[ANNOUNCED] - PMCC tech advisory : charging rate amperage lowered for "normal" usage of the PMCC (rate reduced by half)

[TaterTex]

I've said this before but...just get a Wallbox.

It plugs into the same NEMA 14-50 outlet as Porsche's EVSE, and in the same orientation.

It has a good app and it will interface with my forthcoming Chargey app to automatically ingest your home charge costs.

I am super happy with mine.

Ditto on the Wallbox Pulsar Plus.

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[Toby Pennycuff]

was chatting with someone who should know - they noted the following

there will be a service notice for the PMCC (maybe PMC+ didn't get details) where Porsche will recommend "lowering the amperage" for "normal" usage of the PMCC - i.e. effectively it's not a 40 amp EVSE and using it as such will be against Porsche's recommendations

also they will update the the documentation to reflect a recommendation that it only be used with Porsche vehicles - it's not expected to be compatible with other EV's (i.e. Tesla's)

the birdie I was talking to says this campaign will be out by the end of the calendar year…

we'll see if it happens, but it seems if true that Porsche effectively is admitting they have no idea what they are doing with EV chargers…

no word as to if this is North America only or world wide…I'm going to guess North America only cause the PMCC/PMC+ seems to be better in europe

if true - this would cement my long standing opinion that the PMCC is a crappy EVSE and there are better non-Porsche alternatives.

but it appears they are "punting" on the PMCC being a good EVSE - good thing it's still the most expensive EVSE money can buy…but far from the best.

call me a liar if this doesn't happen by the end of the year, but I was told this by someone who should know and we'll see if it comes to pass - I would not be surprised by these recommendation it's well understood the PMCC has issues, but I would be disappointed.

also the PWCC (Porsche Wall Charger) sales are "on hold" while Porsche "works out some issues" with it…

basically stay away from Porsche for your EVSE hardware - they have no idea what they are doing and they seem to no longer care about addressing any issues - or they are abandoning this existing product line and will be moving to a "whole new" thing in the future…

my bet is on "whole new" because this item is shared across the VW/Audi/Porsche line - and rather than throw good engineering money after bad product design - they are probably working on new EVSE for the ID.4/eTron and other higher volume products - I would be unsurprised if we see a whole new EVSE included with the EV Macan and future VW/Audi EV's - rather than the highly flawed and problematic PMCC - essentially the PMCC will be made a "legacy" product and that explains why they are not and will not pursue any improvements - they have alternative plans cause it's pretty clear the existing stuff wouldn't scale to high volume EV sales…given all the problems it has and it's apparent cost.

until further notice this is a RUMOR and may be incorrect, but we'll see and I thought I'd share what I learned.

Dave,

If you look at the charger's base, you will see that many of the original parts were sourced out of the 918 program. That effort was never really intended to support a high-amperage EVSE (yes, I know - 40 amps is NOT REALLY that high!) as deemed acceptable for the Taycan. I know that the data I submitted including some thermal shots, laser temperature reads and associated pictures raised some eyebrows in Atlanta. I never got an answer and simply reduced my PMCC to a 32 amp charger at home. I am happily charging away at my weekend house at 48 amps with NO drama out of my ClipperCreek 60 Amp EVSE. Ashame it has come to this.

Toby

 

[TDinDC]

Wallbox Pulsar Plus.

hmmm thinking about whether I could squeeze that into my Porsche charging cabinet . . . .

 

[daveo4EV]

Dave,

If you look at the charger's base, you will see that many of the original parts were sourced out of the 918 program. That effort was never really intended to support a high-amperage EVSE (yes, I know - 40 amps is NOT REALLY that high!) as deemed acceptable for the Taycan. I know that the data I submitted including some thermal shots, laser temperature reads and associated pictures raised some eyebrows in Atlanta. I never got an answer and simply reduced my PMCC to a 32 amp charger at home. I am happily charging away at my weekend house at 48 amps with NO drama out of my ClipperCreek 60 Amp EVSE. Ashame it has come to this.

Toby

you and I were early to this party and I still quote some of your data - I'm 100% confident in your assertion the main problem is that some one at VW/Audi/Porsche just sourced the existing parts for the 918/Hybrid - all of which are 32 amp or less - and then asked an EE to do a cursory review to see if the parts could "handle 40 amps" - and technically yeah - the 10 gauge wire is rated for 40 amps _IF_ your willing to accept the thermal rise - it's electrically "safe" and functional - but it gets too hot to handle with human hands and I still think it's main problem is missing expectations - people don't expect their appliance to get that hot to the touch - it's not a safety issue it's an expectations issue - until it actually overheats and shutdown (which is also happening) but again is not a safety issue - that's a reliability issue…

I agree it's disappointing which is my core frustration.

 

[Jhenson29]

Dave, you must be an EE. I studied EE and once upon a time could explain all about op amps, MOSFET circuits, etc. Nowadays, deriving 9.6 kW from Ohm's Law (240 V * 40 A = 9600 W) is about all I can do!

This really doesn’t take an EE. But I think everyone needs some basic electrical/physics literacy to navigate this landscape. That or we have to find a way to simplify it a little more.

 

[madeyong]

I just picked up my 2021 4S from the dealer after the big update and they wanted me to bring in my charger so they could put on this little sticker. I told them I would be glad to put the sticker on my self and they reluctantly said ok! They wanted to make sure I new how to adjust the output to 20 amps or 50% and I told them that I new how to do this and I had already been doing this all summer. So here is the little sticker they want on the lower edge of the charger face!

