Do you need to carry EVSE ?

[ciaranob]

I guess from my perspective what's the argument for not just leaving it in the car? - that little bit of extra weight is sure as heck not killing you range

The PMC+ fits perfectly well in my hidden storage tray in the trunk (along with the Tesla Tap and some other stuff) - BTW I have a separate home EVSE hard-wired - I don't use that space in the trunk for anything else nor likely will I need to, so why not just leave it in there?

You may in truth never actually use it but the one time that you might actually have to, you will never be in that position of, 'oh crap I forgot to bring it'!

Store and forget.

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[raharris]

I guess from my perspective what's the argument for not just leaving it in the car? - that little bit of extra weight is sure as heck not killing you range

The PMC+ fits perfectly well in my hidden storage tray in the trunk (along with the Tesla Tap and some other stuff) - I don't use that space for anything else nor likely will I need to, so why not just leave it in there?

You may in truth never actually use it but the one time that you might actually have to, you will never be in that position of, 'oh crap I forgot to bring it'!

Store and forget.

See prior posts - I have the PMCC in a dock in the garage. the PMCC is my only charger.

 

[ciaranob]

See prior posts - I have the PMCC in a dock in the garage. the PMCC is my only charger.

I was going off your comment "under what circumstances do people carry their EVSE in the vehicle?" and not that you planned on having only one EVSE - but fair enough.

 

[raharris]

I was going off your comment "under what circumstances do people carry their EVSE in the vehicle?" and not that you planned on having only one EVSE - but fair enough.

Makes sense; thank you!

 

[Kayone73]

I take my mobile charger cable with me because some of the hospitals I work at have regular 120V wall outlets to plug my car, on a typical day I can put 30-40 miles range back on my car before I go back home.

The hospital sucks so much of my time and life away, only fitting I take something back from them on principle alone ?

 

[daveo4EV]

under what circumstances do people carry their EVSE in the vehicle?

I don’t intend to do long road trips, but if I did, I would simply packs the PMCC in its man bag and through it in the trunk.

is there any reason to also have one to hand? Or is it safe to rely on being able to get to a DC Charger?

TeslaTap yes 100% bring it!!
mobile EVSE leave it in the frunk and forget about it - but as my previous post alludes low utilization - very very very low

TeslaTap however I use all the time when I'm away from home - there is inevitably a Tesla Destination Charger someplace along the way (normally more than one) and I use the Tesla Tap to charge when I can find one.

 

[whitex]

I don’t find a need to carry one. I understand why some people want peace of mind but I figure that if I had one with me and used it outside the home it would likely be Level 1 charging and not worth it. At least in the US, you are not going to just stumble upon a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the side of the road. Plus I really don’t do long road trips on the Taycan. I appreciate that even Level 1 could get you the juice needed to get to a real charger so I get the peace of mind reasoning.

RV parking/parks have NEMA 14-50 or similar plugs available, if you're ever stuck.

That said, I've been carrying a mobile EVSE (Tesla Mobile Charger) with a number of adapters in my car for over 8 years, never used it, except when I went to visit family on the other coast, but I could have just packed it for that trip. That said, I have been carrying around a ChaDeMo adapter for almost as long, but I did end up using it on a handful of occasions, not recently, but still, the point is you never know.

Once Porsche finally gets their act together (waiting for an allocation over 6 months now) and can actually get me a Taycan, I'm planning to carry with me the same 40A capable Tesla Mobile charger with all the adapters and a Tesla Tap (the charger together with the adapters is nice and compact). Should Tesla supercharger to CCS2 adapter become available, I'll probably get that one and carry it around too. At home I will permanently convert one of my Tesla 80A charger to a CCS2 plug, so it can balance 80A between our 2 EV's in the garage (I could use Tesla Tap, but it's more convenient to just swap the cable, already got the parts to do it, costed me ~$60).

 

[kort]

under what circumstances do people carry their EVSE in the vehicle?

I don’t intend to do long road trips, but if I did, I would simply packs the PMCC in its man bag and through it in the trunk.

is there any reason to also have one to hand? Or is it safe to rely on being able to get to a DC Charger?

if you are going to travel to places away from any fast or L2 chargers it would be wise to bring it along.

 

[Brazz]

under what circumstances do people carry their EVSE in the vehicle?

I don't intend to make long road trips, but if I did, I would simply packs the PMCC in its man bag and through it in the trunk.

is there any reason to also have one to hand? Or is it safe to rely on being able to get to a DC Charger?

I just got my 2022 Taycan and was wondering the same thing. I "installed" the Porsche at the house, so I didn't have one in the car. I don't plan on much travel, but to be safe, I purchased the Mustart and Tesla tap this week to put in the car. Similar to others who posted, I'm following the logic, "better to have it and not need it than not to have it and need it."

