The I-90 Surge by Out of Spec Studios

[Shane_SLC]

I would’ve liked them to impose a set of rules upon themselves that are more realistic and applicable to actual EV owners. For example, never allow any car to get below 10%, plan your charging stops accordingly. If I were driving on a long trip, even 10% would stress me out. I’d more likely plan it for 20%. That’s it, it certainly gets more clicks if you have something more sensational in the story.
I’m also not entirely sure about the premise of the event in the first place. If my goal to be to get to someplace as fast as possible, I would probably not choose to drive at all, and if I did, it wouldn’t be an EV. If I wanted to take a road trip and enjoy some of the sites, that would make more sense.

I'd agree that this series is essentially an entertaining thought experiment, at best, and not really to rank the cars based on their road trip capabilities in a way that applies to many people. The 10% challenge by Out of Spec does a really good job at highlighting how easily you can road trip each vehicle, although it doesn't really discuss much else outside of that. Perhaps unfortunately for some you do have to piece different videos together to get the full picture of a car, but I don't think that's too unreasonable.

Other than just being entertaining, I think other goals of the series included how comparable EVs are to combustion in terms of time taken on long distance trips and also how far EV technology has improved in the last 12 years. I think it's fascinating how much faster the Taycan completed the trip than the old Model S, and also how close it was behind the Acura.

 

[BS8899]

I'd agree that this series is essentially an entertaining thought experiment, at best, and not really to rank the cars based on their road trip capabilities in a way that applies to many people. The 10% challenge by Out of Spec does a really good job at highlighting how easily you can road trip each vehicle, although it doesn't really discuss much else outside of that. Perhaps unfortunately for some you do have to piece different videos together to get the full picture of a car, but I don't think that's too unreasonable.

Other than just being entertaining, I think other goals of the series included how comparable EVs are to combustion in terms of time taken on long distance trips and also how far EV technology has improved in the last 12 years. I think it's fascinating how much faster the Taycan completed the trip than the old Model S, and also how close it was behind the Acura.

Very well stated!

 

[kapix]

I would’ve liked them to impose a set of rules upon themselves that are more realistic and applicable to actual EV owners. For example, never allow any car to get below 10%, plan your charging stops accordingly. If I were driving on a long trip, even 10% would stress me out. I’d more likely plan it for 20%. That’s it, it certainly gets more clicks if you have something more sensational in the story.
I’m also not entirely sure about the premise of the event in the first place. If my goal to be to get to someplace as fast as possible, I would probably not choose to drive at all, and if I did, it wouldn’t be an EV. If I wanted to take a road trip and enjoy some of the sites, that would make more sense.

I wish that I had said that!

 

[Bunnylebowski]

The net elevation change from Farmington to Quebec City is ~100ft. 75-80mph would be substantially above the speed limit (90km/hr) on that stretch of the Quebec highways. The higher speed you preferred would actually favor the Taycan as the Lucid's efficiency drops off faster than the Taycan at higher speeds. I don't know what efficiency/range data ABRP use to do its calculations. If it is EPA rating, Lucid's numbers are over-stated and Taycan's range is under-stated.

Maybe the newest Taycan could do it I’m just basing it off ABRP but I don’t think ABRP uses EPA and it does adjust for temperature and elevation, maybe it wasn’t much of an elevation change and it was the return trip I’m remembering with the ups and downs (went to Montreal and then back via Vermont and NH). What I do remember though between Farmington and Quebec City was very few if any DCFC options in between, so not much room for error. I only DCFC one time the whole trip, at the Merrimack EA outlets in NH on the way back. There were so many L2 options in Canada to plug into overnight or while going to a restaurant etc that I never had to worry.

 

[BS8899]

I wish that I had said that!

Maybe the newest Taycan could do it I’m just basing it off ABRP but I don’t think ABRP uses EPA and it does adjust for temperature and elevation, maybe it wasn’t much of an elevation change and it was the return trip I’m remembering with the ups and downs (went to Montreal and then back via Vermont and NH). What I do remember though between Farmington and Quebec City was very few if any DCFC options in between, so not much room for error. I only DCFC one time the whole trip, at the Merrimack EA outlets in NH on the way back. There were so many L2 options in Canada to plug into overnight or while going to a restaurant etc that I never had to worry.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I am not advocating for the Taycan. For long distance travel, I'd think Lucid offers better cabin comfort. Where the Taycan excels is the flat charging curve. Lucid is great for the peak charge, akin to a quick pit-stop. But for road trips, I think a 30-40minute recharging stop is about the norm. Thus, I am most interested in what we can learn from Taycan's flat-charging performance which enabled the Taycan to win the I-90 Surge, irrespective of the Lucid's running-on-empty snafu.

