First time charging at Electrify America

[Polar993]

Thank you everyone for your valuable feedback.

I would like to drive the Taycan, but I am going to be traveling with my wife and kids and my trip back home will be in the evening. Factors I will need to consider when making the decision to take the Taycan or one of my other ICE cars.

Question.....is the "free year" of charging that you get with the purchase of the Taycan only valid at EA charging stations, or does that credit also apply to EVgo or Plugshare? I am willing to pay for the charging if it's fast and reliable. I guess I would need to setup an EVgo and/or Plugshare account ahead of time.

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[WasserGKuehlt]

Question.....is the "free year" of charging that you get with the purchase of the Taycan only valid at EA charging stations, or does that credit also apply to EVgo or Plugshare? I am willing to pay for the charging if it's fast and reliable. I guess I would need to setup an EVgo and/or Plugshare account ahead of time.

EA only; also, Plugshare is more of a "site availability map", and not a provider of energy itself. Having said that, always helps to have options - I would create an EVGo account (in my area they're not any more numerous or reliable than EA), and scout the route ahead/plan with PlugShare and ABRP. (Btw, you didn't share the route, or I've missed it?)

Up to MY24 (I think), Taycans came with 3 years - it's been reduced to 1 yr for the facelifted Taycan and the Macan EV. Also, I've noticed that any handshake glitches at EA stations magically disappear if you just pay for the session.

 

[Polar993]

I have 2023, so I get 3 years of EA charging for free? Is the free charging limited to a specific amount of power consumption or a set amount of time?

Here’s my route. I added a stop at a large EA station in East Brunswick on the way home. Hopefully the chargers there are reliable! Unlikely I will only need to stop for 6 mins!!! Also unlikely i will get ideal range overall since I like to drive fast. I figure I will arrive at my destination with about 30% battery remaining, and stop back mid way for up to 30 mins for recharging. That would be ideal.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

I have 2023, so I get 3 years of EA charging for free? Is the free charging limited to a specific amount of power consumption or a set amount of time?

Here’s my route.

You get 3 years of free, 30-min charging sessions. (And you can check the status of your subscription in the MyPorsche app.)

Have fun! That looks like a slightly longer beer run ? in a densely populated area, so you should have plenty of charging options.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Just remember that those 30 min charging sessions can’t be used sequentially.
So you need to wait in between them.
The waiting period requires stopping the session, unplugging, and returning the plug to the stall.
Then you can start all over again, for free - a rare case of EA incompetence working in your favor!

 

[Jonathan S.]

I went to that East Brunswick station back in September. With that many chargers, even with EA reliability (lack thereof) and its popularity, still an excellent choice for avoiding the possibility of not having to wait a long time on account of just a couple ride share Bolt drivers.
I arrived at my destination that night an hour or so later than planned because that and another EA were delivering at about half the Taycan charging curve. But by EA standards, hardly disastrous. (Plus something inherently appealing about so much free electricity, even if the savings are trivial compared to the total cost of Taycan ownership.)
And you might get to see something amusing like this that I copied from the PlugShare page:
(But we already knew from your automotive fleet that you like to drive fast, so your mention of that was entirely superfluous in an otherwise informative post.)

 

[gtm]

So this is where PlugShare or ABRP (A better route planner) apps can dramatically reduce travel stress. Both allow you to enter your trip with various filters (minimum charging kW, # of stalls,...). PlugShare will display all the chargers that satisfy your filter settings, give you station info, recent user reports and you can select where you want to stop. ABRP plans the trip for you and like the in-car app shows where it thinks you should stop. Depending on your how you look at it the planning is either annoying and shouldn't be necessary or part of the EV journey until the charging infrastructure improves.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Although I know we're supposed to praise those two apps ...

ABRP is realistic only if you modify the default values so much (especially overhead time and min chargers/station), and also ignore the multiple-stop suggestions (based on always hitting your charging curve at low SoC) that you might as well plan it yourself.
When I first starting using ABRP, I was amazed that roadtripping in an EV could add so little time compared to ICE. Then I realize that was just a drawback of ABRP, not an actual EV merit (at least in the northeast).

