Guest Column: Porsche record highlights inevitability of electric vehicles

The most complicated part of electric vehicles becoming the norm is not engineering the technology, it's surmounting the barriers of public acceptance.

The argument about Americans' slow adoption of EVs—aside from price—is about road trips. If we can't jump in the car and go thousands of miles with minimal fuel stops, are we really even American?

Last year, President Biden set a "goal" for EVs to make up half of auto sales by 2030. Ford and General Motors tempered those expectations, committing to a goal of 40-50 percent, but even those modest estimates seem robust.

Manufacturers are evolving for a more efficient future, and they are going to build EVs whether we like it or not.

How fast are EVs evolving? Wayne Gerdes just drove an electric Porsche Taycan from Los Angeles to New York City with a total charge time of less than two and a half hours.

Now, this wasn't a Cannonball Run, the "unsanctioned" speed record from LA to NYC last set in 2021 in under 26 hours (at an average speed of 110 mph).

This was really an experiment to test EV infrastructure.

Gerdes' purpose was to set the Guinness World Record for the shortest charging time to cross the U.S. in an electric vehicle.

He beat the record by almost five hours.

Gerdes completed the 2,835-mile trip in a 2021 Porsche Taycan with a cumulative charge time of 2 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds. The previous record was 7 hours, 10 minutes and 1 second.

He said the Taycan sets a high bar compared with many EVs he has driven.

"The first time I charged on a 350KW charger, 6-82 percent occurred in just 22 minutes," he said.

For the Guinness attempt, Gerdes was required note every stop; with independent witnesses at each charge. Every mile covered was filmed and tracked with GPS before being certified by a panel.

The trip took five days and included 22 stops. A spokesperson for Porsche said Gerdes approached the trip like a "smart" driver using tools available to everyone.

"He kept the car towards the bottom half of the battery pack (half-empty) where the charging performance is at its best. Think of a race car—you want to pull into the pit stop with an empty tank, and get just enough fuel to get to the next stop," the spokesperson said. "But otherwise, he used the same tools and techniques available to all drivers."

The Taycan he drove was equipped with the Performance Battery Plus as well as luxury upgrades such as the premium package, adaptive cruise control and Porsche Electric Sport Sound.

Porsche said the Taycan was equipped with standard 19-inch wheels and tires — NF0 (Porsche-certified) Continental Procontact RX all-season.

Gerdes plotted the route across the U.S. using EV Plug Share, an EV charging station locater, and the app from Electrify America, the nation's largest network of EV charging stations.

"I'm proud and honestly a little surprised to have set the new benchmark by such a margin," Gerdes said, adding that he was able to benefit from the ease of use of Plug-and-Charge for the majority of the trip.

"Our main point with this accomplishment was to show that EVs can exist in the world of today," Porsche told Tire Business. "The DC fast charger network, even if it's not perfect, is still good enough to get someone across the country. And with more adoption and utilization, the business model for expanding the network will get better and better."

Not all EVs are built the same, especially when you are talking about a Porsche, but Gerdes' record shows that EVs can compete right now.

The EV charging infrastructure is growing. There are currently 115,775 charging ports available at 47,068 stations in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy. More will be on the way, too, with new funding coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The day that the price is right and the infrastructure is solid is right around the corner. The public adoption of EVs, it seems, is inevitable.