I keep wondering, with the Lucid's bigger battery, better efficiency, and the Wunderbox, whether there is a possibility of rebalancing a flatter recharging profile that really benefits the road trippers.

 

[joec]

Kyle himself, being a huge Taycan fan, says he'd still take the choose the Lucid as the road tripping vehicle of choice. The insane charging prowess of the Taycan makes it as close to combustion as an EV can get currently, but part of the joy of EV road tripping for many is the slower pace and more frequent stops. You may get from point A to point B faster in the Taycan, but you'll feel a lot better afterwards in the Lucid. Or, like you mentioned, the Lucid can just avoid stopping to charge altogether.

First of all, thanks to @Shane_SLC for representing. And thanks to all of you for summarizing the videos so I don't have to sit through that many hours.

I think this is a key takeaway. I've done a number of road trips with my Air, and it's been incredible. If I were doing a one-off race, sure I'd take the Taycan. Nothing wrong with that. Just different compromises.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I am not advocating for the Taycan. For long distance travel, I'd think Lucid offers better cabin comfort. Where the Taycan excels is the flat charging curve. Lucid is great for the peak charge, akin to a quick pit-stop. But for road trips, I think a 30-40minute recharging stop is about the norm. Thus, I am most interested in what we can learn from Taycan's flat-charging performance which enabled the Taycan to win the I-90 Surge, irrespective of the Lucid's running-on-empty snafu.

I keep wondering, with the Lucid's bigger battery, better efficiency, and the Wunderbox, whether there is a possibility of rebalancing a flatter recharging profile that really benefits the road trippers.

Yeah there’s some lessons for Lucid in there with the Taycan curve for sure. I personally found that the way I road trip, if I stop to charge it’s gonna be a legitimate break, and usually the air is done charging before I’m done eating or taking a break or whatever, so it’s kinda funny with the Taycan I’d be forced to eat and use the restroom in 20 minutes otherwise get hit with idle fees haha. Still there’s no denying how impressive the charging is, and if I were doing a long stint like down to Florida to see my brother trying to just get there as quickly as possible or something then the Taycan is hard to beat if time to arrival is the goal.

 

[Shane_SLC]

I might just make the main focus of my own video to be a summary of the trip for those that don't want to sift through the 3+ hour videos for the Lucid stuff and discuss the successes and failures along the way. I think the Out of Spec podcast did a good job at covering the main points, but there are still a few things that haven't been mentioned yet from our perspective. Again, if anyone thinks of anything specific you'd like discussed let me know. I'll probably be recording tomorrow evening.

 

[Andretex]

I still think we should get a small group of Lucid Owners and do a 1,000 mile trip with every model. The Pure will be most efficient but the GT will charge faster.

 

[Andretex]

I might just make the main focus of my own video to be a summary of the trip for those that don't want to sift through the 3+ hour videos for the Lucid stuff and discuss the successes and failures along the way. I think the Out of Spec podcast did a good job at covering the main points, but there are still a few things that haven't been mentioned yet from our perspective. Again, if anyone thinks of anything specific you'd like discussed let me know. I'll probably be recording tomorrow evening.

Shane, i would like to analyze the log. I saw the charging log in the video. Is that something yiu can share with us? Or any other log if the trip?

 

[Shane_SLC]

Shane, i would like to analyze the log. I saw the charging log in the video. Is that something yiu can share with us? Or any other log if the trip?

I'll have the same data that was visible in the Out of Spec podcast, so I'll be going over that again quite a bit, and I'll certainly share the link to the sheet if anyone just wants to look at the data.

