JOHOR BARU: With car brands currently propagating their offerings with electric vehicle (EV) options, the only limiting factor for EV adoption to really take flight has been the lack of EV charging facilities.
While charging facilities are currently available mostly within urban areas, Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya being the main recipients, the availability of such facilities can be said to be lacking when looking beyond.
Although many would presume to buy an EV will relegate their operational capacity to urban areas, this would be untrue as members of the motoring fraternity recently experienced a 741km journey from Johor Baru to Ipoh that was spread across two days in a convoy of all-electric Porsche Taycan.
Furthermore, of the Taycan's five driving modes (Range, Normal, Sport, Sport+ and Individual), Normal was predominantly used throughout the journey in order to ensure arrival at destinations.
To save more battery power, switching to Range mode can help limit output to the wheels as well as top speed to 100kph.
In Range mode, the Taycan's response to throttle input can be described as "numbed" compared to Sport+ mode, but this doesn't make it any less driveable.
Power is still readily available as drivers will need to prod the throttle deeper in order to unleash it.
Flagging off from the newly-opened Porsche Centre Johor Baru, the initial 149km north-bound journey along the North-South Expressway (NSE) to Shell Pagoh Rest Stop reduced the Taycan 4S' battery from a 100% State of Charge (SoC) by 34% to 66% and 365km of range to 210km.
Following a quick 15-minute recharge using Shell's newly installed 180kW DC charger at the location, saw the Taycan 4S' battery pick up a little more than 20% of electrical "juice" to bring its SoC back up to 87%. This helped to increase its remaining range to 327km.
Onwards with the journey and it'd be another 126km until the convoy's next stop at Shell Seremban Rest Stop which reduced the battery's SoC back down to 66%.
Here, we had an hour to charge and this allowed the Taycan 4S to receive a full 100% SoC that brought its range back up to 356km.
Meanwhile, the fast charging unit was being shared with a Taycan Cross Turismo and according to Shell Malaysia's head of brand and customer experience Bryan Ghee, this meant that both Porsche EVs were only receiving 90kW (180kW divided by two EVs).
From Seremban, the 55km leg which stopped in Kuala Lumpur for the night merely drained the Taycan 4S' battery by 10%.
The second and final day of the journey would see us swapping into the Taycan Cross Turismo which started off with 95% SoC and 378km of range available for the 140km drive to the Simpang Pulai R&R near Ipoh.
This would bring the Cross Turismo's battery down to 53% SoC while displaying 210km of range.
While the Cross Turismo shared the charger alongside another Taycan 4S, the short 15-minute stop (at 90kWh) saw the Cross Turismo's SoC rise to 76% before departure.
A quick 20km drive to our lunch destination left us with 70% SoC and 291km of range before turning around to head south.
The final charging point at Shell Tapah (Southbound) 59km later would allow us to bring the Cross Turismo's SoC back up towards a full charge after a 45-minute stop.
Although the journey was estimated to end at around 5pm at Porsche Centre Ara Damansara, a litter of traffic congestions delayed our arrival until past 6pm and the Cross Turismo arrived to end the day with 30% SoC and 117km of range left.
Admittedly, the journey in its entirety felt almost like a usual road trip with an overnight bag thrown in and some periodic visits to a rest stop every two hours or so for some respite and perhaps a drink/snack - while the EV gets a quick top-up in power.
Rather than the two-day journey organised by Shell Malaysia, the Taycan could realistically have done the deed with three stops to charge up the Taycan and ensure there aren't any instances where heavy traffic could have used up the battery charge.
Having the notion that there's a Shell Recharge High Performance Charging station with two CCS Type 2 charging connectors located less than 200km apart throughout the NSE certainly helped to calm the nerves for long-distance EV travelling in Malaysia.
Furthermore, these charging stations will allow those in Singapore to conveniently travel to Malaysia with their own EVs to enjoy the vibrant culinary offerings available, among others.
Although charging was provided complimentary by Shell Malaysia, usual users will need to install Shell's ParkEasy app (available for free on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store) for making payment.
Shell Malaysia Trading recently acquired a 50% shareholding in Pixelbyte Sdn Bhd, the company operating ParkEasy.
New Porsche Taycan owners are automatically provided with a Platinum membership where charges incurred are 50% off from the usual rate for a period of two years.
During a presentation by ParkEasy co-founder and chief technology officer Eric Tan, the app provides users with the ability to reserve (up to an hour), locate and navigate to a charging station.
Additionally, the app is able to provide users with a detailed summary of the charge session including kilowatts used and duration of charge among others which will be emailed to the account holder before asking them to rate their experience.
Ghee (left) and Sime Darby Auto Performance head of marketing and brand communications Winston Foong unveiling the Shell Tapah charging station.
On whether Shell will be upgrading its urban charging facilities to the 180kW fast charger-type, Ghee said the company is currently considering it.
"However, right now, those using EVs in urban areas usually park their vehicles for long periods of time and the current AC chargers available will get the job done.
"The new DC fast chargers provided right now along the highway will help long-distance travellers minimise their wait times and this will help to minimise inconveniences," explained Ghee.
Ghee also said the fast charger network linking the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia could possibly go live sometime in 2023, if not later. — JAY WONG
