whitex
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2021
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- 2,538
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- Location
- WA, USA
- Vehicles
- 2018 Tesla MS, 2023 Taycan TCT
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- #1
20 months after putting down an initial deposit for the Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo, I finally picked it up. It wasn’t at the original dealership, as the wait list there was not moving very fast, so I quickly expanded my search to nationwide. Over a year later (after talking with more dealers than I can remember) I found an open configurable allocation, all the way on the other side of the continent – South Carolina. Initially I was thinking PECLA delivery, but the SA convinced me that would delay my car even further, so I decided to take delivery there. I was unsure whether or not I was going to fly-and-drive, or ship it, but once the car got to the dealer I decided listen to some of the members here (you know who you are), and make a trip out of it, visit my son who is away at school on the way.
Given it is the middle of winter, that meant I wanted winter tires for the drive. So I bought the winter tires, but then I had a set of all-season tires on the opposite end of the country. It turned out I can ship them home for ~$380, so I did just that – the tires beat me home by the way. Since now I had an extra set of tires, I picked up a set of Taycan Tequipment wheels on clearance from Suncoast for $2K. I am now set with all-season and winter tires.
So I took a redeye flight to Charleston on a Friday night, arrived at the dealer in the morning. I roll in with my luggage, but my SA was still on the way in, so I just walk in, find my car on the showroom floor (checked the VIN), put my luggage in the trunk, hop in and start setting up the PCM, remote access, etc. I was going to do all that after delivery, but why not do it in the showroom, right?
After maybe 20 minutes someone came over and told me “sorry, this car is sold”. By then I had linked it with my app and was just going through all the settings. I explained it’s my car, just waiting for my SA. Turned out the guy who came was their resident Taycan expert, so he we chatted a bit. He gave me some tips, I shared a few things with him that he didn’t know (or assumed incorrectly). My SA rolled in, just in time as I finished setting up the car and getting it ready to roll. We did all the paperwork, and I set off on a 6hr first leg. I’ve been up for 30+ hrs by then, and it was raining a lot (flood warnings to the point that Apple would refuse to give directions – no route found), brand new car, so a little bit of a challenge. I used the PCM planner for this trip.
Then came the dreaded first EA charge. I plugged in, held my breath, and to my surprise and relief, it just worked! I don’t know whether me activating the free charging a month in advance had anything to do with it, but it worked, so I’m fine losing a month of free charging. So I unclenched, charged and continued to GA for a late dinner, checked into a hotel with Tesla destination charging, got to use my TeslaTap. I think the charger was 80A but only 208V, but sadly Taycan would not show me voltage or current. TeslaTap came handy a couple other times where hotels only had Tesla charging.
Spent another day visiting my son, getting supplies for the trip, and setting up temporary radar detector (Valentine One) and dashcam (BlackVue 4K 2ch) for the trip.
I tried to enter the whole trip into the PCM, but it seemed a bit too much for it, it took forever and never finished, so I gave up. Entered the trip into ABRP, planned it out.
From then on just entered the next EA station (searching for “Electrify” and the Walmart number, or street name, or some other unique string in its location name or address). Note, a lot of EA stations show up separately as 150KW and 350KW, some even 50KW. You cannot actually tell which one is which, because the PCM cuts off the names such that you cannot see until after you’ve selected the name, but usually the last one listed is the highest power one.
Through the trip I tried turn by turn from Apple (via CarPlay), ABRP (via CarPlay) and I must say I prefer the PCM, however I don’t think that would be the case if I didn’t have the HUD. I would have still used it to preheat the battery for DC charging, but it would not be as useful without the HUD. The HUD actually displays much better turn by turn directions – they are the same as the PCM screen, but on the HUD you get a detailed map fragment, something missing from the PCM. That map fragment even included off road paths like in parking lots. I was very surprised how much less informative the directions on the PCM display were, often just a right angle arrow and the street name, but no streets around it. I also generally liked the HUD, especially when I was tired, much nicer to see what I need to see right there. There were a few situations where the HUD was a distraction, so I defined the custom button on the steering wheel to turn it on/off in situations where it was distracting me more than helping.
Quick question to anyone still reading on the PCM, is there a mode where I can see more than one turn ahead? I don’t mean the route overview map, I mean a list of 2 or 3 steps before they are provided. The PCM navigation worked well for single charger hops, except one time in the middle of Atlanta, when I hit some type of a detour, the PCM went all dark on me. Eventually it rebooted, but it was not great to lose navigation in the middle of a series of turn offs. The other thing PCM did once was plain dumb. I set the next charger and started driving. My estimated SoC at the destination was 35%, however that number quickly started falling (freezing weather, wind, fast driving, plus the estimate was generally 10-20% too optimistic in the first part of the trip, got better towards the end). I typically like to watch the destination SoC to make sure I’ll get there, and if it drops below 5% to slow down. Unfortunately, when it dropped under 10%, the PCM decided to add a stop, 6 feet earlier at the very same EA location, but a slower charger. So now the problem becomes that destination estimated SoC always shows 10%, the only thing that changes is how many minutes it wants me to charge at 50KW before moving onto the 350KW.