 

[illopp00]

I would’ve liked them to impose a set of rules upon themselves that are more realistic and applicable to actual EV owners. For example, never allow any car to get below 10%, plan your charging stops accordingly. If I were driving on a long trip, even 10% would stress me out. I’d more likely plan it for 20%. That said, it certainly gets more clicks if you have something more sensational in the story.
I’m also not entirely sure about the premise of the event in the first place. If my goal to be to get to someplace as fast as possible, I would probably not choose to drive at all, and if I did, it wouldn’t be an EV. If I wanted to take a road trip and enjoy some of the sites, that would make more sense.

They had the ICE Acura in the race, so really that was the goal, see how far EVs have come from the 2013 Tesla Model S and see how well they match up to the Gasoline infrastructure.

 

[Shane_SLC]

My video is now live! I certainly won't say it's entertaining, but it's at least somewhat short and hopefully easier to get through than a 20 page writeup.

 

[Shane_SLC]

My video is now live! I certainly won't say it's entertaining, but it's at least somewhat short and hopefully easier to get through than a 20 page writeup.

For anyone that doesn't want to watch the video, here's the link to our charging log data.

I-90 Surge Charging Stops - Lucid

docs.google.com

 

[joec]

My video is now live! I certainly won't say it's entertaining, but it's at least somewhat short and hopefully easier to get through than a 20 page writeup.

Good summary. I did find it fun to follow your route and charging decisions. Amazing you still beat the i7 despite needing to be towed.

 

[Andretex]

For anyone that doesn't want to watch the video, here's the link to our charging log data.

I-90 Surge Charging Stops - Lucid

docs.google.com

Thanks, Shane!

 

[tonybot]

For anyone that doesn't want to watch the video, here's the link to our charging log data.

I-90 Surge Charging Stops - Lucid

docs.google.com

Thanks, @Shane_SLC. That was very insightful. I watched both the podcast and your video but largely spot-checked all the other videos.

Interesting story about the young adult being rude when asked to use the 110v and the lovely lady who offered to help. If you did have a NEMA adapter, do you think charging using the RV setup offered by her would have helped you keep the #3 or #4 position? That probably would have juiced you up within 20-30 minutes to reach the EvGO. That also reminded me to carry my mobile charger on road trips. At that point in the video, I hit pause and put my mobile charger in the trunk!

 

[Shane_SLC]

Thanks, @Shane_SLC. That was very insightful. I watched both the podcast and your video but largely spot-checked all the other videos.

Interesting story about the young adult being rude when asked to use the 110v and the lovely lady who offered to help. If you did have a NEMA adapter, do you think charging using the RV setup offered by her would have helped you keep the #3 or #4 position? That probably would have juiced you up within 20-30 minutes to reach the EvGO. That also reminded me to carry my mobile charger on road trips. At that point in the video, I hit pause and put my mobile charger in the trunk!

I have the NEMA 14-50 and and 14-30 adapters from Lucid, but unfortunately she only had an L6-30 plug or something similar. Even if we had been able to charge on a level 2 for a little bit I don't think we would have done much better. We might have beaten the Genesis, but we did spend a lot of time at the travel stop trying to figure out what to do, and the M3, Ioniq 6, Plaid, and EQS all arrived within an hour of each other.

 

[tonybot]

I have the NEMA 14-50 and and 14-30 adapters from Lucid, but unfortunately she only had an L6-30 plug or something similar. Even if we had been able to charge on a level 2 for a little bit I don't think we would have done much better. We might have beaten the Genesis, but we did spend a lot of time at the travel stop trying to figure out what to do, and the M3, Ioniq 6, Plaid, and EQS all arrived within an hour of each other.

Good clarification! When Kyle mentioned NEMA to your description of a round connection, I wrongly assumed that you didn’t have an adapter with you.

 

[alanalanbobalan]

Thanks @Shane_SLC for doing this and for the debrief here!

While I was also disappointed (and initially pissed) with the Lucid team running out of charge in retrospect I can understand the decision. The Ioniq was breathing down your necks and team Lucid was trying to maximize one of the strengths of the car (as repeatedly demonstrated early in the race) of having a monster peak at low SOC by running it to 0% or below. It’s too bad we’ll never know how things would have turned out.

Like throwing your game 7 starter as a closer in a tight game 5, if it works out everyone calls you a genius, if it doesn’t then when you lose game 7 everyone calls you an idiot.