Car and Driver does a 1000 mi Smackdown

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bwilson4web

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Source: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36877585/ev-1000-11-electric-cars-long-distance-race/

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While Superchargers could be finicky in their early days, the current equipment is more dependable than a gas-pump credit-card reader. The network is also dense. The Model S once passed four Supercharger stations before stopping. It arrived back at the office after 16 hours and 14 minutes of driving and charging. Google Maps says this trip is just 50 minutes shorter without a single stop.

Carty and staff editor Austin Irwin pulled into their last charging stop after the Model 3, but they refused to accept third place. When the other team wasn't paying attention, they unplugged the Model Y and took off at a furious pace, beating the 3 back to the office to claim second.

Tesla's sweep of the podium makes it clear: If you want to regularly drive long distances in an EV today, you'll want a car with access to Tesla's proprietary charging infrastructure. The rest of the group trickled in over the next several hours, with the exception of the Leaf, which needed twice as long as the Tesla Model S to finish. With its short range and slow charging, the Nissan clearly wasn't intended to stray far from home.
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Now this is the kind of vehicle review I look forward to and not just due to the results. The best way to compare cars, line them up at a start and tell them where to stop. Perhaps @hobbit remembers some of the early Prius road tests?

Bob Wilson
 
Wait until they include the Ioniq 5 in a long distance race like this. I think it is the fastest charging EV today (10 - 80%) in 18 minutes or 100 kms in 5 min. And with the 77 kWh battery in the US, will have a long range, too.
 
It is interesting the lengths that some of them would go to to try and gain an edge.

Did they break down how much time each car spent waiting for a charger? It sounds like in some cases, they were waiting for others to finish charging, leading to some interesting strategic planning to try and arrive first at a charger all while driving slowly enough that you can reach it without making an additional stop.

All that being said, the single-headed 50kW chargers are always going to be a bottleneck.
 
FYI, drove to Culman AL to see a Mach-E. After adjusting the seat up, out of foxhole mode, not a bad fit. The driver assistance is limited to divided highways which is a deal killer. Still, nice hatchback.

Bob Wilson
 
Excellent article, thanks for sharing. The one takeaway I had from reading the story is that it seemed a few of the drivers weren’t that EV savvy. I told my wife, who is an Audi fan, that she would be best served with a Tesla if/when she gets an EV simply because of the infrastructure and car’s software. She is more than smart enough to use an app like PlugShare and sort through the three or four charging networks in our area but with a Tesla she wouldn’t have to and has no desire to do it.
 
Clamps said:
Excellent article, thanks for sharing. The one takeaway I had from reading the story is that it seemed a few of the drivers weren’t that EV savvy. I told my wife, who is an Audi fan, that she would be best served with a Tesla if/when she gets an EV simply because of the infrastructure and car’s software. She is more than smart enough to use an app like PlugShare and sort through the three or four charging networks in our area but with a Tesla she wouldn’t have to and has no desire to do it.
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I thought the same thing, but then reconsidered. It is actually a pretty good 'randomish sample' that serves a purpose. Maybe not totally fair, but actually, somewhat representative
 
ENirogus said:
I thought the same thing, but then reconsidered. It is actually a pretty good 'randomish sample' that serves a purpose. Maybe not totally fair, but actually, somewhat representative
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Sure, that makes sense but it’s billed as a “race” and it’s not a fair representation of vehicles efficiency if the driver can’t figure out what there doing.
 
Calm my friends. Running the same cars past the same check points, it is more a rally and I find a useful competition.

We buy EVs for transportation that includes charging and efficiency. Too often EV reviewers have a single test vehicle and apply inconsistent standards across different weather conditions. The EV comes from a press pool so they have a few days to form an opinion. But a rally of owner cars means we get to compare what happens in closer to real-life between the different rides.

Yes, my primary ride is a 2019 Std Rng Plus Model 3, not in the rally. My backup is a 2014 BMW i3-REx, also not in the rally. Yet I can relate to the results even if my particular rides are not exactly included. For example, my 2014 BMW i3-REx is 4x cheaper to drive on gas than EV on a cross country trip. This would be valuable insight to someone who needs an EV around town and still wants to go on a vacation.

What I can't deal with are the faux reviewers who take a single example and drive it around with little to no control of the variables. Rain, temperature, and wind have an effect yet they don't include these environmental units in their jaunts.

So I like a rally even if a 'Wayne Gertes' ringer shows up. Personally, the vehicles should be driven by their owners as this shows a commitment that a ringer driver can not provide.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
What I can't deal with are the faux reviewers who take a single example and drive it around with little to no control of the variables. Rain, temperature, and wind have an effect yet they don't include these environmental units in their jaunts.
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What bugs me are when "reviewers" don't bother to familiarize themselves with the vehicle and them report "XXX doesn't have YYY", which in fact it does. Or when they mention fairly superficial things as differentiators. Then you wonder what else that reviewer got wrong.

There are always going to be subjective things. How comfortable are the seats for example? No matter what any reviewer says, you have to put yourself in one to say whether it works for you or not.
 
bwilson4web said:
Calm my friends. Running the same cars past the same check points, it is more a rally and I find a useful competition.
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Yeah, that's an accurate depiction. What I still want to know is how much time the cars spent waiting for a charger to become available. That's more a reflection of the charging infrastructure and not the car.
 
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