The trip went pretty good. The Taycan felt a little more at home on roads like this than in my home state:
Though sometimes it was not as fun:
Things such as traffic or bad weather slowed me down throughout. I so wish the matrix headlight were enabled in the USA, it would have made some parts of the trip so much easier. I got snowed in along the way at one point. At one point I was just following a truck until next EA because I could not overtake him, as there was absolutely no visibility when driving next to him – the blowing snow he kicked up made it impossible for me to see my hood. FLIR doesn’t help at all in this situation by the way, in case you’re wondering, it’s just as blinded. Sorry, no picture, by the time I pulled dashcam footage, it was gone. Lucky for me, there was a nice hotel right across the parking lot of the EA charger where I hit the winter storm. I was not the only one who got snowed in, there was a Model X that checked in right behind me (across the parking lot there was also a Tesla Supercharger, though I saw a Model Y charging at EA instead, more on that later).
The rest of the trip went on ok, with some excitements along way. An almost encounter with Utah’s finest (hiding in a giant silver unmarked pickup truck – V1 saved me there). At another time, I was in a 3 car convoy where we were taking turns for the lead, great weather, beautiful mountain roads. I was last for the moment, then I see the lead car kick up a bunch of dust and go on the shoulder. I hit my brakes, Taycan handles it easily. It turns out a bunch of mountain goats decided to cross the road, jumping effortlessly over the concrete barriers.
I don’t know if the lead car hit it. It rattled him enough that he dropped out of our little formation, but even though there was a dead goat on the road where this happened, that lead car showed no body damage when I passed him, so perhaps there was another incident earlier.
It was a good reminder of why you always have to pay attention to the road.
Overall I visited about 30 EA chargers. I didn’t have to wait at any of them, though I was blocked from using the 350 at a couple by EV driver parking weird – I think this sometimes happens when they try one station, it turns out it’s now working, they repark BADLY to reach the next cable. Other times I think they are just not considerate of others or they simply cannot park well.
I also saw a few of cars not capable of using 350KW hogging those chargers instead of plugging into a 150KW ones next stall. I talked with one of the owners, he was honestly surprised about the fact that his car was not capable of using 350KW. When I saw Teslas charging at EA station, especially across the parking from a Tesla supercharger, it made me wonder why would a Tesla charge at EA with a supercharger only a stone throw away. So I asked. Turns out EA is cheaper, especially if you pay the $4 a month subscription. With all 4 of my Teslas having free supercharging, it actually didn't occur to me. I approached that Tesla owner asking "hey, are you testing out your new CCS adapter?"
Here is a little collage of all the EA stations I visited between Georgia and Washington. If the charger was fuller at any time I was there, I used that picture, rather than the empty charger one, to show what cars I came across in my trip. No Taycans though. Even on the road I only saw one Taycan sedan in Atlanta.
For comparison, from my archives, a similar charger collage from a trip to get to know my car, that time it was a Tesla in 2016 (it was actually only the second, return half of the trip, the first half I didn't think to take pictures):
Bottom line, great trip. I wish I had tinted windows, and full radar/laser countermeasures (adding those now). I had to tape over my silver trim as it was reflecting too much sun.
I also wish Porsche sun visor would be bigger. Had to hack that too,
I am not going to go on and on about the rear view camera, other than it is a disappointment. The overview and 3D view doesn’t make up for proper backup camera, but I hit a weird delay on the overhead view where I managed to hit a curb before the screen showed it hitting the car. One of those times I was showing it to my son, and he also said the camera did not show the curb under the car until after we hit it. I tried using it in the garage where I require precision parking within 6 inches of the car, it’s completely useless there – I actually had some high hopes for this one, but no. I am using an actual overhead security camera displaying on my phone, which has a delay, but works WAY better than PCM one.
The trip started feeling a little long after day 4 of the 7 day main trip after I visited my son. I put on ~3,500 miles in 9 days after delivery. Overall I enjoyed it very much though. Got to know my Taycan in a hurry.
Would I do it again, heck yea, but maybe not for a couple of years. PECLA delivery on the other hand would be a breeze. That I could do every year
Now that I’m back, I got my wheels/tires sorted out so they don’t block my wife from parking in the garage (they both arrived when I was gone, a forklift just dropped a pallet in the garage entry). I just got my car tinted.
