Cannonball! NY-LA EV Record Drops Below 40 Hours

Most of us will never take a non-stop trip from New York to Los Angeles. Why? Because the average person values their sleep more than they value setting records. Add in the need to speed, avoid speeding in front of police, pass sleepy drivers, and slam vast amounts of caffeine, and it becomes the kind of adventure few would be willing to ride along for, let alone drive part of. Most of us are concerned with how EVs perform in every day life and normal road trips, how they help address climate change and pollution, and how they help with more practical concerns.

That having been said, these Cannonball records do serve a practical purpose: benchmarking. Being able to go faster and faster across the United States shows us the state of automotive technology, how good or bad the U.S. road network is, and what kinds of things law enforcement is focusing on. For EVs, it shows us how good not only the vehicles are now, but whether the infrastructure to support EVs is improving.

This latest Cannonball record comes after the same team set a record in an older Porsche Taycan in 2021. Then, as now, Porsche EVs did not have access to Tesla Supercharger stations. But, there are now many more CCS charging stations and the new Porsche Taycan charges faster, has more range, and is generally a better road tripping vehicle than the one from the previous record.

Since that last effort, others have beat the record, with the current known record (many people wait months to let statutes of limitations run out or reduce law enforcement interest) being set by a team in a Tesla Model S. So, this CCS run tells us not just how things are going in the EV world, but how non-Tesla EV technology and infrastructure is doing.

Like all Cannonball runs, this one started at the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan, but during the day instead of starting at midnight like many other runs traditionally do. This normally would suck for departures from the city, but with the anticipated Porsche Cannonball time, they wanted to arrive in Los Angeles when it’s less busy, and Los Angeles is a bigger problem than New York. They were able to start with 99%, which doesn’t cost much time.

Unlike most EVs, this rear-drive EV has a two-speed transmission, which helps with range. But, the team has found it to be a little clunky at times compared to the smoother one-speed experience most EVs have (at least per drive unit).

Instead of trying to blast at high speeds between chargers, the team’s strategy was to focus on getting the best charging possible to reduce trip time to set a record. After clearing New York traffic, the team planned to drive 150 miles to the first charging stop. After getting to the highway and settling in to cruise away from the city, the landscape changed to look like just about any eastern interstate highway.

Instead of going 150 miles, they went 283 miles to arrive with 0% and optimize charging speeds. Even at 4%, they managed to get 250 kW, quickly rising to 276 and then up to 300 and beyond after 10%. It took only ten minutes to reach 48%, but thermals kicked in and the charging dropped to 200 kW. At this point, they decided to leave to avoid spending time charging at lower speeds, aiming for a next charger at 111 miles away.

This strategy continued for other charging stations along the route, but with 5% targets for arrival to hopefully get better charging speeds at cooler temperatures. Challenges like charging station power sharing (the worst was sharing with several Hyundais in Colorado), stations that aren’t close to the highway, ramp closures, minor thermal derating, and needing to change charging stalls at times all made for delays at times, but it was usually only something that cost 5 minutes and not something worse.

Even in the short charging times they had (usually 10-15 minutes), there was usually time to refine plans for the next charging station. If charging speeds drop early, plans had to change quickly to adjust. Keeping to this stride, good times were made, especially compared to most EVs that can’t “rip” and get 320 kW.

Another challenge they ran into was that charging stations weren’t always spaced right for ideal charging speeds and trip speed. This is something I explored in another article, and this once again proves that we need charging stations to be spaced as closely as possible along the way so that nobody’s stride gets broken and we can keep on moving.

Going through Denver and the Rockies wasn’t bad for them, considering. Minor traffic delays, small closures along the climbing side, and such ended up adding about an hour to the trip time. Dropping back down into Utah and into the desert could give them some ability to make up time.  They were also able to get picky about chargers along some sections, skipping Grand Junction to avoid needing to go far from the highway.

The final plan was to get to Baker, California for the last stop to not need any charging further into California where crowding and traffic could kill their time. There was mostly downhill to go for the last leg, but only after climbing up to Barstow and then dropping down to sea level at Portofino. This was at Electrify America’s “flagship” station with 12 chargers, and the only other vehicle sharing with them was a Bolt, leaving plenty of available power at the site. So, this one “ripped” and gave them decent speeds of 311 kW to the battery.

The final time for the trip was 39 hours and 29 minutes, three hours faster than the last EV Cannonball record.

Important Takeaways

Breaking into the 30s (below 40 hours) is important because it puts EVs closer to Alex Roy territory. For those unfamiliar, Alex Roy ran the first Cannonball attempt in decades back in 2004, making a new record time and reviving interest in Cannonball runs during a time when police were a lot more strict and bothersome. Breaking into the 30s means EVs are starting to get into modern ICE territory, even if ICE runs have gone well into the 20s by now.

Charging has improved since its 2022-23 nadir. Kyle says that he’d rate CCS charging infrastructure at 7/10 now, and that’s better than it has been in a long time. So, this shows that charging companies are actually improving!

Charging is also greatly aided by software. The route planning software in the Porsche was about the best the team had seen in any EV (and they’ve tested MANY EVs). But, at the same time, this trip time required a lot of skill on the part of Kyle. He had tens of thousands of miles driving Taycans around the United States and Europe, and knew exactly how to rip the most charging performance out of the car. So, there’s still a lot of room for software to incorporate some of this expertise and improve things for all drivers.

Featured image by Porsche.