasn't leaving the car fully charged overnight. First stop was 30 miles from the condo and was for getting to the next charging stop. 2 more stops coincided with rest and relief breaks. Charging speed achieved from actual 250kW initially down to about 100kW when I stop around 60%. I stay a little longer for padding for the unknown problems that may crop up, perhaps 20 minutes total. No problems other than expected traffic and numerous detours. Battery preheating worked well and didn't use too much energy in the process. The Tesla SuperCharger network worked great except for 1 stop in NJ where 1 stall on the end was blocked by fencing by an adjacent set of DCFC stalls being installed by another charging company. That 1 stall outage was not known to Tesla headquarters. I did my good deed and sent in a report on the app along with a photo. Oh, I saw a few non-Teslas charging and there was no issue. I even helped a novice Rivian owner get his huge SUV lined up at a stall without blocking any others. I got home with 8% and charged overnight to 80%. for those who don't know me, I have a 2023 Tesla Model Y LR for long range... send me a PM if you want a referral discount on your Tesla purchase and we'll both benefit.
Hi Bill: All the DCFC networks incl. Tesla have a problem with load sharing provisions. When they are full or an adjacent charger is occupied, the power available to your charger is also affected. Usually, it gets cut in half. The second DCFC problem is legacy chargers. Tesla has a ton of V1/V2 stuff with 150 KW or less capability and load sharing. Even on the latest V4s from Electrify America and the latest GM Energy/EVGo, sharing cuts their output to ~ 175 KW. This power rate is beyond most EVs but it takes longer to charge a late model Taycan, Air, Model 3/Y/S, Ioniq 5/6 and EV6 when the DCFC location is packed. Here is a Model 3 attached to one of the early legacy Tesla SuperChargers with another car drawing off the same system. The 75-kW initial charge rate through 25% was due to another Tesla attached right next to the Tesla Model 3 being charged. AND the peak afterwards, even for a small pack is unacceptable due to either the Model 3 or the legacy Tesla DCFC HW. A gasoline station is not concerned with how many pumps are active at any given time. Even a fully packed Costco still has plenty of flow rate to fill every car in its stalls in 5-minutes or less. Wayne
I only used V3 SuperChargers and there is no load sharing. When time's not critical, I don't mind using the 150kW chargers. There should only be 5-10 minutes of extra charge time as the charging curve will hold the 150kW longer. Power sharing is the only issue to me. When I use a ChargePoint 120kW shared charger, I'm happy with the 70-72kW it gives me and almost a flat charging curve till over 50%. Introducing V3 Supercharging | Tesla For what it is worth, I read that the "open to other EVs" tesla sites have V3 hardware and they initially also provide the "Magic Dock" adapter so other EVs than Tesla will have the CCS1 connector without having to bring one. I experienced this at the Brewster NY Tesla SuperCharger. I unintentionally pulled out the full NACs head with the CCS1 adapter attached. I quickly put the combo back and pulled out just the NACs handle. The V4 stalls will soon be backed by V4 cabinets which have 500kW capability. They currently act like V3 with the 250kW limit. I don't have a direct Tesla reference, just something like this on techtimes. Expected in early 2025, currently in the permitting process. The 800V capable EV owners should be happy with that. Tesla Supercharger V4 Upgrade Coming Next Year, Offering 500kW for EVs, 1.2MW for Semi
Hi Bill: I hope so but even with Tesla's normal fast turnaround of updated HW, there is a ton of Tesla legacy V1/V2 chargers out there causing DCFCing backups for Tesla owners. ChargePoint is just starting to remove their legacy 50 KW junk and EA has a long way to go to update their network with all V4s of their own. While watching Kyle's vid, he was attaching to quite a few new EA V4s which is exactly what I would have done. I do not believe he had the insight to know which were V4s and which were the legacy stuff but across the west, there are not many EA V4s installed just yet. I am not sure how the EVGo - GM Energy 350s work since I have only charged on the legacy stuff with mixed results. And of course, EA's continue to suffer from Unavailable Chargers even from their new V4 locations. That is unacceptable of course but the focus of my story is that now, one OEM allows fast enough charging to move vehicles in and out in of a location in a reasonable amount of time. Every other OEM including Tesla needs to hit those 300 KW power targets out to 60 to 65% SOC on a 97-kW useable pack (Gen 2 Taycan) and 270 kW out to 60% on an 84-kW useable pack (Gen 1 Taycan) or they are screwing you and everyone else with an EV with longer charging times than normal. The Rivian's are all equipped with the slower 150 KW charging HW as are the Polestar's, most of the GM stuff, all of the Ford stuff incl. the Lightning for over 3 years. I have pleaded with the Ford folks to up their EVs with 800V architectures without results. And we all need to stop at 80%. That last 20% can cause a doubling the amount of time an EV is attached to a single precious DCFC port. Wayne
