wemct
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2019
- Threads
- 20
- Messages
- 732
- Reaction score
- 1,258
- Location
- Georgia, USA
- Vehicles
- '23 Cayenne S Coupe; '22 AMG SL55; Taycan 4S(sold)
- Thread starter
- #1
Yesterday I completed a two day trip from Connecticut to Georgia. I traveled just under 1000 miles. The Taycan is an awesome car. On day 1, I drove 10 hours to Durham, NC. The Porsche Charging Planner plotted two stops at Electrify America 350 kWh chargers. Both stops were uneventful. I spent the 20 minute stops walking around Walmart. Unfortunately I had two bad incidents during the drive. I believe that with the COVID-19 situation, the highway maintenance crews are not clearing the debris on the roadway as well as before. While in New York, the truck in front of me kicked up a mangled piece of metal. I saw it bouncing toward my car but could not avoid it because of traffic in the adjacent lane. I hit the metal. At my first stop to recharge, I took a look at the front end. The front air splitter was unscathed. However, there was a small ding and a few paint chips on the front edge of the hood. All in all, it was better than I expected and probably less than $500 of damage. Then about 4 miles from my first night's stop in Durham, North Carolina I was in the left lane on the Interstate. I observed a car coming up behind me at a high rate of speed. I saw a gap between a tractor trailer and a car in the right lane. I quickly pulled in behind the tractor trailer. Less than 5 seconds later I heard a loud thump and whistling noises from the front end of my car. When I found a safe place to pull over, I got out to assess the damage. The splitter had gouges, and the front bumper had damage that went through the paint exposing the black plastic. Whatever hit the car was fairly substantial. I saw it lying behind me after I pulled over. I didn’t take a close look because I didn’t want to get hit by traffic. I had a strange feeling that someone above made me change lanes and take the hit. I was close enough to the truck that the debris didn’t have a chance to bounce up too high before it hit the Taycan. I think that if I had not pulled in when I did and blocked the car behind me, the other car would have been hit in the windshield by the debris causing a bad accident. I researched and found a Porsche approved body shop near my place in Georgia. I’ll bring it in for an estimate. Hopefully, it will be less than $2500 to repair. The biggest problem will be getting parts since it is such a new car.
I drove about 8 hours on day 2. The Porsche Charging Planner was not as good on day 2. The first stop directed me to an Electrify America charger. The downside was that both 350 kWh chargers generated error messages. I called EA customer service. The agent was pleasant but told me to use one of the 150 kWh chargers. I got to 85% charge in about 31 minutes. I followed the Porsche Charging Planner to my next charging stopover. When I arrived at the location it was a Harley Davidson dealership. Unfortunately, it was not open (Sunday) and the charger was not outside. I got back on the Interstate and then the nav system plotted another stop to recharge. The estimated stopover time was 44 minutes. I followed the directions about 4.5 miles off the Interstate to a parking lot at a Post Office. I found what looked like a level 2 charger that was out of order (strange since I thought the Porsche Charging Planner only identified DC chargers not AC chargers). I started to get nervous. I decided to use my time in the parking lot to fire up the A Better Route Planner app, and the Electrify America app (not the Charging NA app that I use when I’m at an actual EA charger to start a session). Both apps identified an EA 350 kWh charger about 80 miles away. I had about 110 miles of range left, so I double checked to make sure on Waze that the distance was accurate. I also entered the destination into the PCM nav system. The Porsche Charging Planner still insisted on directing me to other charging stops for 1 hour plus stopovers. I think the EA charging infrastructure continues to come online and the data is not updated as fast in the Porsche Nav System database. Lesson learned that if a stopover is more than 30 minutes, chances are it isn’t an EA or greater than 150 kWh charger. Double check the stops with the other apps. I made it to the EA charger. In total I traveled approximately 1000 miles with 4 charging stops. I thought that was pretty good. I had about 60 miles of range left at the end of the trip (so approx. 265 miles of realistic range). I have the 21 inch Mission E wheels on my 4S. I drove between 70 and 80 mph on the Interstate. The Intelligent Range Manger works fairly well and limits the maximum speed in the Range mode to either 70 mph or 90 mph depending on its calculations. I had to switch to the Normal setting to be able to pass cars when the Intelligent Range Manager put me in Range mode with a max speed of 70 on an Interstate that also had a speed limit of 70 mph. The dial on the steering wheel with the Sport Chrono package made it very fast when I needed to switch to Normal from Range. Scrolling through menus on the touch screen would have been a hassle and a problem when I needed to switch out of Range mode quickly to accelerate beyond the maximum speed imposed by the Range mode and the Intelligent Range Monitor on the Interstate.
The Bose stereo is pretty good. It sounds better than in my other past Porsches. The Taycan has no rattles or squeaks. It is a great long-distance driver. I used the ventilation and massage seats and did not feel tired or sore after the 2 day drive. The weather was 90 degrees and sunny. There was no issue with the heat or amount of light from the panoramic roof. I don't have the insulated glass option. I felt more heat on my legs through the front windshield than the roof. The air conditioning is more than adequate even in the ECO mode (someone in a previous post said the A/C was weak). The car sits fairly low. Definitely use the lifter to get over the parking bump stops at the EA chargers. The car gets lots of positive attention. Mamba Green might also be a factor. I don’t have the Electric Sound option. The external sound level must be significant. I had a few people notice it. A Ferrari owner approached me at the hotel in Durham to talk about the car, and he said he heard me as I was coming down the street. He said it sounded really nice.
