Newbie - (used) Taycan connectivity

[Gkwan]

Hi everyone,
Still learning a few things on my newly acquired Turbo !
Happy new year to all of you officially

I browsed the forum on the connectivity aspect but I'm still unclear on a few questions.
Right now :
I didn't subscribe yet to Porsche Connect services (26€/month here)
I didn't subscride the "data package 10Gb/month"
My phone is connected to the car via BT + Android Auto, working perfectly

My Porsche dealer is supposed to have fully updated it prior to my picking it up on 24th Dec, so I didn't experience yet any OTA update.
I tried to configure my phone as a "hotspot" for the car, to share my internet connection (worked in many cars I had), but I failed, so I suppose Porsche doesn't allow that and forces you to get their 10Gb data package instead.

My current understanding is :
Without any subscription, you still get through the car's 4G chip every car-related OTA (ie the most important).
Then if you subscribe the data package, it acts as a hotspot inside the car (ie good if your phone doesn't have good connection) but it doesn't give you access to any kind of "key" updates for the car that you wouldn't get if you don't subscribe.
Then, the Porsche Connect services will unlock several features in the app (right now I only have localization and turning on or off the pre-conditioning of the cabin, which also heats the battery from the current ~3°c here to ~13°c), as well as update your NAV maps, and a few other things I've seen listed in myPorsche account services.

Also, how can I know for sure that the car is correctly set-up to receive OTAs ?

If the above is correct, I guess I'll just take the Porsche Connect Services !

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[SergeyIndy]

Car Hotspot: I do not see a point of using your modern phone with 5G or better data connection
with an outdated 2020 LTE modem for internet connectivity. Please provide rationale of what you would use the hotspot for using car vs. hotspot using your phone.

OTA: Online account and app have an option that says, allow OTA or something similar, I will look for it in a moment. OTA updates do not require a data package and are done over in car LTE modem connection, automatically. OTA updates are extremely rare, but if you sign up for Porsche Connect then at least every few months you would see a Map Update. Otherwise, my latest and only OTA update in 2025 was battery monitoring software related to ARB7 recall.

Found the OTA setting: App only, Car Shown, Vehicle Details > Functions > Scroll down to Online Software Update. There is a slider that is labeled Online software update active. That must be On.

Porsche Connect: That is a separate service that enables many App features for communicating with the car, sending instructions to the car, and getting the data from the car. We have a forum thread that for some this service is not a value. I would sign up for a month and see if you would be using the features.

 

[WarpSpeedEV]

Does the Data Package require a certain car option/configuration? I don't see adding that service as a choice on the 2020 Turbo S I picked up a few months ago. Not sure what I'd use it for either.

 

[anonymouse]

As SergeyIndy said, Pirsche Connect is all you need – read the forum for why some don’t think it is good value, but I would get it if only for remote control and for traffic data in the satnav. The data package is a bit obscure and not really of any use: the car has its data via the Porsche Connect sub, and your phone has its own data.

 

[W1NGE]

Hi everyone,
Still learning a few things on my newly acquired Turbo !
Happy new year to all of you officially

I browsed the forum on the connectivity aspect but I'm still unclear on a few questions.
Right now :
I didn't subscribe yet to Porsche Connect services (26€/month here)
I didn't subscride the "data package 10Gb/month"
My phone is connected to the car via BT + Android Auto, working perfectly

My Porsche dealer is supposed to have fully updated it prior to my picking it up on 24th Dec, so I didn't experience yet any OTA update.
I tried to configure my phone as a "hotspot" for the car, to share my internet connection (worked in many cars I had), but I failed, so I suppose Porsche doesn't allow that and forces you to get their 10Gb data package instead.

My current understanding is :
Without any subscription, you still get through the car's 4G chip every car-related OTA (ie the most important).
Then if you subscribe the data package, it acts as a hotspot inside the car (ie good if your phone doesn't have good connection) but it doesn't give you access to any kind of "key" updates for the car that you wouldn't get if you don't subscribe.
Then, the Porsche Connect services will unlock several features in the app (right now I only have localization and turning on or off the pre-conditioning of the cabin, which also heats the battery from the current ~3°c here to ~13°c), as well as update your NAV maps, and a few other things I've seen listed in myPorsche account services.

Also, how can I know for sure that the car is correctly set-up to receive OTAs ?

If the above is correct, I guess I'll just take the Porsche Connect Services !

Porsche Connect relies on both an active subscription and the default connection service you get with the car.

The additional data package is totally independent of this and not required for Porsche Connect, OTA updates, Apple Music or Spotify (both must have an active subscription and your MyPorsche ID linked to these accounts (via My Porsche app)).

