J1.2 new owner charging confusion

[Taycan18]

Just picked up a J1.2 and I’m struggling to time the charging. I’ve got a dumb charger and a dynamic tariff, and I’m trying to get the Taycan to charge during the cheap-rate windows, controlling it manually and remotely.

The J1.2 doesn’t have charging profiles — just the simplified slider and departure time.

Say I’ve got a 6-hour window of cheap electricity. If I set the departure time to the end of that window and the preferred charging window to match the low-price hours, it mostly works. But I also have to carefully calculate the max charge percentage, otherwise the car starts charging early — e.g. if it decides the window isn’t long enough to hit my set max, it kicks off ahead of time. Having to back-calculate that every time is daft.

So I tried the direct charging slider instead. Problem there: once I stop a charge, I have to physically unplug and replug the cable before it’ll start again. I can’t find any way to stop and restart a charge remotely without touching the cable. Am I missing something?

Is this something a smart charger would fix — one where I can stop and start on demand — or will I hit the same replug problem regardless?

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[barryrs]

I find the onboard scheduling to be a bit rubbish to use with overnight cheap rates as well; however, my home charger is a smart one and has this functionality built in.

My home charger turns itself on during the cheap rate every night and I just plug the car in as and when I need to. I generally plug in at around 50 miles of range so I only charge to 100% if I have a pre-planned long journey the following day (day to day I keep the car between 50 and 180 miles of range).

I do get a charging error when I plug the car in as there is no electric supply but as long as its left plugged in it will start charging as soon as the EV point turns on.

Could you wire in a timer to your existing charger?

If your EV point is on a switched spur you could swap it out with one that has a built in timer for £30 to £50.

 

[kl98cwg]

I was able to make it to work that way with my previous J1.1, but not the J1.2.

I’ve found an Ohme EVSE and Octopus Intelligent Go works well with the J1.2 for smart charging - charging is configured on the Ohme app and it happens in daytime cheap rate windows and at night. I also adjust the desired target charge on the Porsche app as a ‘safety net’ - charging stops at the lower of the Porsche or Ohme target - as my previous experience with this approach on the J1.1 was the car randomly charging to 100%.

There are annoying notifications from the car or the Ohme whenever there’s a conflict between the two, e.g., if the car reaches it’s target charge when the Ohme has a higher target, or vice versa, but these can be ignored.

The Ohme would also allow a specific charging window to be set for the cheap rate times, rather than smart charging.

Updating as I hadn’t answered your last question: I don’t have to unplug/replug the car to get charging to continue.

 

[W1NGE]

Just picked up a J1.2 and I’m struggling to time the charging. I’ve got a dumb charger and a dynamic tariff, and I’m trying to get the Taycan to charge during the cheap-rate windows, controlling it manually and remotely.

The J1.2 doesn’t have charging profiles — just the simplified slider and departure time.

Say I’ve got a 6-hour window of cheap electricity. If I set the departure time to the end of that window and the preferred charging window to match the low-price hours, it mostly works. But I also have to carefully calculate the max charge percentage, otherwise the car starts charging early — e.g. if it decides the window isn’t long enough to hit my set max, it kicks off ahead of time. Having to back-calculate that every time is daft.

So I tried the direct charging slider instead. Problem there: once I stop a charge, I have to physically unplug and replug the cable before it’ll start again. I can’t find any way to stop and restart a charge remotely without touching the cable. Am I missing something?

Is this something a smart charger would fix — one where I can stop and start on demand — or will I hit the same replug problem regardless?

Does you electricity provider not supply an app for this purpose - Ovo, Octopus, etc?

If so then don't use My Porsche app (disable all existing programming) and use your alternative.

If not then you may need to change out your EVSE which can be directly controlled by your provider.

 

[Taycan18]

Does you electricity provider not supply an app for this purpose - Ovo, Octopus, etc?

If so then don't use My Porsche app (disable all existing programming) and use your alternative.

If not then you may need to change out your EVSE which can be directly controlled by your provider.

I don’t drive enough for an EV tariff to make sense (normal rates being higher) so I’m on Octopus Agile and want to decide myself when to charge 1 like today while rates are negative. But I want to stop charging at 4pm!

 

[Taycan18]

I was able to make it to work that way with my previous J1.1, but not the J1.2.

I’ve found an Ohme EVSE and Octopus Intelligent Go works well with the J1.2 for smart charging - charging is configured on the Ohme app and it happens in daytime cheap rate windows and at night. I also adjust the desired target charge on the Porsche app as a ‘safety net’ - charging stops at the lower of the Porsche or Ohme target - as my previous experience with this approach on the J1.1 was the car randomly charging to 100%.

There are annoying notifications from the car or the Ohme whenever there’s a conflict between the two, e.g., if the car reaches it’s target charge when the Ohme has a higher target, or vice versa, but these can be ignored.

The Ohme would also allow a specific charging window to be set for the cheap rate times, rather than smart charging.

Updating as I hadn’t answered your last question: I don’t have to unplug/replug the car to get charging to continue.

Thanks - so smart charger it is. I’ve managed to order the Anker X1 for £300 which is more or less a straight swap for me, so will give that a try and see if it gives me enough control.

 

[Shug]

I don’t drive enough for an EV tariff to make sense (normal rates being higher) so I’m on Octopus Agile and want to decide myself when to charge 1 like today while rates are negative. But I want to stop charging at 4pm!

Interesting Taycan18

I am an Octopus customer, not heard of Octopus Agile before.

My current deal finishes in two weeks, how long have you been using Agile, how much of a success has it been?

 

[Taycan18]

Interesting Taycan18

I am an Octopus customer, not heard of Octopus Agile before.

My current deal finishes in two weeks, how long have you been using Agile, how much of a success has it been?

Only about a month, but I did a lot of research before switching. If you can be flexible with charging times, and even better with large appliances, and don’t mind checking the day ahead prices in the app once a day, there are big savings to be had.

The daily average price is typically lower than most tariffs, but 4-7pm is expensive every day.

Then there are periods of really low or even negative prices, generally once a week, when you can get paid to fully charge.

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