Car and Driver magazine doesn't have a web version but you can find it on your local newsstand, if you have one of those, that is. Current issue, July/August 2023, has a cover story about their third EV of the year, the Hyundai Ioniq6, of course. The interesting stuff, though, is in the accompanying article describing the runners up. Our Volvos are not even mentioned, sigh. The article also includes sidebars on current and future battery tech and an evaluation of how far the contenders can actually drive in ten hours at 75mph. That test started in Denver CO with 100% charge, depleted the batteries to 10%, and recharged at DC fast charging poles as many times as practical in ten hours, compensating for the fact that charging slows dramatically after 50-70%.
"For those reasons, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 narrowly emerged as the distance champ, requiring 58 minutes of charging over three stops to go 678 miles, with the BMW i7 and Lucid Air Pure a mere five miles behind. On the other end of the spectrum, the Lexus RZ450e has the least highway range (120 miles) and isn’t particularly quick to recharge, so it’s plugged in for just over three hours in five stops and makes it only 515 miles in 10 hours. While the Ioniq 6’s result is certainly impressive, a BMW M340i xDrive sipping dino juice at a rate of 33 mpg could go 747 miles in 10 hours with a single fuel stop of just over a minute." —Dave VanderWerp
I wonder how far my C40 could gets in 10 hours? Mental exercise: Assumptions: a conservative baseline of 210 miles at 100% (running air conditioning, flat roads, no wind), access to 150kW DC poles conveniently placed every 156 miles along the test route, and 40 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%. Again, being conservative, that's roughly 175 miles at 80% SOC and leaving 15-20 miles (10% SOC) in the tank. So, 200 miles on the first leg but only 160 on each of the rest. (These figures could be manipulated in numerous ways to stretch the total miles and reduce the charging times but real world driving and charge station conditions would chew up any theoretical gains.)
Leg 1: 100% down to 10%, 200 miles in 2.6 hrs, 10%/20 miles in the tank, charge 40 mins to 80% or 176 miles (3.2 hrs consumed of 10 hrs)
Leg 2: 80% down to 10%, 156 miles in 2.0 hrs, 10%/18 miles in the tank, charge 40 mins to 80% or 176 miles (5.8 hrs of 10)
Leg 3: 80% down to 10%, 156 miles in 2.0 hrs, 10%/18 miles in the tank, charge 30 mins to 70% or 150 miles (8.3 hrs of 10)
Leg 4: 70% down to 10%, 130 miles in 1.7 hrs, 10%/16-20 miles in the tank (10 of 10 hours)
Totals: 600-630 miles in 8.3 hours on the road, requiring 1.8 hours charging time in three stops. Not all that bad compared to the best EVs on the list. I am left with the conclusion that bigger batteries and faster input do not make all that much difference on road trips that are mostly highway driving. The Hyundai only got 60-80 more miles (10-12% more) but enjoys a huge 40 minutes savings in charging time (45% less but still needs three stops). So these small differences, while tedious, are probably going to be mostly psychological (until my quaintly now-vintage Volvo is replaced in ten years). And consider that in many parts of the USA, like the Wild West, finding a fast DC station that has a fully operational pole when you need one is quite unlikely.