There is typically 100% no need for the data subscription and is only needed if you specifically wish to use the PCM as a hotspot for data sharing rather than your mobile.

OTAs are few and far between and not something which occurs frequently.

Check Notification settings in PCM for OTA messages.

If you purchased the car from an official Porsche dealership then it will have all available updates applied relevant to your VIN.

Pre-condition or pre-heat or pre-climiisation is for cabin heating only and not for battery preconditioning. As the heater is HV it uses the HV battery and as a consequence of that will raise the battery temp a little.

So skip the expensive and pointless data package but subscribe to My Porsche Connect if you want more control of the car and online services (map, satellite mapping, radio, live traffic, Porsche Charging Planner, Porsche Intelligent Range Manager, weather, risk radar and so on).

 

[Gkwan]

Car Hotspot: I do not see a point of using your modern phone with 5G or better data connection
with an outdated 2020 LTE modem for internet connectivity. Please provide rationale of what you would use the hotspot for using car vs. hotspot using your phone.

OTA: Online account and app have an option that says, allow OTA or something similar, I will look for it in a moment. OTA updates do not require a data package and are done over in car LTE modem connection, automatically. OTA updates are extremely rare, but if you sign up for Porsche Connect then at least every few months you would see a Map Update. Otherwise, my latest and only OTA update in 2025 was battery monitoring software related to ARB7 recall.

Found the OTA setting: App only, Car Shown, Vehicle Details > Functions > Scroll down to Online Software Update. There is a slider that is labeled Online software update active. That must be On.

Porsche Connect: That is a separate service that enables many App features for communicating with the car, sending instructions to the car, and getting the data from the car. We have a forum thread that for some this service is not a value. I would sign up for a month and see if you would be using the features.

Thanks Sergey,
Car Hotspot : I didn't see any reason to take it but thought I might have missed something. What you said confirms it's useless in 2026
OTA : thanks, I'll check.
ARB7 recall : I read a lot on the forum, but if I'm not mistaken, there isn't any way for the user to see which updates were made, correct ?
Only the dealer can give you a list (if they want).
That's really so "old school"...

POrsche Connect : right, I read contradictory things, so I'll just take it 1 month to start with.
Thanks

 

[Gkwan]

Porsche Connect relies on both an active subscription and the default connection service you get with the car.

The additional data package is totally independent of this and not required for Porsche Connect, OTA updates, Apple Music or Spotify (both must have an active subscription and your MyPorsche ID linked to these accounts (via My Porsche app)).

There is typically 100% no need for the data subscription and is only needed if you specifically wish to use the PCM as a hotspot for data sharing rather than your mobile.

OTAs are few and far between and not something which occurs frequently.

Check Notification settings in PCM for OTA messages.

If you purchased the car from an official Porsche dealership then it will have all available updates applied relevant to your VIN.

Pre-condition or pre-heat or pre-climiisation is for cabin heating only and not for battery preconditioning. As the heater is HV it uses the HV battery and as a consequence of that will raise the battery temp a little.

So skip the expensive and pointless data package but subscribe to My Porsche Connect if you want more control of the car and online services (map, satellite mapping, radio, live traffic, Porsche Charging Planner, Porsche Intelligent Range Manager, weather, risk radar and so on).

thanks @W1NGE ,
"Notification settings in PCM for OTA messages" :
I bugged my Porsche dealer to re-update the car because it lacked Android Auto, they did it, works great now, v3885 on PCM, I couldn't see notifications or messages saying what update was applied "up to now", maybe I missed it, or maybe they get erased over time : I'll check again more thoroughly.

Data Package : useless, well noted.

PCS : I'll try 1 month

Battery heating : I did read the forum extensively , so I know cabin conditioning is not issuing a "heat-up the battery" order to the car, but the side effect, after the default 60' (I didn't check earlier) is battery temp going from 3°c to 13°c.
The car nav system doesn't even see my favourite Electra charging station, but the Porsche App does, so I'll hopefully be able to select it & trigger "pre-heating" once I have subscribed PCS - it's only 3km though, probably won't be very useful.

I've tried 2 tricks I saw here :
select any charging station on internal NAV and just don't go there, but it didn't work, there was a sort of "circle of death" trying to update something but failing.
Maybe linked again to PC Services, so I'll retry once subscribed.

And the "Sport +" trick didn't work for me (battery stayed at ~3°c - 0°c outside), probably because I couldn't accelerate that much due to weather conditions (no winter tyres :-( ) and so I stopped trying after 10'.

Thanks for the inputs !

 

[W1NGE]

thanks @W1NGE ,
"Notification settings in PCM for OTA messages" :
I bugged my Porsche dealer to re-update the car because it lacked Android Auto, they did it, works great now, v3885 on PCM, I couldn't see notifications or messages saying what update was applied "up to now", maybe I missed it, or maybe they get erased over time : I'll check again more thoroughly.

