I was never anxious about my driving range whenever I borrowed an EV test unit. The trick is simple – treat the car like a phone. You charge it when you have time so that you always have a good amount of range buffer. That’s what I did when I had a few days with the Audi Q8 e-tron previously. I enjoyed highway driving with it and what I consumed for the day, I made up for by charging it at night.
So what happens when the brand itself forces you not to charge? Audi Philippines gathered select members of the motoring media for a “fun” drive to Baguio. We were to take the Audi Q8 e-tron 55 from their showroom in EDSA Greenhills to Baguio Country Club and back to the showroom, around 526 kilometers, in a single charge. I was pretty confident in the beginning because I have a light foot on the throttle thanks to high gasoline prices. My brain was shouting “Baguio with an EV? E-Z!”
There are 2 restrictions during this drive. First is we should be in Range Mode which is like the Q8’s Eco Mode. Second is our aircon is set to 23-degrees at the first level. Any changes in the aircon setting will definitely affect our consumption. Oh right. Third is there should only be two people in the car. That’s easy enough, only we have a handicap since my weight accounts for two people. Add to that my colleague and we technically have three in our unit. Fitting for Car 3 of the bunch.
We started in Audi Greenhills with 100% charge and 425 km range. Now, that’s not the real range yet. Aside from the charge of the battery, the range is affected by the throttle manners of the driver so if it reads that you’re heavy footed, it will adjust its range accordingly. So this 425 km still considers the driving style of the previous driver of the unit, whoever that is.
I was proven right once we reached Petron Lake Shore. We had 90% charge remaining but our range actually went up to 496 km. Next stop was the PTT gas station in SCTEX. This was more challenging because even though it was only a 29 km distance and our charge only dropped by 5 at 85%, our range dropped by 70 (426 km left) thanks to the number of cars in SCTEX. Inconsistent driving like constant braking, acceleration, and catching up with the convoy caused that drop. Again, the range also reads your throttle input so the inconsistency made it decide that with that attitude, I have less distance left with my charge.
I was able to regain some consistency on the drive to Rosario, La Union thanks to the mostly empty and boring TPLEX. I wasn’t able to connect my phone to the Audi’s Apple CarPlay and so I was left hearing my own thoughts. My only company was the amazing massage function of the seats and the Lane Keeping Assist that keeps me centered on the boring road. Once at Shell by the rotonda, we still have 67% left and my range was at 339 km, higher than the computed difference from PTT SCTEX. At this point, I let my co-driver Ikey from GoFlatOut take the wheel. I don’t want to be the one stressed during the mountain climb.
I was envious of Ikey since he’s the one driving during the hill climb, and all I did was go straight for a few hours. But that envy was short lived once we encountered the normal obstacles of Marcos Highway. The slow trikes, buses, trucks, and more trucks hampered our momentum. Good thing Ikey’s back in the car so we now have music pumping out of the lush speakers of Bang & Olufsen.
Overtaking is easy for the Audi Q8, but of course, it’s an equivalent exchange with the charge and range remaining. It’s inevitable though since if we don’t overtake, we’ll be stuck crawling behind trucks and buses. If you’re climbing up the mountains with an EV, or even with a conventional car, it’s better to have a burst of speed now and then have a chill driving later rather than prolong that crawling pace. We’re also lucky that we did get out of that slow situation immediately because once we arrived at the steepest uphill corners, there were no more obstacles so we had momentum going and less battery drain.
Once in Baguio, things were chill on the road (and in temperature). It was a mid-day work day so there’s not much traffic yet. We got to Camp John Hay without a hitch and when we arrived at the Baguio Country Club parking lot, there’s 45% charge remaining and 142 km of range left in our Audi Q8. Apparently we’ve beaten Audi PH’s record when their own crew did this run. I bet they’re lighter than me too.