Will do permanent dashcam install hopefully this weekend (will be looking for those pre-wire connectors). I still need to finish reverse engineering the ALP system before I integrate it into the Taycan, but it’s winter, so the V1 will do for now. Oh yea, need to sell the old car (Model S) too, so that has been taking some time since I got back (wash it, prep it, talk to potential buyers, etc).
I hope you enjoyed this little overview of a cross-country fly and drive.
Given it is the middle of winter, that meant I wanted winter tires for the drive. So I bought the winter tires, but then I had a set of all-season tires on the opposite end of the country. It turned out I can ship them home for ~$380, so I did just that – the tires beat me home by the way. Since now I had an extra set of tires, I picked up a set of Taycan Tequipment wheels on clearance from Suncoast for $2K. I am now set with all-season and winter tires.
So I took a redeye flight to Charleston on a Friday night, arrived at the dealer in the morning. I roll in with my luggage, but my SA was still on the way in, so I just walk in, find my car on the showroom floor (checked the VIN), put my luggage in the trunk, hop in and start setting up the PCM, remote access, etc. I was going to do all that after delivery, but why not do it in the showroom, right?
After maybe 20 minutes someone came over and told me “sorry, this car is sold”. By then I had linked it with my app and was just going through all the settings. I explained it’s my car, just waiting for my SA. Turned out the guy who came was their resident Taycan expert, so he we chatted a bit. He gave me some tips, I shared a few things with him that he didn’t know (or assumed incorrectly). My SA rolled in, just in time as I finished setting up the car and getting it ready to roll. We did all the paperwork, and I set off on a 6hr first leg. I’ve been up for 30+ hrs by then, and it was raining a lot (flood warnings to the point that Apple would refuse to give directions – no route found), brand new car, so a little bit of a challenge. I used the PCM planner for this trip.
Then came the dreaded first EA charge. I plugged in, held my breath, and to my surprise and relief, it just worked! I don’t know whether me activating the free charging a month in advance had anything to do with it, but it worked, so I’m fine losing a month of free charging. So I unclenched, charged and continued to GA for a late dinner, checked into a hotel with Tesla destination charging, got to use my TeslaTap. I think the charger was 80A but only 208V, but sadly Taycan would not show me voltage or current. TeslaTap came handy a couple other times where hotels only had Tesla charging.
Spent another day visiting my son, getting supplies for the trip, and setting up temporary radar detector (Valentine One) and dashcam (BlackVue 4K 2ch) for the trip.
I tried to enter the whole trip into the PCM, but it seemed a bit too much for it, it took forever and never finished, so I gave up. Entered the trip into ABRP, planned it out.
From then on just entered the next EA station (searching for “Electrify” and the Walmart number, or street name, or some other unique string in its location name or address). Note, a lot of EA stations show up separately as 150KW and 350KW, some even 50KW. You cannot actually tell which one is which, because the PCM cuts off the names such that you cannot see until after you’ve selected the name, but usually the last one listed is the highest power one.
Through the trip I tried turn by turn from Apple (via CarPlay), ABRP (via CarPlay) and I must say I prefer the PCM, however I don’t think that would be the case if I didn’t have the HUD. I would have still used it to preheat the battery for DC charging, but it would not be as useful without the HUD. The HUD actually displays much better turn by turn directions – they are the same as the PCM screen, but on the HUD you get a detailed map fragment, something missing from the PCM. That map fragment even included off road paths like in parking lots. I was very surprised how much less informative the directions on the PCM display were, often just a right angle arrow and the street name, but no streets around it. I also generally liked the HUD, especially when I was tired, much nicer to see what I need to see right there. There were a few situations where the HUD was a distraction, so I defined the custom button on the steering wheel to turn it on/off in situations where it was distracting me more than helping.
Quick question to anyone still reading on the PCM, is there a mode where I can see more than one turn ahead? I don’t mean the route overview map, I mean a list of 2 or 3 steps before they are provided. The PCM navigation worked well for single charger hops, except one time in the middle of Atlanta, when I hit some type of a detour, the PCM went all dark on me. Eventually it rebooted, but it was not great to lose navigation in the middle of a series of turn offs. The other thing PCM did once was plain dumb. I set the next charger and started driving. My estimated SoC at the destination was 35%, however that number quickly started falling (freezing weather, wind, fast driving, plus the estimate was generally 10-20% too optimistic in the first part of the trip, got better towards the end). I typically like to watch the destination SoC to make sure I’ll get there, and if it drops below 5% to slow down. Unfortunately, when it dropped under 10%, the PCM decided to add a stop, 6 feet earlier at the very same EA location, but a slower charger. So now the problem becomes that destination estimated SoC always shows 10%, the only thing that changes is how many minutes it wants me to charge at 50KW before moving onto the 350KW.