Data Package : useless, well noted.

PCS : I'll try 1 month

Battery heating : I did read the forum extensively , so I know cabin conditioning is not issuing a "heat-up the battery" order to the car, but the side effect, after the default 60' (I didn't check earlier) is battery temp going from 3°c to 13°c.
The car nav system doesn't even see my favourite Electra charging station, but the Porsche App does, so I'll hopefully be able to select it & trigger "pre-heating" once I have subscribed PCS - it's only 3km though, probably won't be very useful.

I've tried 2 tricks I saw here :
select any charging station on internal NAV and just don't go there, but it didn't work, there was a sort of "circle of death" trying to update something but failing.
Maybe linked again to PC Services, so I'll retry once subscribed.

And the "Sport +" trick didn't work for me (battery stayed at ~3°c - 0°c outside), probably because I couldn't accelerate that much due to weather conditions (no winter tyres :-( ) and so I stopped trying after 10'.

Thanks for the inputs !

Notifications aren't kept once an update is applied but you can control this to a degree within the PCM - ie pause updates.

Most odd that you did not have AA - this became available some years ago as part of an upgrade and no excuse either for your OPC who apparently failed quite spectacularly and not preparing the car correctly.

Not all EVSE Operators are listed or contracted to Porsche and so don't appear in the list in NAV. You can add an EVSE manually however.

With Porsche Connect active you can use Google online in NAV to source your EVSE - this may solve your Electra issue.

The Sport Plus malarkey is just that so don't waste your time with it.

Adding an EVSE as a stopover which is DC and >= 50kW within a reasonable distance works 100%.

Pre-conditioning can be a faff and so I would generally not bother and let the first 10 mins or so of a DC charge perform that task.

J1.2 Taycans have a much better charging profile for future reference.

 

[Gkwan]

Notifications aren't kept once an update is applied but you can control this to a degree within the PCM - ie pause updates.

Most odd that you did not have AA - this became available some years ago as part of an upgrade and no excuse either for your OPC who apparently failed quite spectacularly and not preparing the car correctly.

Not all EVSE Operators are listed or contracted to Porsche and so don't appear in the list in NAV. You can add an EVSE manually however.

With Porsche Connect active you can use Google online in NAV to source your EVSE - this may solve your Electra issue.

The Sport Plus malarkey is just that so don't waste your time with it.

Adding an EVSE as a stopover which is DC and >= 50kW within a reasonable distance works 100%.

Pre-conditioning can be a faff and so I would generally not bother and let the first 10 mins or so of a DC charge perform that task.

J1.2 Taycans have a much better charging profile for future reference.

Merci Adrian,
I'll put that to good use.

"OPC who apparently failed quite spectacularly and not preparing the car correctly."
you're right, but at least they recognized their mistake, and corrected it.

Really a bad point that Porsche doesn't allow the user to have a transparent log of the updates that were done - from that standpoint, my Xpeng G9P was far beyond.
The VIN report I got from @ct4garage (very nice of him) shows a bunch of stuff I'm not familiar with, but I can't tell for instance whether the famous "uPdate" was done - I guess so since I have now AA working well, but it was also supposed to bring a few tricks to improve Range mode (like de-activating 4WD and re-activate it in 1/10th second when you brake) - no idea how to see if it's real, etc...

The ideal would be a mix of Xpeng for the user interface, technology, "phone" approach (which is really a pleasure once you've tasted it), and Porsche for the "real car stuff", the chassis, the driving, it's incredible on the Taycan

Maybe the new Cayenne electric will fullfil that dream, although I doubt the chassis can be as good as the Taycan's, being an SUV.
But let's see the impressions when driving it héhé

 

[Gkwan]

oh, and this morning I hit a brief peak at 150kw while I was alone on my 300kw charger, around 40% battery, but it wasn't yet beyond 30°c, and 5 spots out of 6 in the station were still occupied, so maybe a global cap. So not a meaningful test anyhow.

 

[W1NGE]

Merci Adrian,
I'll put that to good use.

"OPC who apparently failed quite spectacularly and not preparing the car correctly."
you're right, but at least they recognized their mistake, and corrected it.

Really a bad point that Porsche doesn't allow the user to have a transparent log of the updates that were done - from that standpoint, my Xpeng G9P was far beyond.
The VIN report I got from @ct4garage (very nice of him) shows a bunch of stuff I'm not familiar with, but I can't tell for instance whether the famous "uPdate" was done - I guess so since I have now AA working well, but it was also supposed to bring a few tricks to improve Range mode (like de-activating 4WD and re-activate it in 1/10th second when you brake) - no idea how to see if it's real, etc...