I will be out of town for several weeks. I did not have a chance to have the 50 amp outlet installed at the house. I have the car plugged into the 110v outlet with the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect (I set the max amps on the Mobile Charger Connect to 6 amps to play it safe). I will need to figure out how to limit the State of Charge to 85% (the min is current set at 25%). (If anyone knows how set the max limit, please let me know). I was afraid of the 12v battery issues suffered by @louv. I have the car hooked up to a low amperage Battery Tender tickle charger for the lithium battery. Since the 12v outlets in the car are off when the Taycan is off, I purchased the Battery Tender OBD adapter to maintain the 12v battery through the battery pin on the OBD. It is working fine with no strange messages on the dashboard or error message on the trickle charger. Fyi, I tried to connect my Valentine 1 radar detector using the V1 OBM Savvy adapter before my road trip and a message appeared on the dash that said the high voltage system activated and the radar detector would not turn on. I drove without a radar detector installed since I didn’t have time to hardwire it before I left Connecticut. All in all, the Taycan performed fabulously. I will need get it fixed when I get back to town next month. At the moment it looks like it’s missing its front tooth.
I drove about 8 hours on day 2. The Porsche Charging Planner was not as good on day 2. The first stop directed me to an Electrify America charger. The downside was that both 350 kWh chargers generated error messages. I called EA customer service. The agent was pleasant but told me to use one of the 150 kWh chargers. I got to 85% charge in about 31 minutes. I followed the Porsche Charging Planner to my next charging stopover. When I arrived at the location it was a Harley Davidson dealership. Unfortunately, it was not open (Sunday) and the charger was not outside. I got back on the Interstate and then the nav system plotted another stop to recharge. The estimated stopover time was 44 minutes. I followed the directions about 4.5 miles off the Interstate to a parking lot at a Post Office. I found what looked like a level 2 charger that was out of order (strange since I thought the Porsche Charging Planner only identified DC chargers not AC chargers). I started to get nervous. I decided to use my time in the parking lot to fire up the A Better Route Planner app, and the Electrify America app (not the Charging NA app that I use when I’m at an actual EA charger to start a session). Both apps identified an EA 350 kWh charger about 80 miles away. I had about 110 miles of range left, so I double checked to make sure on Waze that the distance was accurate. I also entered the destination into the PCM nav system. The Porsche Charging Planner still insisted on directing me to other charging stops for 1 hour plus stopovers. I think the EA charging infrastructure continues to come online and the data is not updated as fast in the Porsche Nav System database. Lesson learned that if a stopover is more than 30 minutes, chances are it isn’t an EA or greater than 150 kWh charger. Double check the stops with the other apps. I made it to the EA charger. In total I traveled approximately 1000 miles with 4 charging stops. I thought that was pretty good. I had about 60 miles of range left at the end of the trip (so approx. 265 miles of realistic range). I have the 21 inch Mission E wheels on my 4S. I drove between 70 and 80 mph on the Interstate. The Intelligent Range Manger works fairly well and limits the maximum speed in the Range mode to either 70 mph or 90 mph depending on its calculations. I had to switch to the Normal setting to be able to pass cars when the Intelligent Range Manager put me in Range mode with a max speed of 70 on an Interstate that also had a speed limit of 70 mph. The dial on the steering wheel with the Sport Chrono package made it very fast when I needed to switch to Normal from Range. Scrolling through menus on the touch screen would have been a hassle and a problem when I needed to switch out of Range mode quickly to accelerate beyond the maximum speed imposed by the Range mode and the Intelligent Range Monitor on the Interstate.
The Bose stereo is pretty good. It sounds better than in my other past Porsches. The Taycan has no rattles or squeaks. It is a great long-distance driver. I used the ventilation and massage seats and did not feel tired or sore after the 2 day drive. The weather was 90 degrees and sunny. There was no issue with the heat or amount of light from the panoramic roof. I don't have the insulated glass option. I felt more heat on my legs through the front windshield than the roof. The air conditioning is more than adequate even in the ECO mode (someone in a previous post said the A/C was weak). The car sits fairly low. Definitely use the lifter to get over the parking bump stops at the EA chargers. The car gets lots of positive attention. Mamba Green might also be a factor. I don’t have the Electric Sound option. The external sound level must be significant. I had a few people notice it. A Ferrari owner approached me at the hotel in Durham to talk about the car, and he said he heard me as I was coming down the street. He said it sounded really nice.
I will be out of town for several weeks. I did not have a chance to have the 50 amp outlet installed at the house. I have the car plugged into the 110v outlet with the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect (I set the max amps on the Mobile Charger Connect to 6 amps to play it safe). I will need to figure out how to limit the State of Charge to 85% (the min is current set at 25%). (If anyone knows how set the max limit, please let me know). I was afraid of the 12v battery issues suffered by @louv. I have the car hooked up to a low amperage Battery Tender tickle charger for the lithium battery. Since the 12v outlets in the car are off when the Taycan is off, I purchased the Battery Tender OBD adapter to maintain the 12v battery through the battery pin on the OBD. It is working fine with no strange messages on the dashboard or error message on the trickle charger. Fyi, I tried to connect my Valentine 1 radar detector using the V1 OBM Savvy adapter before my road trip and a message appeared on the dash that said the high voltage system activated and the radar detector would not turn on. I drove without a radar detector installed since I didn’t have time to hardwire it before I left Connecticut. All in all, the Taycan performed fabulously. I will need get it fixed when I get back to town next month. At the moment it looks like it’s missing its front tooth.
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