A4 Phil

1. Our E-tron's really are road trip kings. Take yours on a trip. You will love it.
2. Adaptive Cruise Assist: I have another thread on this, but it is critical to nail efficiencies over a long distance on the highway. Also the car is so quite that it is REALLY easy to speed without the assist.
3. The e-tron route planner and map:

• Why does the map not yet show DC chargers enroute? If I have a leg that the map is showing me my next charge, I'd like it to also show me any other EA's I am passing in case my family is asking for a food stop, I can select an exit because of an available EA that is in the area. It shows me gas stations and all sorts of useless information, but not enroute DCQC's.
• Why does the e-tron route planner not give you an SOC charging target? It gives you a charging time. But the time is useless because it does not account for the actual speed of the charger. Just the planned speed. So it tells you that you are going to roll in at 21% SOC and you will need to charge for 26 minutes. To what SOC? Why doesn't it say that you are rolling in at 21% SOC and you need to charge to 87% SOC. Or better, why doesn't it push you an alert on your phone so that you are notified while wondering around Walmart or whatever you are doing.
• I wish that I could figure out how to delete a single let in the route planner. Sometimes it simply will not acknowledge that I have charged and when I leave, it is just trying to route me back to the Walmart. There is no logic telling it that "hey, I have gone from 4% SOC to 76% SOC and I am going further from the charger, maybe I am charged". I have to kill the entire route and plug back in the destination.
• I think this might be a '19 thing only, but OMG, I'd love the route planner to stop suggesting slow car dealer ChargePoint chargers when there is an EA at the next exit. Sometimes I have to pull the EA destination from ABRP and manually put it in as the destination because the e-tron route planner is determined to use a 9kW ChargePoint for six hours over an EA for 20 minutes.

4. There is something very satisfying about rolling into charge with your '19 and being out of there in 20 minutes while the other new Mach-e's, BMW's etc are wondering why they are charging at 50 kW's. OMG, BMW's are slow. They really rip about 20% and then it is a slow slog to 80% and I mean slow. That is the reason right there I would never touch a BMW. I was really surprised.

There is more, but I have done other trip write ups in the past. These are the things that I kept shaking my head at on my umpteenth road trip with our amazing cars.
I am going to put my general EA thoughts in another thread. I think that EA is MUCH better than people are saying it is, but the failures when they come are pretty darn frustrating if not catastrophic.

rdgrimes

I think the general consensus is to use anything other than the Audi route planning. A number of apps available that can be run in Carplay or Android, or just use your phone/tablet.
BTW there is a setting buried in the MMI to give EA priority in the route planning.

A4 Phil

I have the EA priority setting checked. There is something about the 19 where it still loves routing you to random other chargers. The example I like to give is when I travel south from DC. There is an EVgo one block from an EA in Richmond VA. The e-tron route planner will always route you through the EVgo. It is crazy.

I like using the integrated route planner because of my HUD. I like having the trip data projected in front of me. I understand that this was an Audi decision and not actually limited by Android Auto (anymore). But until Audi allows 3rd party maps to be integrated into the HUD, I just can't really take the other options seriously.

My technique really is to have ABRP running on my phone. Not ideal, but I do not know of another way.

rdgrimes

On mine, you can tap any displayed charger on the map and it will offer you route guidance to get there. You can use this to just navigate from one charger to the next rather than try to navigate the whole trip at once.

WetEV

• Why not give a selection of charge stops? Sort by total route time, fastest on top.

Say, when routing from Aberdeen, WA to Bellingham WA? Leaving Aberdeen, WA with 90%, I need to stop for about 20 to 25%, depending on weather, and more. I could stop anywhere from Federal Way to Marysville, and stay in the 20% to 90% SOC range. List at least a few choices. Let me pick one.

And show them on the map as I get close to them.

yeamac

5,000 mile road trip over winter in an EV? You are braver than I.

Maybe in the land of EV's the e-tron is a road trip king, but it just doesn't compare to a Hybrid or ICE vehicle. My Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Limited runs circles around my e-tron for road tripping, and is more spacious and equally as comfortable.