We didn’t use the cars nor charge them during our overnight stay at the Baguio Country Club. Audi had prepared different units for us to use for content creation and some pasalubong runs in the city. Next day, the car has 43% charge and 137 km remaining. Again, we did not use the cars meant for the challenge, so why did it drop? It’s called ‘vampire drain.’ Even when it’s not in use and shut off, the car still consumes battery juice to maintain functionality in some features like battery management, alarm, and key fob sensor among others.
I got back behind the wheel for the downhill run from Baguio. We left the Baguio Country Club at around 11:30 in the morning, just before Typhoon Ofel got too close to the place. Still, it made the road foggy forcing us to drive slower that hampered our cars’ energy regeneration. Once we were past the iconic tunnel, the road cleared up and allowed us to drive normally. When we arrived some 50 kilometers down at Shell Rosario again, we still had 43% charge and our range increased to 215 km. The sad part is, we’re now against the highways.
After uphill roads, flat highways are the next rival of EVs. They don’t allow the cars to regenerate since there’s no changes in elevation and the high speed required means the battery drains faster. That’s why it’s not surprising that at City Mall SCTEX, our charge is down to 26% but our range only lost 56 at 159 km left (despite the more than 100 km distance from Shell Rosario). 26% and we still have to take on the cars in NLEX and traffic of Metro Manila. This is where the range anxiety really started for me.
We stopped for a late lunch in Petron Bocaue Southbound with 15% left and 88 km remaining. The distance from there to the Audi showroom in EDSA Greenhills? Around 34 km. So good, we have a buffer of around 50 km. But you know how unpredictable the traffic is so I can’t really rest easy.
After NLEX, we climbed up to Skyway instead of taking the long stretch of EDSA from Balintawak. If we do that, we’ll probably have to be rescued near the Cubao underpass that’s notorious for being a choke point. We took the Skyway Stage 3 with 11% left and 65 km remaining to take on the back roads going to Greenhills. We exited at Araneta Avenue, went straight past Aurora Blvd. and turned left at N. Domingo, then right at M. Paterno, left at Bonny, right at Ortigas, and that’s where I got really anxious. It’s full blown rush hour traffic at this point and we have dipped to 9% remaining.
Thankfully Ikey knows the area well (I don’t hang out around these parts) and said we should turn left at Greenhills Mall so we can cut the traffic and go into Connecticut. Only the stoplight to go left at Greenhills was too fast that we didn’t make it. We had to wait for another 2 or 3 minutes, and our charge was down to 8%. Once the light turned green, we quickly turned left to the mall’s inner roads. My anxiety was gone when we got to Connecticut and finally, we arrived at Audi Philippines’s showroom with 7% and 42 kilometers remaining.
Apart from surviving this anxious drive, I learned that traffic isn’t really something to be afraid of when you’re in a low-charge EV. Uphills and flat highways are still a bigger threat. That rush hour traffic with the Audi Q8 e-tron was only scary because I’m not familiar with the area. Since I was driving, I cannot check the distance to our end point. But looking back at it, I shouldn’t have worried that much since we were very near (apparently) and the range was still plenty despite the scary single digit percent left on the battery. With that 42 kilometers left, I could’ve gone to our old house in QC and back to the showroom, probably with 1 or 2% remaining.
Another thing that impressed me with the Audi Q8 e-tron was its cornering stability. The corners of Marcos Highway near Baguio have an angle and usually, taking them at speed will mean your belongings will move. So imagine my surprise when I opened the cargo area and our things retained their positions. Even the usually slippery paperbags on the left side were still on top of one another. I am thoroughly impressed with this EV SUV.
Remember that this activity was an extreme situation. Imagine being in Baguio and finding out that the storm is coming in a few hours. Will you go to SM Baguio to charge, or head down now while there isn’t much rain? If you choose the latter, let me assure you that you can arrive at your home without a problem. As I said before – treat your EV like a phone in terms of charging and you’ll be fine. But when push comes to shove, the Audi Q8 e-tron won’t let you down.
