EA - how often is free charging working for you?

[trexarms]

Subject says it all. Responses appreciated.

For context, I’ve had my GTS ST for a month. I’d conservatively say every third to fourth attempt at using the My Porsche app to request a free charge at an EA station works. My wife has a BMW iX and has experienced worse with her entitlement to free charging - which is similarly activated in-app via My BMW. The stations in question are all in Northern California.

She’s hypothesized that “if only I tapped my phone with a credit card, it’d work.” Of course, she’s just a little too frugal to have tested her hypothesis. I don’t have that boundary, and tapped my phone after four attempts at activating an EA charger earlier today. Surprise-surprise, it fired right up.

What’s the general experience amongst this group?

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[2P168S]

Never works for me, but honestly who cares about paying $15 to charge.

 

[enzo5000]

EA works for me every time. Free...good!

 

[trexarms]

Never works for me, but honestly who cares about paying $15 to charge.

I really don’t have an issue with paying to charge, the bulk of mine is done at home. The issue I have is with representing free charging as a component of value - however small - and failing to deliver on it.

 

[j.w.s]

Subject says it all. Responses appreciated.

For context, I’ve had my GTS ST for a month. I’d conservatively say every third to fourth attempt at using the My Porsche app to request a free charge at an EA station works. My wife has a BMW iX and has experienced worse with her entitlement to free charging - which is similarly activated in-app via My BMW. The stations in question are all in Northern California.

She’s hypothesized that “if only I tapped my phone with a credit card, it’d work.” Of course, she’s just a little too frugal to have tested her hypothesis. I don’t have that boundary, and tapped my phone after four attempts at activating an EA charger earlier today. Surprise-surprise, it fired right up.

What’s the general experience amongst this group?

I've never had a whole station where I couldn't charge, and my success rate for a given charger within a station is about 95%, maybe a bit less.

 

[JustWatching]

100% success rate

Not necessarily the cause of your issues but are you not using P&C instead of the app?

 

[JAGMAN]

Go to EA. Plug in. Don’t use any apps. Just plug in the charger.

It’ll take a minute or two to start. 100% success rate for me.

 

[trexarms]

100% success rate

Not necessarily the cause of your issues but are you not using P&C instead of the app?

Certainly open to an alternative method. The videos I watched indicated that you had to use the app to activate the charging position you plugged into.

Guessing I RTFMed the wrong way?

 

[parkslopedope]

Only issue I’ve ever had is if there’s an issue with the charger itself. I’ve never plugged into one that worked for someone else but not for me.

 

[unbiased]

Go into the charging option in the PCM, click on the … icon in right lower corner and check the option for plug and charge. Should work every time. No need to use the app.

 

[IanG]

Go to EA. Plug in. Don’t use any apps. Just plug in the charger.

It’ll take a minute or two to start. 100% success rate for me.

Same for me - has worked just by plugging it into the car - every time.

 

[BMonte13]

Plug and charge. 100% success rate.

 

[gtm]

Subject says it all. Responses appreciated.

What’s the general experience amongst this group?

Success rate is all over the place. Almost 3.5 years using Tesla superchargers might have set my expectations a little too high for EA. In the year and a half with the Taycan I'd say P&C works 60/70% of the time (ignoring instances of the station being broken or charging at half the expected rate). Occasionally the charger will not communicate with the car despite multiple "unplug, plug in again" attempts. On one recent trip neither the EA app nor the Porsche app would initiate a charge. Took a call to EA, 10+ minutes on hold, and a tower reboot. Rinse and repeat on the next stop. On the one after that the Porsche app magically worked, but P&C was still missing in action. Porsche customer support said they were "aware of a problem". Zero detail were provided. A week later on the return trip 5 charging stops were flawless as far as starting a charge. EA? Porsche? Both? Phase of the moon? So sometimes the equipment is broken or giving half the rated kW, sometimes the handshake with the car fails, sometimes the apps don't work but as the refrain goes "I always managed to get a charge". Sometimes it just isn't easy.

You should have Plug and Charge enabled and most of the time simply plug in and start charging. The tower's screen isn't the easiest to follow and if using P&C you will have to press a button to start the tower charging on most of the units. Next time you are at a charger call Porsche customer support. They can look at your car in real time and verify you have the correct settings.

 

[trexarms]

Go into the charging option in the PCM, click on the … icon in right lower corner and check the option for plug and charge. Should work every time. No need to use the app.

Thanks for the tip. Will give it a shot.

Appreciate everyone rolling in with comments - and it’s good to see the positive experiences. I created the thread after chatting with other owners I know, who have had experiences similar to mine.

 

[d00d]

100% success rate with plug and charge, but I do use the app to monitor duration and stop the charge before 30 minutes, so by the time I get out of the car the button is white and I can quickly unplug.

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