Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery

[SFEVER]

I’m trying to draw a line between being a helpful customer and being an unpaid part of Porsche’s QA team.

If this becomes work, I need better information from Porsche, and I need someone to send my consulting agreement to (so they can pay me).

That why I have multiple chargers in my home so I can find my own fix and then just move on.... I own a Tesla Charger, 2 x Chargepoint and a JuceBox 50 plus whatever charger is supplied with car I have at the time currently a i3s & KonaEV. I just find what works best with each car and go from there. This all started for me because besides Tesla every other car had a stupid delayed charging program to enable me to charge at off peak rates and evolved into just having multiple chargers at the house.... Good luck on the paid R&D contract

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[ceresma]

Ok so I have Tesla chargers At my homes. I was planning to get a Tesla Tao (or something similar). On the Tesla the only time I depleted my 12v battery was when I ran the car completely out. Car is 4.5 years old and 92k miles. Should I remove the Tesla charger and replace with the Porsche version????

 

[ron_b]

Ok so I have Tesla chargers At my homes. I was planning to get a Tesla Tao (or something similar). On the Tesla the only time I depleted my 12v battery was when I ran the car completely out. Car is 4.5 years old and 92k miles. Should I remove the Tesla charger and replace with the Porsche version????

I personally think Porsche will fix this problem and soon. People depend on random Level 2 chargers while traveling at hotels etc. Could be ChargePoint, ClipperCreek or whatever. Unlikely to find a 240v outlet unless you are camping.

This has got to be a Sev 1 issue.
Bottom line, I trust your Tesla Charger with a Tesla Tap or equivalent should be fine, it has to be.

 

[Scandinavian]

@louv , just out of curiosity, does it matter on which side you have connected your charger? Drivers side or passengers side?

 

[louv]

@louv , just out of curiosity, does it matter on which side you have connected your charger? Drivers side or passengers side?

Excellent question. That occurred to me as well... so I swapped sides for most recent test. I now have had failures on both sides.

So: no, it doesn’t seem to matter

 

[SFEVER]

Excellent question. That occurred to me as well... so I swapped sides for most recent test. I now have had failures on both sides.

So: no, it doesn’t seem to matter

So you know its not the charge ports. happens on both sided. So its beyond that point in the car
You also know its not the car ( it works with its own charger).
It worked on your trip on multiple chargers where you also logged into the car via the app multiple times.
You then added the brand new Chargepoint FLEX into the mix at your home and its an issue.
I really think the Flex is giving the car incorrect information or a fluctuation amp delivery. That is tripping up the car.
Charge point probably can make some adjustments but The car probably needs to have its programmed tolerances adjusted to facilitate a wider ranger of available home charger units and the subtleties of consumer home power delivery.

 

[ron_b]

So you know its not the charge ports. happens on both sided. So its beyond that point in the car
You also know its not the car ( it works with its own charger).
It worked on your trip on multiple chargers where you also logged into the car via the app multiple times.
You then added the brand new Chargepoint FLEX into the mix at your home and its an issue.
I really think the Flex is giving the car incorrect information or a fluctuation amp delivery. That is tripping up the car.
Charge point probably can make some adjustments but The car probably needs to have its programmed tolerances adjusted to facilitate a wider ranger of available home charger units and the subtleties of consumer home power delivery.

Though I agree that Don @louv has only seen on the ChargePoint Flex, I have seen other threads with customers mentioning this problem, @EVOG. Maybe Don was keeping a list to post a request for them to comment on the EVSE in use when dead battery problem occured. I would but I was not tracking that close.

 

[Toby Pennycuff]

Don (@louv), did you experience this kind of failure while using the Porsche Mobile Connect Charger? Just curious. It almost seems like it may be the Chargepoint charger itself. I wonder if other chargers are experiencing this same issue, AND whether Porsche has had any reports of their own charger potentially causing this issue?

Toby

 

[daveo4EV]

Ok so I have Tesla chargers At my homes. I was planning to get a Tesla Tao (or something similar). On the Tesla the only time I depleted my 12v battery was when I ran the car completely out. Car is 4.5 years old and 92k miles. Should I remove the Tesla charger and replace with the Porsche version????

@ceresma your Tesla charger should be just fine - Don used L2 Tesla chargers on his 11,000 mile trip - my bet is this problem is related to Don’s specific charger and in particular maybe a defective part on that charger.

 

[Miwa]

Other people have had the dead 12V battery problem. It's a software issue in the Taycan, as all the L1/L2 smarts for charging are in the car not in the EVSE.

 

[moballa]

Curious - doesn't the Porsche Mobile Connect charger provide 40A/9.6kw charging (which I think is the same as the CP Flex)? I'm waiting on my Taycan and will be installing a 50amp breaker and a NEMA plug that my Porsche charger is being delivered with. If the Porsche charger works, why not just stick with that charger? Is there a benefit in using a 3rd party charger like the CP Flex?

 

[SFEVER]

Curious - doesn't the Porsche Mobile Connect charger provide 40A/9.6kw charging (which I think is the same as the CP Flex)? I'm waiting on my Taycan and will be installing a 50amp breaker and a NEMA plug that my Porsche charger is being delivered with. If the Porsche charger works, why not just stick with that charger? Is there a benefit in using a 3rd party charger like the CP Flex?

Only benefit is you get to keep the cars charge in the car so you can always charge a trip or overnight trip

 

[ron_b]

Only benefit is you get to keep the cars charge in the car so you can always charge a trip or overnight trip

Yes, if I were doing a trip to a camp or a cross country then I would bring an EVSE. Now when I do trips I never bother otherwise as finding a NEMA 14-50 is very rare, much more likely to find a J-1772.

 

[KerbMonster]

I’m guessing as don’t have any info so will need to check.
But a charger has an initial 12v feed so that the car and charger can negotiate on charging protocol.
What if on the faulty charger it stops this 12v once it switches over to supplying high voltage? The cars Ecu needs to be powered to control the charging process and maybe it’s expecting to get this 12v from the charger (not an unreasonable assumption). As it’s not then it’ll be running on the car 12v battery and eventually kill it.

 

[ron_b]

I’m guessing as don’t have any info so will need to check.
But a charger has an initial 12v feed so that the car and charger can negotiate on charging protocol.
What if on the faulty charger it stops this 12v once it switches over to supplying high voltage? The cars Ecu needs to be powered to control the charging process and maybe it’s expecting to get this 12v from the charger (not an unreasonable assumption). As it’s not then it’ll be running on the car 12v battery and eventually kill it.

Well that's not how I see the J1772 sample circuit and read the protocol.

See description at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772
And diagram

The 12v supply is thru a 1k ohm pull-up resistor so current limited to milliamps, the car can make no practical use of 12v power from EVSE as from what I can see. The car must maintain 12v battery using it's onboard charger from the HV pack.

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