The ideal would be a mix of Xpeng for the user interface, technology, "phone" approach (which is really a pleasure once you've tasted it), and Porsche for the "real car stuff", the chassis, the driving, it's incredible on the Taycan

Maybe the new Cayenne electric will fullfil that dream, although I doubt the chassis can be as good as the Taycan's, being an SUV.
But let's see the impressions when driving it héhé

uPdate - coloured icons is the visual cue as they previously were a single blue colour.

OPC - what else did they miss would be my concern?

If you want tech don't buy a Porsche but if you want solid engineering and handling then buy a Porsche.

Cayenne EV won't / can't match the Taycan.

Range mode originally was front motor biased (smaller and more efficient) and then Porsche confused everyone who was paying attention to make the car always rear wheel biased.

The motors are always active so you won't really notice. When driving tap Trip on the PCM and you will get a graphic depicting where the energy is going and being recovered. This replaced an AWD graphic in the right most tube of the Driver's Cickpit display. Change the drive mode to see what changes - will be weather and temperature tuned also.

Range is medicore with J1.1 Taycans and Range drive mode is largely redundant since the software change. Best energy saving measures are to coast and set AC to Eco or Eco Plus.

 

[SergeyIndy]

@Gkwan, you are correct that there is no way to see a record of OTA updates. However, you can see what recalls have not been completed via Recall lookup. ARB7 was a recall associated with certain VINs, so as soon as I got the OTA update for it, the recall cleared under my VIN as completed.

 

[Gkwan]

uPdate - coloured icons is the visual cue as they previously were a single blue colour.

OPC - what else did they miss would be my concern?

If you want tech don't buy a Porsche but if you want solid engineering and handling then buy a Porsche.

Cayenne EV won't / can't match the Taycan.

Range mode originally was front motor biased (smaller and more efficient) and then Porsche confused everyone who was paying attention to make the car always rear wheel biased.

The motors are always active so you won't really notice. When driving tap Trip on the PCM and you will get a graphic depicting where the energy is going and being recovered. This replaced an AWD graphic in the right most tube of the Driver's Cickpit display. Change the drive mode to see what changes - will be weather and temperature tuned also.

Range is medicore with J1.1 Taycans and Range drive mode is largely redundant since the software change. Best energy saving measures are to coast and set AC to Eco or Eco Plus.

Thanks Adrian, I do have different colors of icons, so I guess the uPdate was done, no possibility to really know if/what they missed so I'll just drive it

" tap Trip on the PCM and you will get a graphic depicting" : can you maybe post a picture of that ? I haven't seen any kind of graphics at all.
The only consumption related info is in written (tried all the " ... " on all tabs, I think)

I'll see what my impression is when driving the Cayenne EV (Macan is definitely not worth it).

Right now my only concern is the range, it's 20 to 30% lower than what it displays, which is not great starting from ~320/90%

 

[Gkwan]

@Gkwan, you are correct that there is no way to see a record of OTA updates. However, you can see what recalls have not been completed via Recall lookup. ARB7 was a recall associated with certain VINs, so as soon as I got the OTA update for it, the recall cleared under my VIN as completed.

Thanks Sergey, I didn't see it in the VIN report (can share in MP if you think it's useful)

 

[W1NGE]

Thanks Adrian, I do have different colors of icons, so I guess the uPdate was done, no possibility to really know if/what they missed so I'll just drive it

" tap Trip on the PCM and you will get a graphic depicting" : can you maybe post a picture of that ? I haven't seen any kind of graphics at all.
The only consumption related info is in written (tried all the " ... " on all tabs, I think)

I'll see what my impression is when driving the Cayenne EV (Macan is definitely not worth it).

Right now my only concern is the range, it's 20 to 30% lower than what it displays, which is not great starting from ~320/90%

Ignore the headline guessometer reading after charging particularly when the ambient temps are low. Depending on Drive Mode and AC setting this number will quickly deplete. Follow your consumption data to see what happens when in cold weather and you make a short journey - consumption will drop to < 2 mi / kWh for example. Overall in ideal conditions you should expect something like 2.7 - 3.0 mi / kWh with a Turbo (sensible driving) for a range of up to 215 miles in winter and 235 miles in summer (give or take) - all with the Performance Battery Plus.

Note that these screenshots are from current gen Taycan J1.2 (so no App Centre or Alexa etc). Tap Car:

Then tap Trip. Graphic is animated when you move and should be on J1.1 Taycans. I had 2 J1.1s - first one (MY21 4S)went through the uPdate and the 2nd (MY23 GTS ST) already had this:

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