gonzo
Active Member
- First Name
- Greg
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2020
- Threads
- 1
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- 25
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- 56
- Location
- North Carolina, US
- Vehicles
- Taycan Turbo S, Lucid Air DE, Tesla 3
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- #1
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!
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!