The 850-mile trip (one way) to my in-law's house over Christmas took us 12 hours 30 minutes in the Pacifica Hybrid. Easily doable in one day. According to A Better Route Planner, same road conditions, traveling at the same speed, if all 9 DC chargers on the way worked at max speed (we all know that just doesn't happen), it would have taken 17 hours in the e-tron, requiring an overnight stay and an extra day of traveling. Run into problems with a charger, or having to wait at a couple chargers because they are full when you arrive (on those slow BMW's!) could easily stretch that travel time to 18-19 hours. Then repeat for the way home.

Retired and you got time to kill, e-tron is fine. While I still work and have finite vacation time, I'm not wasting a couple more days on the road when I don't have to.

coldrain85

Ditto. I had a less than great experience driving a rented etron 1300 miles the week before Xmas. It added 2 hours to what would have otherwise been an 8 hour drive, and that was with no waiting to use a charging station. I need to see a 50% range improvement, and better infrastructure before I consider another EV road trip. Until then I have to go with the faster, more reliable gas burner on the two or three road trips I take each year. I have kids in the car and limited time so lagging isn't an option.

This is true. I accelerated onto the freeway the other day, looked down at the speedometer and was going 79. I was really surprised. I use the Cruise Control on the freeway most of the time. Otherwise, my lead foot would get the better of me. The only minor annoyance is when the speed limit unexpectedly drops and the car slows down.

On my trip, I was using my free credits so I stuck with EA chargers. I used the EA app and programmed the address into the NAV system. The etron route planner isn't horrible, but my iphone has better apps.

Yeah, satisfying as long as you are not waiting for them to charge and move out of the spot. I encountered this on the way back home. I was VERY lucky that I only had to wait to charge once during the 1300 mile road trip, and that charging station (Harris Ranch on I-5) was packed with slow BMW's and Chevy Volts. I only saw a couple of other etrons, but maybe that's because they weren't there very long. My timing was okay and someone moved about 10 minutes after we arrived, but it was even more crowded when I came out of the restaurant to move the car. Oh well, it was Xmas week and Harris Ranch is a popular place to stop so I figured that it would be a **** show.

Tronification

Not quite as ballsy as you, but I did 600 miles in the etron today. I’m sitting in the car for the last charge of the day, and I thought I’d add my unsolicited $0.02.

I’m using the Audi app to spend some leftover credits. I must say, calling the dude in charge of the app an idiot is too kind. There’s such staggering incompetence with what should be trivial functionality, it beggars belief. Status updates that produce utter bullcrap values (old values presented as current), atrociously slow communication to Audi’s web and app server and consequently poor connectivity to EA … all this on top of the retarded UX … why? Ironically, EA seems to have sorted the old issues on their end, it’s Audi that can’t get their 80268 server to communicate with EA effectively (took 3-4 tries to initiate each session). The comm failure patterns, not to mention the error messages are pure comedy at times (such as “locking succesful but the doors must be open, the car is parked safely”). 100% amateur hour.


EA has been solid and, every time I charged, I was not the only one there. Usage has definitely picked up. The steady 150kW that the etron is pulling is also quite satisfying.

Cruise control has been slightly less flakey today, i.e. I actually got some use out of it.

The fob not recognized issue is infuriating (new battery). It’s definitely software. I stepped out of the car to charge, the charge port door would not open. “Key not in car?” message shown. The key was recognized just fine for locking and unlocking the car. Similarly, at times the door would unlock and the alarm would go off. My spidey sense tells me the two issues are related, likely a thread concurrency problem.

During one charging session I got an “Electrical System Failure” message, with the red triangle of doom, and charging stopped. Ive seen that message twice before and I ended up needing a new motor each time. Hopefully not again. Will take it in for a scan.

So yes, it’s a wonderful cruiser, except for all the bits that don’t work.

JNealCox

The biggest advantage of using the Audi Navigation is that, when you put in a destination, the GOM takes into account altitude and other conditions to give you a better estimate. I know the "subscription" version of ABRP is supposed to do this, but it does not h ave the other particulars of your car.

wvu_sam

This can be changed. Go into the MMI and turn off Predictive Control > Set Speed Limit. This is under VEHICLE > Driver Assistance > (sprocket) > Adaptive cruise Assist.

With this off, you have complete control over the cruise speed.