PlugShare is definitely helpful, but the single numerical rating is worthless. Even a perfect 10 can mean only that everyone has eventually charged after waiting a long time for an available charger, enduring many handshake failures, and never getting out of the double digits. Also be wary of the EA locations with 7x CCS1 plugs + 1x CHAdeMO, which really only only four drivers to charge simultaneously. But the delving into the individual checkins can be helpful, and of course it's the most comprehensive overview of available public chargers.

 

[Horizontally Opposed]

Re: 30 minute charging sessions.

Dealer told me there is a 15 minute grace period, so you can get almost 45 minutes before they hit your CC.

If it is one of the 150 ones, I can take on a lot of power in that time.

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ I’ve been charged for a minute when I didn’t unplug immediately. I’ve never heard of anyone charging for 45 min straight for free.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

^ I’ve been charged for a minute when I didn’t unplug immediately. I’ve never heard of anyone charging for 45 min straight for free.

TBH I never paid overages in US, but that would explain your .. relationship with EA. ?

 

[Jonathan S.]

Hard to complain about paying for a minute of charging after getting 30 for free. Followed by another free 30 min.
Having a supposed 350kW charger struggling to get anywhere in the triple digits, easy to complain!

 

[Flying ace]

Entertaining thread to read. I'm just here to say two things:

1. Wow, a fully functional 350kw EA charger! (Based on the EQS pulling 270)

2. Your Jet Black looks amazing. I'm in the market for a pre-owned GTS ST. Black is not my preferred and I've completely disregarded them. But wow, a clean metallic black looks amazing

 

[Jonathan S.]

[...] If you do stick with EA, then don’t worry about the 150 vs 350. A properly functioning 150 will hit the 170s. A properly functioning 350 … well, if you do find that unicorn in NJ, either it’s your lucky day and you should play the lottery, or you used up all your luck and should shelter in place for the remainder of the day. But either way, the portion of the charging curve above the 170s won’t save you so much time that it’s worth waiting for a 350 to be available, switching chargers, etc. [...]

As if she was trying to prove my point, here's my wife session yesterday evening, peaking at ~188kW on an ostensible 150kW unit (far faster than any EA units labeled 350kW we've ever experienced):

 

[Polar993]

Sorry for the delay in responding….

My long distance trip and charging experience was actually EXTREMELY positive! I left the house with a full charge and 255 miles of range. I drove in both Range Mode and Normal Mode to my destination that was about 110 miles away. I averaged about 80 mph on the highway, and was not “feathering” the accelerator at all.

I arrived at my destination with 53% SOC, which is exactly what the Porsche app predicted at the start of my journey. I was very impressed to see how accurate the prediction was, especially considering I wasn’t driving conservatively, and I hit some traffic crossing the George Washington Bridge.

I left to return home with 53% SOC and entered the EA charging station in East Brunswick, NJ as my interim destination before heading home. I arrived at the EA charging station with 25% SOC and when I pulled up (7pm) , there were two 150 kW chargers that were available.

I plugged in, started charging and quickly reached 137 kW charging speeds. I ended up going into the Walmart that was there to do some shopping and came back about 30 mins later and the car was at 97% SOC. I think I actually went over the 30 mins, but I never got charged.

Overall it was a very positive experience. I was impressed with the accuracy of the range of the Taycan. Its prediction is far better than that of Tesla! My experience with Tesla is they over predict your arrival SOC by easily 20%!

I was also very satisfied with the EA charging experience. I may have gotten lucky that two chargers were available when I rolled up, but people seemed respectful and were leaving immediately after they finished charging. There were a few cars waiting when I was leaving, but only two and many of us were pulling out around the same time.

Again, maybe my experience with EA was atypical, but I would definitely take the Taycan on another road trip, at least in this area around NY, NJ, CT.

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