 

[W1NGE]

What is the difference between PMCC and EVSE? Isn’t the PMCC an EVSE?

Yes it is as is the PMC+ and any other non Porsche branded device that supplies power to your car.

Unfortunately the word 'charger' and its use has been corrupted with people not realising that the actual charger is physically built into the car for both AC and DC charging.

Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) is a term used to make this differentiation.

 

[raharris]

Thank you everyone for comments and input.

I decided to get the Mustart and the Mustart extension cable.

The EVSE will live in the trunk or frunk; but it also satisfies a use case of being able to use the range outlet (which is where the extension cable comes in) as well as something I can take to my other apartment (this isn’t a big deal as my two apartments are a block apart!- so charging at both isn’t essential - but certainly a nice to have).

I may have to resort to the range outlet if the request for the upgraded service gets denied in my condos.

 

[REIL]

An additional reason to purchase another EVSE outside of road trips is as a back up to your home PMCC.
If your home charging unit fails for some reason you have an alternate way to charge your car.

Maybe there are some forum members that have needed their back up unit at home and can respond here with the frequency needed.

 

[Jayyvr890]

I have a hard time justifying keeping an EVSE in the car for "just in case". I use the PMCC to charge my car when it drops to ~20% and charge to 75%. So my lowest range is always around 50-60km. The nearest reliable DC fast charger is 3km from my house. When I do longer trips (a few times a year), I just pop the PMCC off the wall and carry that to charge at destination.

Can someone give me an example of how a spare EVSE gives them peace of mind? When do they expect to use it urgently? I can understand if people charge at work everyday and don't want to pop the PMCC off the wall everyday, but apart from that scenario I really can't see the use of a spare EVSE.

 

[raharris]

I have a hard time justifying keeping an EVSE in the car for "just in case". I use the PMCC to charge my car when it drops to ~20% and charge to 75%. So my lowest range is always around 50-60km. The nearest reliable DC fast charger is 3km from my house. When I do longer trips (a few times a year), I just pop the PMCC off the wall and carry that to charge at destination.

Can someone give me an example of how a spare EVSE gives them peace of mind? When do they expect to use it urgently? I can understand if people charge at work everyday and don't want to pop the PMCC off the wall everyday, but apart from that scenario I really can't see the use of a spare EVSE.

This is what I struggled with; but ultimately I had some other use cases that made it attractive. Without those, I probably would have not opted to have another for very similar reasons to what you stated.

Bare in mind, I have driven my car 18ft (from the delivery transport to the dealer bay); as it then went immediately for PPF!

 

[whitex]

I have a hard time justifying keeping an EVSE in the car for "just in case". I use the PMCC to charge my car when it drops to ~20% and charge to 75%. So my lowest range is always around 50-60km. The nearest reliable DC fast charger is 3km from my house. When I do longer trips (a few times a year), I just pop the PMCC off the wall and carry that to charge at destination.

Can someone give me an example of how a spare EVSE gives them peace of mind? When do they expect to use it urgently? I can understand if people charge at work everyday and don't want to pop the PMCC off the wall everyday, but apart from that scenario I really can't see the use of a spare EVSE.

As I mentioned before, even though I carry one I only used in situations where I knew/planned to use it outside of the home. I almost used it at an RV park one time during a road trip, but found a ChaDeMo charger instead (and happened to carry a ChaDeMo adapter with me just in case too). If all your driving is always 100% predictable and you always plan for enough range to return home to charge, you are absolutely correct - you have no reason to carry it. Heck, the situation you describe you have no need DC charging capabilities either, so no need to setup any DC charging accounts. My wife is in a similar driving situation, since 2016 she's on her 2nd EV, but charged outside of the house only once ever, and that was opportunistic (while stopping for a bathroom break) 15 minute DC charging for peace of mind, she could have made it home on what she had, maybe at speed limit. Her current early 2018 car has never seen a DC charger except for once when I took it to make sure that it works ok shortly after taking delivery of it. We also happen to have have unlimited free DC charging too on both of our cars - it's just not worth the time to go DC charge the cars for free outside, even though the closest DC charger is only 6 miles, or 10km, away.

As a side note, I would not plan to let my EV drop to 50km range during the winter. If you ever get stuck in a snow storm or highway accident, you will run out of battery before getting home. Same reason why I used to never let my tank drop below 1/4 during the winter. It doesn't take an extreme like the recent I-95 in Virginia where motorists were stuck for 30hrs either. 50km range is probably 3-4hrs of heating while stopped. I personally try to keep our cars >100km range during winter, usually higher as we charge both cars almost every day in the garage (the only time we don't is when the garage is temporarily used as a workshop or storage of something for a couple of days).

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