Taycan to the Norwegian Fjords (Summer 2024 Trip Journal)

[RacingDuck]

It's currently vacation time in Germany, so expect delays with handling such delicate things like cloud services.

Our company had to wait until this week to get an upgrade of the intranet line to a whopping 50 Mbit/s because the technician able to flick the switch in the software was on vacation.

Digital services and Germany often don't mix well...

Sponsored

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Not currently. It says "A valid license is not currently available" when I touch the Profile or Timer tab in the "Charging" app.

I don't think this is something you'll ever have to subscribe to keep – but something has gone very wonky with the "contract" provisioning on our account.

WTAF.

But @whitex asked "can you not set profiles manually in the car", and your reply seems to be in the context of the app. (Or did you mean the 'charging' function in the car's PCM?)

If in the phone app, then I can see how a 'cloud service' would be required - for logging in, relaying info about the car, or relaying your commands to the car.

There is 0 reason for the car's own and 'local' functionality to be dependent on any account/subscription/cloud service being available. This sounds more like an incomplete configuration of the car's basic functions - ie what would happen after a failed account reset.

Hope you get it working soon. I'd be livid to have this happen during a trip far away from home.
And I have to admit that every such thread (even though we're from the OT of this one) makes me be more cautious with complex functions such as "raise chassis + save location" or "raise temp by 1 deg".

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

It's currently vacation time in Germany, so expect delays with handling such delicate things like cloud services.

Our company had to wait until this week to get an upgrade of the intranet line to a whopping 50 Mbit/s because the technician able to flick the switch in the software was on vacation.

Lol, I'm gonna try that on my next incident bridge. "Yeah, there is an outage, but it's August so.. come back in Sept? it's a mere 13 business days away."

 

[tigerbalm]

But @whitex asked "can you not set profiles manually in the car", and your reply seems to be in the context of the app. (Or did you mean the 'charging' function in the car's PCM?)

I was responding in the context of the PCM; so @whitex commentary is valid. It is as if – on log in to PCM that my profile is not sending back the correct (you just know its JSON) set of contracts to activate and that is messing things up.

 

[tigerbalm]

Here is an insight into the issue being very much "cloud service" based issue rather than anything local to the PCM itself.

 

[tigerbalm]

Hope you get it working soon. I'd be livid to have this happen during a trip far away from home.

It is for sure an annoyance – mostly because it causes our refined road-trip process to fail and we need to work around the issues.

But also – a large purpose to these threads – is to share the realities of long trips like this in the Taycan – the good and the bad. And regardless of this failure, the car is still mostly good and Norway remains fantastic to experience like this.

The only thing I'd really say is that when it comes to EV's – parts of the "infotainment" system – like the route planning, SoC estimations and battery pre-conditioning are more about "refuelling" the car than "entertainment" and Porsche should treat it as such.

You often hear comments like: "I didn't buy a Porsche for the software". And that is probably true, but we certainly didn't buy one that is difficult to refuel either!

Today, we're going to see if we can rely on the "built-in" points of interest in the PCM database to route us and pre-condition the battery. Otherwise, we'll continue to use Apple Maps and CarPlay.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

But also – a large purpose to these threads – is to share the realities of long trips like this in the Taycan – the good and the bad. And regardless of this failure, the car is still mostly good and Norway remains fantastic to experience like this.

I do appreciate this class of threads, and even more so the effort you are putting into capturing the details. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air in the deluge of depressing threads (or in general, news and headlines).

You often hear comments like: "I didn't buy a Porsche for the software". And that is probably true, but we certainly didn't buy one that is difficult to refuel either!

Hey, that’s me! ?? I most certainly did not buy the car for the software, and have minimal expectations of it (the software, that is). If I’m charging on the road, I’ll pull into the highest powered station available (if there is a choice), and just plug in. I’m done worrying about preconditioning, charging power, and whether someone is hogging a faster charger than their vehicle can use. Works for me, and I also stopped trying to convince others that what matters to them is not important.

But while I do have low expectations of the car’s software, this thread is most worrisome - I sure hope the built-in functionality of timers/profiles will work until the end of time (and not just until the end of my subscription).

 

[GreenHornet]

Seems they are doing some backend changes to the Porsche Connect service. I got a message when I logged in to the webpage that connection services would be going away from the web and be in app only. Same with porsche charging services. So something is happening in the background.

 

[Scandinavian]

Apple Maps battery charge estimations were very accurate across the day – as good as native PCM. And – of course – it didn't pre-condition the battery so fast-charging is slower if relying on Apple Maps.

Even with the various connectivity services not working – Plug & Charge did work at IONITY – which was great.

Now that we understand the limitations of using the PCM without an active services contract – we'll try and use the PCM as much as possible using its on-board navigation data.

I thought all the route planning etc was done locally in the car. In such case the PCM should have the charger database to some extent, even if there is no info on available chargers etc. But this could of course be quite limited geographically. Can you search for any chargers in the car without using Google?? Or maybe all that data will only be available on line. So if you cancel the expensive connect services you loose all charger locations and the ability to precondition the car?
Porsche really have got you there in such case.

