AMCI Testing Responds to MotorTrend Calling Their Real World Range Testing of the Porsche Taycan A “Guesstimation”
LOS ANGELES, March 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — AMCI responds to MotorTrend’s assertions that its EV-range protocols and results are more accurate than theirs. As a service to fact-minded readers, automotive consumers, and Porsche, the company looks to set the record straight.
All Testing Is Not Created Equal
In the recent MotorTrend story they cite AMCI Testing’s Certified range results for Porsche’s Taycan before countering with the phrase, “Now it’s our turn, and MotorTrend does it with proper instrumentation, not guesstimation.” Here are the facts related to AMCI Testing’s Certified protocol (and how it compares to that of MotorTrend):
- AMCI Testing started with 100% charge and ran both cars in tandem until limp-home battery exhaustion—the only real-world approach to verifying total vehicle efficiency and range
- AMCI Testing ran the maximum-range configuration for five full days and nearly 1,400 miles, then ran the normal-driving configuration for another five full days and another nearly 1,400 miles. That is ten days (two shifts/day) and just under 2,800 total miles of range testing
- MotorTrend’s “normal mode” range for the Taycan Turbo S was a partial-charge extrapolation from a single 88-mile loop, and its “range mode” performance was a partial-charge extrapolation from just two 88-mile loops. It appears that MotorTrend never completed (or assessed range over) a single, complete, discharge cycle
- AMCI Testing Certified and reported the results from every mile of testing that was run—MotorTrend employed some type of “data cleaning” according to their description
- In normal mode, AMCI Testing only Certified a combined City/Highway range figure, because that’s precisely what we tested. MotorTrend evidently used a further-truncated portion of their one-loop, 88-mile dataset to then break out distinct figures for both city and highway driving (evidently extrapolating from 48.4 miles of city driving and 39.6 miles of highway driving)
Please click here for AMCI Testing’s full protocol and results.
In short, Certified real-world testing requires significant resources, proven repeatability, and detailed protocols designed to anticipate and address every significant variable. MotorTrend actually did a fine job given the time and budget constraints of an editorial publication. But those constraints can and will introduce inaccuracies. In this case, AMCI Testing’s much-more-extensive test procedures repeatedly resulted in an additional 24 miles or 9% greater range than the findings in MotorTrend’s extrapolative tests.
About AMCI Testing
For brands that choose to compete on facts, credibility, and integrity, AMCI Testing is the industry’s third-party consultant of choice. AMCI Testing’s results are independent, and have assisted manufacturers in vehicle development and unbiased competitive-product assessments for more than three decades. Our rigorous protocols and perspective are uniquely rooted in real-world consumer benefits; i.e., we work to highlight product differences that matter. The result is better vehicles—and AMCI Testing Certified Claims that consumers can trust. In 35 years no AMCI Testing Certified Claim has ever been successfully challenged—because we approach vehicle testing like no other entity in the business.