The trip went pretty good. The Taycan felt a little more at home on roads like this than in my home state:
Though sometimes it was not as fun:
Things such as traffic or bad weather slowed me down throughout. I so wish the matrix headlight were enabled in the USA, it would have made some parts of the trip so much easier. I got snowed in along the way at one point. At one point I was just following a truck until next EA because I could not overtake him, as there was absolutely no visibility when driving next to him – the blowing snow he kicked up made it impossible for me to see my hood. FLIR doesn’t help at all in this situation by the way, in case you’re wondering, it’s just as blinded. Sorry, no picture, by the time I pulled dashcam footage, it was gone. Lucky for me, there was a nice hotel right across the parking lot of the EA charger where I hit the winter storm. I was not the only one who got snowed in, there was a Model X that checked in right behind me (across the parking lot there was also a Tesla Supercharger, though I saw a Model Y charging at EA instead, more on that later).
The rest of the trip went on ok, with some excitements along way. An almost encounter with Utah’s finest (hiding in a giant silver unmarked pickup truck – V1 saved me there). At another time, I was in a 3 car convoy where we were taking turns for the lead, great weather, beautiful mountain roads. I was last for the moment, then I see the lead car kick up a bunch of dust and go on the shoulder. I hit my brakes, Taycan handles it easily. It turns out a bunch of mountain goats decided to cross the road, jumping effortlessly over the concrete barriers.
I don’t know if the lead car hit it. It rattled him enough that he dropped out of our little formation, but even though there was a dead goat on the road where this happened, that lead car showed no body damage when I passed him, so perhaps there was another incident earlier.
It was a good reminder of why you always have to pay attention to the road.
Overall I visited about 30 EA chargers. I didn’t have to wait at any of them, though I was blocked from using the 350 at a couple by EV driver parking weird – I think this sometimes happens when they try one station, it turns out it’s now working, they repark BADLY to reach the next cable. Other times I think they are just not considerate of others or they simply cannot park well.
I also saw a few of cars not capable of using 350KW hogging those chargers instead of plugging into a 150KW ones next stall. I talked with one of the owners, he was honestly surprised about the fact that his car was not capable of using 350KW. When I saw Teslas charging at EA station, especially across the parking from a Tesla supercharger, it made me wonder why would a Tesla charge at EA with a supercharger only a stone throw away. So I asked. Turns out EA is cheaper, especially if you pay the $4 a month subscription. With all 4 of my Teslas having free supercharging, it actually didn't occur to me. I approached that Tesla owner asking "hey, are you testing out your new CCS adapter?"
Here is a little collage of all the EA stations I visited between Georgia and Washington. If the charger was fuller at any time I was there, I used that picture, rather than the empty charger one, to show what cars I came across in my trip. No Taycans though. Even on the road I only saw one Taycan sedan in Atlanta.
For comparison, from my archives, a similar charger collage from a trip to get to know my car, that time it was a Tesla in 2016 (it was actually only the second, return half of the trip, the first half I didn't think to take pictures):
Bottom line, great trip. I wish I had tinted windows, and full radar/laser countermeasures (adding those now). I had to tape over my silver trim as it was reflecting too much sun.
I also wish Porsche sun visor would be bigger. Had to hack that too,
I am not going to go on and on about the rear view camera, other than it is a disappointment. The overview and 3D view doesn’t make up for proper backup camera, but I hit a weird delay on the overhead view where I managed to hit a curb before the screen showed it hitting the car. One of those times I was showing it to my son, and he also said the camera did not show the curb under the car until after we hit it. I tried using it in the garage where I require precision parking within 6 inches of the car, it’s completely useless there – I actually had some high hopes for this one, but no. I am using an actual overhead security camera displaying on my phone, which has a delay, but works WAY better than PCM one.
The trip started feeling a little long after day 4 of the 7 day main trip after I visited my son. I put on ~3,500 miles in 9 days after delivery. Overall I enjoyed it very much though. Got to know my Taycan in a hurry.
Would I do it again, heck yea, but maybe not for a couple of years. PECLA delivery on the other hand would be a breeze. That I could do every year
Now that I’m back, I got my wheels/tires sorted out so they don’t block my wife from parking in the garage (they both arrived when I was gone, a forklift just dropped a pallet in the garage entry). I just got my car tinted.
Will do permanent dashcam install hopefully this weekend (will be looking for those pre-wire connectors). I still need to finish reverse engineering the ALP system before I integrate it into the Taycan, but it’s winter, so the V1 will do for now. Oh yea, need to sell the old car (Model S) too, so that has been taking some time since I got back (wash it, prep it, talk to potential buyers, etc).
I hope you enjoyed this little overview of a cross-country fly and drive.
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