At least all the sweating meant that neither VanderWerp nor his partner needed the TravelJohn disposable urinals they'd brought. With climate control off, the cabin temperature reached 86 degrees despite a 65-degree ambient temperature.
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Possibly that statement was "No owner would ever do this." To maximize the energy available for moving the car, he ran a radar detector off a portable battery and played music through a Bluetooth speaker. VanderWerp, in the Model S, wanted to post a big number on the first leg to make a statement. The Kia Niro EV and Volkswagen ID.4 made it to a Dayton suburb for their first stops, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E went 237 miles to the edge of Cincinnati before it had to charge. Three non-Tesla teams also kept the pace based on a simple but smart strategy: Because an EV's battery replenishes faster at a lower state of charge, ideally you wait until the vehicle is nearly out of juice to plug in. While Tesla's built-in nav can't plot a multistop journey, setting the next waypoint directed them to fast and reliable Superchargers as necessary. The teams in the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y had it comparatively easy. The Nissan team would have been waiting longer, but the duo in the Audi had given up their spot to search for another charging station, only to return a short while later. The Leaf squeezed electrons from a nearby lower-power Level 2 plug for 96 minutes before the fast-charger became available. The day's lesson: Be wary of any fast-charging station with only one unit. That mistake came back to haunt them when they were the last of four teams to arrive at a single ChargePoint DC fast-charger at an adult-education center near Lima, Ohio. User error almost certainly played a role, but the drivers in the Nissan Leaf insist they were following the app's guidance when they made the first pit stop-charging for all of six minutes-just 23 miles into the race. Users provide info about their vehicle and intended speed so ABRP can estimate energy consumption and spit out a route with recommended stops, including the charging time needed at each one, for the fastest possible trip. Most teams scouted charging locations ahead of time with A Better Routeplanner (ABRP), an EV-specific navigation website and app.
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And get this: Speed limits were frequently heeded.ĭrivers were free to choose their own route as long as they passed through mandatory waypoints (in order) in Cincinnati Athens, Ohio Morgantown, West Virginia Erie, Pennsylvania and Ann Arbor. Climate control was used sparingly, if at all. The EV 1000 is a contest of endurance and speed, but not too much speed, because to cover big distances quickly in an EV, you have to push the pace while simultaneously holding back.Īny long-distance drive in an EV starts with a question: What are you willing to forgo to maximize your range? Drivers disabled automatic headlights and ignored cruise control. It looks more like racewalking, the Olympic sport where athletes hobble as fast as possible without technically running. Here's the thing about racing EVs in the real world: It doesn't look remotely like what goes on in Monaco or in Daytona or even in the classic Cannonballs.