When it comes to electric vehicles, the performance aspect that is most talked about is the range. After all, combustion vehicles do not find it so difficult to fuel up during a trip, but for an electric vehicle, it can be more time-consuming, which is why any rational EV owner would want as few charging stops as possible. While many manufacturers have claimed to have impressive battery range on their vehicles, Tesla has often trumped the competition, with their headstart in the EV sector and impressive charging infrastructure in place across the USA and Europe.
Tesla’s Secrets To Dominating EV Range: How They Managed Double The Range Than Porsche Taycan
One of Tesla’s biggest accomplishments is that they have caused other companies to change, with many of the traditional CV automakers now attempting to go electric. And through this change, one of the biggest car companies in Europe has brought the fiercest competitor to Tesla’s Model S till date – the Porsche Taycan Turbo. The 2020 Tesla Model S Long Range was pitted against the 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo, and the results of this contest were quite interesting.
While the Taycan Turbo impresses in terms of performance, it’s the reliability that makes the Model S stand out. Oh, and the price too. The Model S costs almost half of what the Taycan does, and it gives you almost double the range, which is absurd. Many critics have said that Porsche has built a ‘Porsche for EVs’ – fun to drive for short periods, but quite expensive. However, the focus of discussion today will be how Tesla managed double the range than Porsche.
5-Point Explanation To Tesla’s Range
EPA Testing
The EPA (Environment Protection Agency) test is one of the certifications that any EV manufacturer has to go through. The EPA test consists of a combination of city driving and highway driving tests that are carried out on an electric vehicle to determine the range. It consists of two kinds of tests – a 2 cycle test and a 5 cycle test. Porsche went through the 2 cycle test and got a range of 287 miles, which after multiplying by the correction factor, became 201 miles (323 kms). Tesla, on the other hand, took the 5 cycle test. It consists of an acceleration run, an air conditioning system test, and a low-temperature run, in addition to the city driving and highway driving. By taking this test, Tesla got to tweak the correction factor from 0.7 to 0.743, which helped them get 23 miles extra through EPA testing.
Battery Capacity
Although the battery capacities of the Turbo and the Model S do not differ by much (93.4 kWh for Porsche and 100 kWh for Tesla), the use of advanced battery technology allows Tesla to provide a higher percentage of the battery to be used. Porsche, on the other hand, restricts the capacity to 83.7 kWh to ensure battery longevity. This higher range of effective capacity allows the Model S to get roughly 39 miles (63 kms) more than the Taycan Turbo.
Regenerative Braking
Porsche has gone with the traditional two-pedal configuration, with little focus on regenerative braking. Tesla has huge R&D going on regarding the regenerative braking technology, which is an important factor in attaining the range figures that they manage to. The Tesla Model S can effectively be driven using only one pedal, as the release of the throttle pedal engages an aggressive regenerative braking sequence, managing to harness a lot of energy lost during braking. The Model S also has a better powertrain efficiency than the Porsche, allowing it to conserve battery capacity even further.
Voluntary Reduction
Voluntary reduction of the range is one of the smaller factors affecting range, as the Porsche reduces up to 10 miles (16 kms) of range from the EPA test. The Porsche did their own test which gave a resultant range slightly lower than the EPA results, which is why they have claimed a reduced range.
Road Load
Factors like the aerodynamic resistance, rolling resistance, and transmission efficiency weigh in on the loads acting against the motion of the car. Through a slightly more reliable design that Tesla offers, the Model S goes up against a lower resistance than the Taycan Turbo. Although the Porsche is built to deliver better performance, it does it through a more powerful drivetrain rather than optimizing the design against on-road resistance. While this makes the Taycan more fun to drive, it severely hampers the range.
The combination of the regenerative braking, motor efficiency, and better resistance to the driving loads allows the Model S to achieve a further 138 miles (222 kms) more than the Porsche. Adding this to the gains in range through EPA testing (23 miles) and battery capacity (39 miles) gives a total gain of 200 miles (322 kms). This takes the Tesla Model S range to 402 miles (647 kms) – double of the Porsche Taycan Turbo figure of 201 miles (323 kms).
A highway test was conducted during a ‘Car and Driver’ review, by constantly driving both cars at 75 mph (121 kph), and the difference in the range was hardly 13 miles (21 miles), which proves that both vehicles are equally potent on the highway. It’s the city miles that put Tesla forward.
If the range is your primary factor for buying a luxury electric vehicle, the Tesla trumps the Porsche big time. If the price is your factor, it is still the Tesla, as it costs just $114,690 as compared to Porsche’s extravagant $205,180 price tag. However, if you just want to race around the highway, you can buy the Porsche, as it repeatedly puts in better acceleration times than Tesla irrespective of current SOC. It brings the final debate to the same point – throw in an extravagant amount for a performance-based Porsche or keep it simple with the ever-reliable yet performing Tesla.
