Long distance driving with AC charging only

[tomw00]

Hi All,

We recently had a problem with our Taycan Turbo which prevented it from charging using the CCS port.

More info here https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/charge-port-reported-open-when-closed.15691/

We were 2,000 km from home in South Spain.

Porsche Assistance refused to help since the car was "drivable".
Fortunately I had spec'ed the 22kW option so decided we would drive home over a period of 5 days.
We left Malaga on Tuesday 9th May and got home to the UK on Saturday 13th May.
I have collated a few hints and tips in case anyone has a similar issue.

• Hotels - Book changeable/refundable rooms
• Use booking.com - this make it easy to shuffle dates around if you can't make the distance that day
• Only book hotels with charging
• Ask the hotel to reserve you a space - about 50% agreed to do this
• Double and triple check the charging works and is at least 7kW+
• Many hotels have tesla destination charging - this may or may not work - look for reviews in apps like electromaps/chargemap - don't rely on hotel staff saying other EVs are successfully using it
• Don't have breakfast at the hotel - stop at the first 22kW charger you can find
• Look for a lunch stop with 22kW charging
• Find stops that have a cluster of 22kW chargers so if one fails there are others nearby
• Lunch will be long so try to find somewhere interesting. Spanish truck stops always seem to something going on....
• Some 22kW chargers only supply 11kW - look for tethered cables these seem to be 22kW+
• Invest in a red three phase adapter - many hotels have this available and most other EVs won't be able to use it
• Use ACC and try to keep your speed constant at 120km/h-130km/h - acceleration/deceleration chews through energy

Hope this helps someone in the future.

A big shout out to Porsche Marbella for seeing if they could find an easy fix like fuses or doing a reset and also to my local OPC in Mid Sussex who have been superb.
The chief technician in Mid Sussex sent suggestions to their counterpart in Spain to see if they could help and continuously checked in with me.
International Porsche Assistance however are about to get a complaint...

Tom

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[Scandinavian]

Very valid advice! So there was a value to opt for the 22 kW charging option

 

[Slappy_G]

How long were you spending charging at each stop? Was it 2-3 hours a stop?

 

[tomw00]

How long were you spending charging at each stop? Was it 2-3 hours a stop?

yes - exactly - 30 mins for breakfast and 2.5 - 3 hours for lunch

 

[Slappy_G]

yes - exactly - 30 mins for breakfast and 2.5 - 3 hours for lunch

If I had a 2-3 hour window for a lunch, I would end up SOOO fat. I would be in trouble.

 

[Sidicks]

A big shout out to Porsche Marbella for seeing if they could find an easy fix like fuses or doing a reset and also to my local OPC in Mid Sussex who have been superb.
The chief technician in Mid Sussex sent suggestions to their counterpart in Spain to see if they could help and continuously checked in with me.
International Porsche Assistance however are about to get a complaint...

Mid-Sussex are my OPC, they are a good bunch of people so no surprise they were helpful!

 

[anonymouse]

Re your comment on Tesla destination chargers. If it helps others, these often (not always) come in pairs. There is an internal setup which can restrict a charger to Tesla vehicles only - normally one is Tesla and the other is available to others. You can see them all on the Tesla "Find us" map. But the destination scheme has got very rusty in the last year or two -- many hotels have removed their free chargers and replaced them with others that have a fee, and some have just broken over the years.

 

[anonymouse]

If I had a 2-3 hour window for a lunch, I would end up SOOO fat. I would be in trouble.

You forget, the OP was in Spain. 2-3 hours for lunch is quite fast

 

[tchavei]

Luckily it was Spain where there's a culture of bocadillos and tapas aka lots of different small dishes to try out over a couple of hours.

I'm really glad the OP made it back in a timely manner.

Spain scares me a bit in terms of charging network (outside of ionity of course). I don't understand the system (the same foreigners don't understand the Portuguese system).

I was considering going to Seville soon but still have to investigate the charging network there a bit more

 

[fullmetalbaal]

"Porsche Assistance refused to help since the car was "drivable"."

This is kinda crazy. Glad you made it back safely - but this is the kind of BS I expect a third rate company to pull - I really expected more from Porsche.

 

[satchurator]

@tomw00 Wow, what an odyssey! You should get your dealership to forward this on to Porsche - crazy that you had to go through that.

Did Porsche Assistance determine that the car was drivable based on the full circumstances, or did you volunteer that the car was technically 'drivable', but then your caveats to that fell on deaf ears?

 

[hifi239]

Thanks! This must have been what ICE travel was like 100 years ago. I believe car owners in the early 1900s had their own gas tank at home. It took about 30 years to build out the gas station infrastructure. Hopefully not so long this time. Note also that in the USA there are many Tesla destination chargers, but one needs to carry a J2772 adapter.

 

[tomw00]

@tomw00 Wow, what an odyssey! You should get your dealership to forward this on to Porsche - crazy that you had to go through that.

Did Porsche Assistance determine that the car was drivable based on the full circumstances, or did you volunteer that the car was technically 'drivable', but then your caveats to that fell on deaf ears?

After I answered the question that I was in a safe place ( by the hotel pool ) and the car was drivable they weren't interested hearing that is wasn't actually really drivable long distances. I suppose internal combustion cars either fail completely or not. This case falls through call handlers tree of questions. I will pursue this though

 

[anonymouse]

Might I ask, on this 22kW odyssey did you use the standard Type 2 cable that came with your Taycan and what speed did you get?
Asking because Porsche have supplied me with a 7.4kW single-phase cable even though the car is specified with a 22kW charger, and I think that would mean that I only charge at 1/3 of the speed on those Type 2 sockets with 3-phase power.
I wonder if this is what you mean by "tethered cables supply 22kW". On my Tesla I used to get 22kW quite easy using my own cable which I expect must have been a 3-phase Type 2 cable.

 

[tomw00]

Might I ask, on this 22kW odyssey did you use the standard Type 2 cable that came with your Taycan and what speed did you get?
Asking because Porsche have supplied me with a 7.4kW single-phase cable even though the car is specified with a 22kW charger, and I think that would mean that I only charge at 1/3 of the speed on those Type 2 sockets with 3-phase power.
I wonder if this is what you mean by "tethered cables supply 22kW". On my Tesla I used to get 22kW quite easy using my own cable which I expect must have been a 3-phase Type 2 cable.

I did not - about a year ago a purchased a Tesla three phase charging cable. I think it was about £100 which seemed very cheap to me. That together with the red 3P CEE adaptor did the trick

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