DC charging issue/failures

[tigerbalm]

RWD Taycan + Norwegian Winter?

No update from Porsche yet on the DC charging issues on my Taycan Turbo S. Unless a fix is found soon, my planned roadtrip to Norway is in jeopardy.

Perviously my Porsche Centre have allowed me take a loaner on a road-trip on the mainland and they might do the same this time. I haven't discussed that with them yet – as still hoping for a fix to my own car.

They have a ton of RWD Taycan's at the moment – and I don't think so much AWD versions.

I've driven our planned route in Norway (basically the E6) a few times now in Taycan 4S and Turbo S.

I'm interested in folks familiar with driving in Scandinavian winters on the viability of making it as far north as Narvik this time in a RWD – with the same Pirelli PZero Winter NF0 tyres we've used on every other trip. The 4S and Turbo S drove very assuredly in tough winter conditions on previous trips.

How much have we been relying on the AWD and the additional weight of the motors over the front axle? Will the trip be possible and safe in a RWD?

Paging @Scandinavian, @Arno, @perski and others used to driving in the region.

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[Scandinavian]

I have no experience of driving a RWD Taycan in Norway, but have driven SAAB front wheel drive, Volvo and BMW RWD there. Not on Eurpean spec winter tyres though? Those cars still had an engine in the front but they were no problems. My BMW M5 was the trickiest, but that had studded winter tyres.

And there are so many Tesla M3 driving around without any problems. You will be safe but perhaps need to adjust the driving style a bit. Old trick with a sand bag or bag of cement in the trunk always helped the RWD cars. Perhaps some extra weights in the front for traction in the Taycan??

Over Christmas we visited Norway and were hit with two days with proper snow falls and icy roads. Everybody just adapted their driving a bit and there were only a few cars that had any issues. Everything from 0 degrees to minus 15 degrees C.

 

[cityhpper]

You should be fine in a Taycan RWD, @tigerbalm.

As @Scandinavian has his experiences, I have also done thousands of winter miles in MB and BMW, SAAB or VW in the Norwegian mountains - all cars beeing either FWD or RWD. I usually did run Nokian or Continental Nordic winter tyres, sometimes studded. Only issue is if snow gets too deep, but if you plan to mainly stay at the main roads like E6/E18/E39 you should be safe. They are serious about winter maintenance on these roads, due to the high number of trucks carrying goods, and express buses shutteling people between north and south.

Taycan is heavy and has a sensible weight distribution, also for the RWD model. The Pirelli tyres will serve you well. Most important part of such a journey, is to make sensible decisions, keep a fair distance to other traffic and don't go so fast that you are not able to stop the car in the visible part of the road ahead.

If you set off in a Taycan RWD, I would opt for a car with the bigger battery and also air suspension. Could be useful if snow piles up along your journey.

 

[tigerbalm]

If you set of in a Taycan RWD, I would opt for a car with the bigger battery and also air suspension. Could be useful if snow piles up along your journey.

Thanks @cityhpper – appreciate the advice. The current car does have air suspension – not sure which battery it has. Car still has less than 150 km on it – so regen hasn't kicked in yet. I'll find out from Porsche Centre which battery it has.

 

[Scandinavian]

Thanks @cityhpper – appreciate the advice. The current car does have air suspension – not sure which battery it has. Car still has less than 150 km on it – so regen hasn't kicked in yet. I'll find out from Porsche Centre which battery it has.

I still hope you will get your own car back though. It is such a great experience to test the car in proper winter conditions.

 

[B61]

Since AC charging also does not work, my guess is on-board charger has gone bad.

My onboard AC charger faiiled…again, while DC still work.
I guess that they are not not related since my dealer told me that I had to try AC to confirm error, while DC worked…

when it failed 1st time, I simply get red light on a charging door.
Last week, i was able to charge, but only up to 6KW, so i thought that mobile charger fails.
So,i went to a public charging station, tried AC 22kw and after few minutes (up to 9 Kw only), red light occured. After that, i plug DC and it worked well…

 

[tigerbalm]

This is the car so it does look like it has the bigger battery: https://finder.porsche.com/ie/en-IE/details/porsche-taycan-preowned-KV7V6X?model=taycan

 

[tigerbalm]

My onboard AC charger faiiled…again, while DC still works.

There seems to be all sorts of combinations when these chargers fail. I currently can charge fine on AC (up to 22 kW) and okay on DC (up to 50 kW) but will fail after about 8 minutes if DC charging at higher rate.

 

[Scandinavian]

This is the car so it does look like it has the bigger battery: https://finder.porsche.com/ie/en-IE/details/porsche-taycan-preowned-KV7V6X?model=taycan

When looking at the detailed spec, they still have the same capacity as before???

 

[B61]

I’m sure someone at Porsche will say “oh, it’s this line of code right here..”

On the bright, if speculative, side, it rather sounds like a software bug as opposed to failed/failing hardware. Doesn’t mean the fix will be quick, though ? - good luck and hope you get it sorted (well) before the trip.

Exactly my thoughts.
i didn;t have any problems with charging for more than two years.
Then, there was some recall, they had to replace something related to charging unit (and air-condition)…few days later…bang, charging unit failure #1.
They replaced (btw: without warranty, costs would be over 5k€)… two or three charging later…. Unit failure #2

i have scheduled service on January, 22…. Till then, i hope DC won’t faill too

 

[perski]

As others said, you'll be fine with RWD. Most people here in Norway still only have 2WD. Where AWD is quite useful is on the occasional steep icy backroad. But you could always invest in the chains. They're super easy to install and then you'll get up anything.

 

[B61]

There seems to be all sorts of combinations when these chargers fail. I currently can charge fine on AC (up to 22 kW) and okay on DC (up to 50 kW) but will fail after about 8 minutes if DC charging at higher rate.

My dealer told me that based on their experiences, only 22 charging units failed, while all with 11 are ok.

 

[tigerbalm]

As others said, you'll be fine with RWD. Most people here in Norway still only have 2WD. Where AWD is quite useful is on the occasional steep icy backroad. But you could always invest in the chains. They're super easy to install and then you'll get up anything.

Thank you @perski. Yep, have carried the chains on each trip but to date have not had to use them.

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...–-winter-2023-arctic-norway.14752/post-223548

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Over here in Washington state, we get quite a lot of snow in the mountains, typically with high moisture content. Occasionally that combines with a deep freeze (it was -23*C last night) and the road surface just turns to glass. Never had problems finding traction/going up - maybe AWD helped me and I didn’t realize it. Coming down is always the riskiest part, and I find that recoup on + 30ish mph is as stress-free as can be. Oh, and _very_ gentle steering inputs. I think I’d go in a RWD with proper winters on.

 

[Jhenson29]

Coming down is always the riskiest part, and I find that recoup on + 30ish mph is as stress-free as can be. Oh, and _very_ gentle steering inputs. I think I’d go in a RWD with proper winters on.

I’m still curious about recup vs braking strategies on the RWD. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any definitive information on the topic, but if I’ve missed it, someone can point me to it.

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