19.2kW charger fix for EA charging and Plug & Charge

[daveo4EV]

Is there a retrofit for the 19.2 kW On-Board Charger available yet (not asking about the Plug-n-charge but the 19.2 kW on board charger itself)? Porsche mentioned there would be. If anyone knows, can you please share costs and timeframe for when it will be made available?

no date/price/availability at this time.

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[RinOC]

z

to date Porsche has stated there is no retrofit for plug-n-charge available for 2020 Taycans - the only way to get Plug-n-charge w/Taycan is a 2021 MY or later - no software or hardware update has been made available.

Oh well.

 

[kort]

He is talking about upgrading the on-board 9.6kW charger to 19.2kW. 19.2kW wasn’t available for MY2020, but in a press release last year Porsche said they were going to make it available as an upgrade. I don’t think they’ve followed through on that statement, likely because of the problems that were discovered, and also perhaps supply chain challenges.

that would be a hardware upgrade and probably unlikely that it could ever be done.

 

[kort]

Plug and charge. I don’t need it. I just want it. I’ll live if I can’t retrofit it but I would like to know either way.

plug and charge seems to be mostly a software fix. I thought that something along those lines was already available

 

[daveo4EV]

plug and charge seems to be mostly a software fix. I thought that something along those lines was already available

there is a software _FIX_ for the 2021 Taycan's w/19.2 kw on board chargers for which Plug-n-charge was broken from the factory. It was supposed to work but it did not - and now Porsche has fixed that problem.

there is no software fix to retro-actively provide plug-n-charge support to previous Taycan's that never were supposed to have plug-n-charge support.

2021 and later Taycan's support plug-n-charge - 2021 Taycan's with 19.2 kW charger can be updated by the dealer to support plug-n-charge.

there is no software/hardware process to "add" plug-n-charge support to 2020 Taycan's.

 

[GRV]

Go to the Charging screen from the Home page and click the three dots in the lower right corner. The following screen will appear:

You want to make sure that the Activate Plug & Charge checkbox is checked. If the option doesn't appear at all or is greyed out, making it inaccessible, it means the update/patch wasn't properly installed.

If it's accessible, check the box, and wait a few days. P&C should then work for you.

@SWORDER - thanks for the details. I was able to reference this material for my tech and I now have the check box. Still need to test at an EA charger.

 

[satchurator]

I have an MY22 CT4 with the 19.2kW onboard AC charger. My recent first attempt at DC charging via Plug n Charge at an EA station failed. After engaging with Porsche Customer Support, I was told that the specific EA units I had tried did not support PNC. Calling this out to those who may be trying to determine if their MY21 19.2kW charger related software update resolves PNC - be aware that there is another variable.

Does anybody know if there is a way to check if a given EA unit actually supports PNC, before actually attempting a charge? I don’t see anything in Charging NA nor in the Electrify America app.

 

[andrewket]

I have an MY22 CT4 with the 19.2kW onboard AC charger. My recent first attempt at DC charging via Plug n Charge at an EA station failed. After engaging with Porsche Customer Support, I was told that the specific EA units I had tried did not support PNC. Calling this out to those who may be trying to determine if their MY21 19.2kW charger related software update resolves PNC - be aware that there is another variable.

Does anybody know if there is a way to check if a given EA unit actually supports PNC, before actually attempting a charge? I don’t see anything in Charging NA nor in the Electrify America app.

Porsche customer service likely gave you a line of BS. All 150’s and 350’s support P&C. Were you on an old 50?

 

[satchurator]

Porsche customer service likely gave you a line of BS. All 150’s and 350’s support P&C. Were you on an old 50?

Newer units. I forgot to note the manufacturer, but both units that I tried were 350kW capable. As an aside, they were limited to 50kW that weekend, but actually delivered ~100kW. Maybe the 50kW limiting is coincident with disabled PNC?

 

[kort]

I have an MY22 CT4 with the 19.2kW onboard AC charger. My recent first attempt at DC charging via Plug n Charge at an EA station failed. After engaging with Porsche Customer Support, I was told that the specific EA units I had tried did not support PNC. Calling this out to those who may be trying to determine if their MY21 19.2kW charger related software update resolves PNC - be aware that there is another variable.

Does anybody know if there is a way to check if a given EA unit actually supports PNC, before actually attempting a charge? I don’t see anything in Charging NA nor in the Electrify America app.

on the porsche app it will have a line saying only smartphone

 

[kort]

Porsche customer service likely gave you a line of BS. All 150’s and 350’s support P&C. Were you on an old 50?

and you're wrong, not all EA units support plug and charge

 

[plamichigan]

There have been a few threads and much confusion on these issues so I thought it would be helpful to consolidate the resolution info here.

TL;DR
If you have the 19.2kW on-board charger and have been unable to DC fast charge at Electrify America, ask your dealer to contact PCNA for the fix, which is a software update. As a bonus, the fix also includes Plug & Charge, something us 19.2kW owners have been missing!

Long Version
I had been struggling with EA since receiving my '21 Taycan w/ 19.2kW charger in late January. As a 6-year Tesla owner I didn't realize that fast charging issues were a thing. By August, the car had been to my dealer a few times without resolution despite their best efforts, and I was beyond frustrated and about to throw in the towel.