I guess only way to get some heat into the battery is to drive in Sport Plus mode??

The longer I experience this Taycan the more I am getting disappointed with the Brand.

 

[RacingDuck]

In Germany there are more and more reports of things getting fixed but without any message.
It just works again.

For a major inconvenience like this, it would be great to get one year of connected services for free, but I guess the only message you get is that it'll cost more in the future to resume the excellent service level you are happy to experience...

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 6: Stavanger (Norway) -> Nesflaten (Norway)

We plan our route using Apple Maps on our phone before checking out of our hotel and walking down to our car – planning on using it via CarPlay today again.

Today is a much more meandering pace as we get into the holiday sightseeing mood, parking up frequently to enjoy the sights.



And admire the width of our Taycan.



We cross a fjord in a near silent electric ferry.



Coming across a small hydro dam.



That we get to drive across.



And enjoy so much, we cross over it again!



Enjoying the many sweeping roads in this area, pushing the Turbo S to what it does best: jumping out of its own skin coming out of a corner.

As we head for our hotel for tonight: disaster strikes. The only road – Road 13 – to the hotel is closed due to a serious accident. The hotel is only 20 km away but is unreachable at this stage.

We decide to relocate to a nearby IONITY to take on some energy and plan our next step.



The pedestal we pull into turns out to be broken – so we move one down to start our charge. A few mins later – an IONITY engineering van pulls into the broken unit and an engineer starts to service it – with a perfectly balanced umbrella protecting him and the unit from the rain.

We decide we'll drive to a town 40 km away and get some food – hopefully by the time we return the road will be open.

On the way – we stop off at a beautiful waterfall – one of 100s in this region.



Of course the reality of the serene environment is less tranquil: souvenir stalls, camper vans, motorbikes and tourists fill the scene. But that can all be fixed with a little bit of image cropping!



After eating we return back the 40 km – to find the road still closed. So we again park up at the nearby IONITY station to figure out our next move.

We ring the hotel – who let us know that they are letting some people through the road if you are only going as far as the hotel and no further.

So we stop and chat with the road-blocking people and they agree to let us through.

Looks like the engineer has fixed the IONITY pedestal.



This road is bliss – because it is mostly closed off – it is super quiet and a joy to drive a Porsche like it is supposed to be driven – among the dwindling light and misty mountains.



We eventually come upon the firmly closed section of the road – this time blocked by Police. But thankfully that turn to the left is exactly the road our hotel is on – so we can – just about – make it.

We pull up to the hotel – The Energy Hotel – and plug in for a destination charge at 3kW. It is not lost on us that we're staying at a Hydro Power station tonight – the hotel is the former dining mess hall – and abundance of electricity all around us – you can hear the crackle of high-voltage transmission lines overhead – this is the slowest charge we've seen in Norway.

That said – it is perfectly acceptable and appropriate for an overnight destination charge.



And admire the view over the fjord from our room.



Regardless of all the issues with the Porsche Charging Service - one piece of German hardware and software – that has been behaving perfectly is our Leica camera – which we've made good use of today.

The driving today was the best so far on this trip – the roads were amazing – and the road closure a timely reminder that even with the best planning – we have to be flexible and resourceful when on a road-trip like this.

The days charging stats

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
IONITY Røldal	36%	79%	46.49	€7.29	23 mins	17.5	32	DC 350 kW	IONITY
Energihotellet	51%	100%	41.0	€12.71	10 hours	14.5	32	AC 3kW	Hotel

Today we did 327 km over 9:29 hours, with an average speed of 36 km/h, consuming 23.0 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

Some context/background info for the road closure.

We've not been in that particular tunnel. Most of the tunnels in this region have excellent infrastructure – but some are narrow and don't even have a line in the middle of the road within the tunnel. They are often dark and with headlights coming against you – it defo requires concentration to make sure you are positioned close to the tunnel wall to pass safely.

We hope everyone involved returns to full health quickly.

https://www-nrk-no.translate.goog/r...uto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

 

[Boss Hogg]

With the charge planner down, you can put in sport plus 20/30mins before you arrive at a high speed charger to help warm the battery, enjoy some fun driving too.

 

[tigerbalm]

Apple Maps (w/EV routing) and CarPlay

Overall, we've been very impressed with Apple Maps via CarPlay. It is as accurate with battery estimates as the PCM is. The visualisations are probably better than the PCM navigation and it even speaks directions to us in an Irish accent.

From a visualisation perspective – the main thing we're missing – when doing a multi-waypoint route like we do for a road-trip – is that it only shows (accurate) time and battery charge of arrival for your next waypoint.

We like to keep an eye on the overall route arrival time and battery too – but that is not possible in Apple Maps today. Also, distance as well as time is important and not shown either.

But its very close to being a viable solution. Surprisingly so.

 

[anonymouse]

one piece of German hardware and software – that has been behaving perfectly is our Leica camera

Good choice. The Leica Q series are simply astonishing cameras for travel. Do try the Q Monochrom too — a very different but equally amazing experience.

Sponsored