According to Geiger, from the administrative center of Bavaria to the capital of Croatia, he was supposed to drive in about 5 hours – that's what the Google Maps app promised. “Many business people cover such distances on one tank of diesel. However, given that the future of cars should be electric, and manufacturers increasingly praise new battery-powered cars as suitable for long trips, I decided to make my first long trip in an electric car,” Geiger noted at the beginning of his story.
Geiger went on the trip in a Porsche Taycan fastback: in the version with 476 “horses” and a range of up to 484 km. Theoretically, the battery in this car charges from 5 to 80% of its capacity in 22.5 minutes, and fully – about another half hour. The Taycan is considered the best answer of the German automotive industry to Tesla electric vehicles, however, even it could not provide a comfortable trip for the businessman from Germany: instead of the promised 5 hours, the trip took 9 hours, and there were many situations when Thomas had to be very nervous.
So, according to the businessman, most problems arose with charging. Even at the “preparation” stage – the night before the trip – the car was barely “refueled”. In addition, the car's computer calculated that with an almost full battery, Geiger could drive a maximum of 338 km, which is significantly less than the stated 484 km – as a result, the traveler had to stop twice more for “refueling”. However, even here everything did not go according to plan – the battery discharged even faster than planned, and finding a suitable charger along the way turned out to be quite a task: all chargers charged slower than expected.
“In fact, electricity is never delivered at the power that is indicated. So, instead of 160 kW at the beginning of charging, I got barely 100 kW, and with every minute the power dropped more and more,” Geiger noted.
“Refueling remains an important difference of a car with an internal combustion engine. In the case of an electric vehicle, you need to think about it much more often, and you can develop high speeds only with the right charging strategy,” the businessman wrote.
As a pleasant side of the trip in an electric car, Thomas Geiger mentioned the solidarity of drivers: according to him, when something went wrong with charging, every electric car driver tried to help solve the problem.