I just picked up my 2020 TTS after the uPdate. Took 15 days because of backlog, problems with dealer’s update system, issues with other cars, etc. etc. Anyway, they also required my PMCC to put on the sticker and reduced the Amperage. Does anybody actually understand what the sticker is saying or trying to describe?? I mean it is not very intuitive. “Warning, if charging to 100% (or at 100% Amperage) to and from your house, don’t touch charger because it may be on fire. Oh and go read manual”. I’m I crazy for not being able to understand the damn sticker???

 

[Tooney]

Am I crazy for not being able to understand the damn sticker???

No.

 

[DerekS]

I just picked up my 2020 TTS after the uPdate. Took 15 days because of backlog, problems with dealer’s update system, issues with other cars, etc. etc. Anyway, they also required my PMCC to put on the sticker and reduced the Amperage. Does anybody actually understand what the sticker is saying or trying to describe?? I mean it is not very intuitive. “Warning, if charging to 100% (or at 100% Amperage) to and from your house, don’t touch charger because it may be on fire. Oh and go read manual”. I’m I crazy for not being able to understand the damn sticker???

That is quite a hilarious "fix."

The best solution here is just to chuck that thing into the garbage and buy something else that works.

 

[Dee]

Does anybody actually understand what the sticker is saying or trying to describe??

It clearly states that you pick just one, not two.
Perfectly clear to me.

 

[Dee]

I don't think this applies for most countries in Europe.
We use 240V, max household current is 32A (3-phase: 22kW)
Higher voltage has lower current for same power, so lower temperature and therefore less resistance which is more efficient, hence the 800V architecture of the Taycan.
In the Netherlands it's mostly 16A (3-phase: 11kW).
I only use single-phase which is ~3kW for topping off the car to 100% very occasionally.

 

[_Brian_]

Another data point.... I replaced my PMCC with a Chargepoint Home Flex 14-50 charger today. Too much uncertainty with the PMCC with hot cables and potential derating for Porsche. One hour time well spent to dismount the PMCC and install the Chargepoint. Glad the PMCC is part of the lease.

Moving on

 

[bergs]

me too! Got the Chargepoint flex and a tesla all connector. Going hardwired with both, but sticking with plug in until I can get the electrician out here.

 

[daveo4EV]

JUST TO BE CLEAR - the "lower" amperage setting porsche is doing is NOT permanent - all customers can change the setting right back right after they give the PMCC back to you or when you get home…

so this is in fact the most ridiculous fix I've ever seen - but yeah Porsche wants the "default" amperage to be "lower" to mitigate the thermal issues - but knowledgeable customers can set it back to it's full capacity - I pity people that don't know anybetter and will believe their Taycan is limited to charging at the slower rate

this is a terrible approach to solving this problem - the vast majority of customers won't know how any of this works, and will be left with a slower charge rate…and think this is how it should all be.

I've lost a lot of faith in porsche over this issue - hopefully the PMCC is not long for this world and replacment/alternate evse is right around the corner and therefore PMCC users will eventually be a minority of Porsche customers over time.

 

[JimBob]

JUST TO BE CLEAR - the "lower" amperage setting porsche is doing is NOT permanent - all customers can change the setting right back right after they give the PMCC back to you or when you get home…

Exactly. This is a legal concoction so Porsche can claim no responsibility if something bad happens.

 

[whitex]

JUST TO BE CLEAR - the "lower" amperage setting porsche is doing is NOT permanent - all customers can change the setting right back right after they give the PMCC back to you or when you get home…

so this is in fact the most ridiculous fix I've ever seen - but yeah Porsche wants the "default" amperage to be "lower" to mitigate the thermal issues - but knowledgeable customers can set it back to it's full capacity - I pity people that don't know anybetter and will believe their Taycan is limited to charging at the slower rate

this is a terrible approach to solving this problem - the vast majority of customers won't know how any of this works, and will be left with a slower charge rate…and think this is how it should all be.

I've lost a lot of faith in porsche over this issue - hopefully the PMCC is not long for this world and replacment/alternate evse is right around the corner and therefore PMCC users will eventually be a minority of Porsche customers over time.

It's the economical solution for Porsche. Even though their Taycan volumes have been severely limited by COVID, there are still few thousand of them in the USA and replacing EVSE's would cost money. Admitting the EVSE is not 40A capable as per original specifications opens then up for liability to refund people the purchase price or have to supply a capable replacement they don't even have yet. Majority of people stick to defaults, so this solves more than half of their problem. An average American drives 42 miles a day, so even 20A@240V overnight will charge their cars just fine.

Hopefully the engineering team that designed the chargers is a completely different team than the one designing the cars.

PS> Personally, at least initially, I'm going with a shared dual 80A Gen2 Tesla HPWC setup in which I will convert one of the the Tesla chargers to J1772 once the Taycan arrives (with 80A charger speced). I'll probably also just use a 40A Mobile Tesla Charger for the Taycan travels as well since I plan to carry the Tesla-to-J1772 80A adapter with me anyways - the Tesla charger is so much smaller, lighter, more reliable (I have one 40A Mobile Tesla charger permanently plugged in my garage now and I've been using it daily at 40A since 2013, so I know they last).

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