It's not just the Norwegian government's incentives to get people into EVs that has driven the take up, it's as much about their disincentives towards petrol and diesel vehicles, like high taxes* and high fuel prices* (driven by higher tax on those fuels) that made the switch to pure EV's the sensible ecconomic choice. They also have a good charging network.
Although by European standards Norway has a fairly big land mass and the distance from top to bottom is quite far, most of the population lives on the coastal regions of the southern tip, so long car journeys are probably not common in the way that they are in the US. Less efficiency in the cold doesn't matter as much if you can still easily do all your days driving on a single charge.
*compared to the rest of Europe on average.
i think less than 5% of the population wouldn't be able to do all their daily driving on a single charge -- truckers, cabbies, delivery drivers, etc ... but I used to commute an hour and a half each direction (northern virginia to fort meade) and my car easily handled that plus any errands in between. Granted that is with a long-range EV, and I am able to charge at home.
You mentioned your Plaid having different drive ratios between the front and rear motors. I don't know all the engineering details of the Plaid, but perhaps the front motor is "turned off" after a certain speed is hit and the rear motors (likely with the longer gearing) take the car to it's final top speed. While its technically not "2 gears" it is effectively changing the final gearing of the whole system to achieve its high top speed. It makes me wonder if the Taycan is hitting its top speed in AWD or not. If the Plaid works like I'm imagining, it is in RWD mode at top speed.
yeah, as i mentioned, the software does alter the balance between the front and rear, but i'm not sure either ever goes to zero (except in extreme efficiency mode).
So... Back to the idea of greater efficiency at highway speeds, this is actually a HUGE deal in the US. As mentioned by another person, Norway may look big, but its maybe 2/3rds the length of the US's eastern coastline and 90% of its population is consolidated into an area the size of a single mid-sized US state. Sure, your average person would love more range in the US because it means less charging on a long trip, however trucking goods across this massive country is where EV engineers need to be looking into greater efficiency at highway speeds. Imagine a Semi traveling at 65 mph down the highway (there are many highways that are 70mph in the states), they are going to burn through their entire battery (all 100%) in less than 200 miles if they were to use this Volvo truck:
https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/trucks/trucks/volvo-fh/volvo-fh-electric.html
yeah, long range trucking is one of those use cases where gas is still a better option for sure. But for commuting or even family trips, EVs are actually becoming more convenient than gas.
i mentioned Norway as an example of millions of people living in cold weather and using EVs, but I live in Virginia. I'm familiar with American highways.
In fact, I take the wife and kids and dog in our Model S to Canada (about 600 miles) every summer, and also take it to Georgia (600 miles the other way) to visit my folks. It's a huge car with ridiculous amounts of cargo space, more than enough for the whole family on a long trip. In terms of range, it's pretty good too. I can make it from DC to Pittsburgh on a single charge very easily, and there are dozens of superchargers along the way anyway (and the screen in the car shows where they all are and how many stalls are in use at each one in real time). Charging takes about 20 minutes. When going to Canada, which is about 10-12 hours depending on traffic, we only stop to charge twice ... actually we could probably push it to one stop if we wanted, but there's no good reason to. Charging doesn't take any longer than it takes to walk the dog and go to the bathroom ourselves, which we have to do anyway. Pretty much every highway in America is dotted with superchargers at this point, and they're usually at Sheetz or Wawa or a strip mall where you have access to a bathroom and food and other amenities. The middle of the country is certainly not as saturated as the coasts, though, and things are definitely rougher if your car can't access the supercharger network. So yeah there are caveats and it won't work for every budget and every situation.
I think the main thing people don't realize is how life-changing it is to be able to charge over night at home. I used to have to get gas like 2 or 3 times a week. But in my EV, I only have to go to charging stations 2 or 3 times per
year -- when we go on those family trips. I wake up every morning with a full battery.
I get that a lot of people aren't in a situation where they can charge at their home yet, or can't afford a long-range EV. I'm not saying it's the best solution for everyone. But for our situation it's amazing.