Before doing so, I decided to sit down one afternoon and document my experience during every single EA charging session. (Google Timeline, Google Photos and phone logs were quite helpful here!) Behavior had been inconsistent so I was confused and looking for any patterns that could be useful. Aside from the fact that I had wasted ~16 hours of my life, one thing that immediately jumped out was that it all went to pot in late May -- from that point on I was unable to charge at all at any of 3 EA stations in my region (Walterboro SC, Columbia SC and Asheville NC). This timing didn't coincide with any updates to my vehicle, which pointed at some change with the chargers as the culprit.

I shared this with my dealer on August 5th, who promptly shared it with PCNA:

Apparently this got someone's attention at PCNA, and within a few days I learned that some of the top Taycan techs out of Atlanta were working on it. That weekend they actually drove a similarly configured '21 Turbo S w/ 19.2kW charger along with advanced test equipment to all of the same EA stations and were able to consistently reproduce the issue. This convinced them of the severity and scope of the problem and they got to work on the fix.

A couple of weeks later, I received the photo below from my dealer which shows 4 Taycan's from Atlanta charging at EA Columbia to test the fix -- a sight that has probably not been seen before and may never be seen again. These Taycan's proceeded to caravan to several other EA stations that weekend.

As it turns out, EA uses at least 3 different brands of charger hardware. One of the newer chargers is from Signet, and the root of the issue is that the CP duty cycle % from these chargers is higher than normal and thus considered out-of-range by the Taycan, which would in turn refuse to connect. (Some light reading on J1772 here)

Some, including me, suspected that the missing Plug & Charge "feature" was somehow related, but as it turns out it was not. P&C is now available simply because the software version required for the charging fix already included the P&C fix. Yes, this means that Porsche was likely already planning on delivering that to us in the near future.

I hope you will agree, the fact that on more than one occasion at least 4 PCNA employees spent their weekends driving around to various Walmart parking lots says something about their commitment to Taycan owners. It took them little more than a month to turn around this critical fix, which is impressive any way you slice it. As a result, I've gone from the edge to a very happy and impressed customer.

Sincere thanks to all those involved at PCNA and Hendrick Porsche in Charlotte for taking this issue seriously and for promptly delivering a fix. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed!

The data on the share of EA sessions that have failures or problems is consistent with mine, and also with the analysis we have done looking at responses posted on PlugShare and other forums. The latter are not random, and not systematically reported, so you cannot infer with precision. However, you do get strong confirmation of systematic problems.

Here is a link to our fueling cost study that includes some summary reporting of charging problems, which are not limited to EA.

https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.c...10/EVtransition_FuelingCostStudy_10-21-21.pdf

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[andrewket]

and you're wrong, not all EA units support plug and charge

I have never seen a 150 or 350 that can’t support P&C. Can you point me at one? Just the old 50’s.

Newer units. I forgot to note the manufacturer, but both units that I tried were 350kW capable. As an aside, they were limited to 50kW that weekend, but actually delivered ~100kW. Maybe the 50kW limiting is coincident with disabled PNC?

Hm, doubt it. @kort seems to think there are 150/350’s out there that don‘t support P&C… new to me if true.

 

[AndiL]

that would be a hardware upgrade and probably unlikely that it could ever be done.

Why would that be unlikely? The german press release from 03/23/21 states that a retrofit will be available at the end of 2021 in some markets, the US version is missing this information.

German: https://presse.porsche.de/prod/pres...sf/Content?ReadForm&languageversionid=1185128
US: https://press.porsche.com/prod/pres...sf/Content?ReadForm&languageversionid=1186664

 

[cometguy]

The data on the share of EA sessions that have failures or problems is consistent with mine, and also with the analysis we have done looking at responses posted on PlugShare and other forums. The latter are not random, and not systematically reported, so you cannot infer with precision. However, you do get strong confirmation of systematic problems.

Here is a link to our fueling cost study that includes some summary reporting of charging problems, which are not limited to EA.

https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.c...10/EVtransition_FuelingCostStudy_10-21-21.pdf

PLA

Interesting report. But how do you get 4.5 hours of fueling time spent per month for people who mostly charge at home (page 13)? I'm thinking it would be more like 3-5 minutes per month (to plug in and unplug once a day, each) if plugging in every night in your garage. Here in Mass., there is no government charge to own an EV (to offset the gas tax), and our current electricity rates are such that we see nearly a 50% drop in "fuel" costs in going from ICEV (gasoline only) to BEV (electricity only). You also don't seem to acknowledge that relatively few BEV owners go on long cross-country trips in their BEVs (because of all the problems/reasons that you cite regarding public-charging infrastructure and associated technology), meaning that the vast amount of BEV usage is within a full charge of home (roundtrip). I'd say it's fair to say that 99% or more of BEV charging by owners is at home or at work (or possibly at EA chargers by owners of car brands paying for the first few years of charging, like Porsche; one Model S owner that I know who bought while Tesla was still offering lifetime unlimited charging goes to a nearby Supercharger station once a week or so and never pays for any charging). So this rather skews your report, which seems to assume that BEV owners do long-distance road trips at a similar level to ICEV owners, which is clearly not true.

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