tchavei
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- Joined
- Dec 3, 2022
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- Too many to list. Includes a MY23 Taycan RWD
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August
The month many in Portugal live for but for some, the dreadiest month of them all. It's the tourist high season. Towns of 50k inhabitants suddently become a sea of 2 million tourists. And some even bring their EVs. You're either happy visiting the Algarve or you're about to have a stroke being an Algarve native.
I live in the Algarve and when August approaches, I have only one thought in mind: fleeing.
This year I decided I'd grab the family and make a sort of "Tour De Portugal" fleeing from the south for a few days and testing how I would manage with the Taycan and my family on the Portuguese charging network during Tourist season.
We decided to depart last Thursday and head north. The goal was to avoid tourists but we realized that the Christian youth gathering with the Pope would be held in Lisbon (1.5 million pilgrims) and during the weekend events were planned for FĂĄtima. This meant we had to cut out Lisbon and FĂĄtima all together. There was no way I wanted to be near that chaos.
We left late morning with about 85% battery. Did the A22 until the the A2 intersection and proceeded north. I was doing steady 130km/h. We passed by an ionity stall near Almodôvar but we still had over 55% SoC so it would be useless to charge there. I had planned to make a charging stop at the Grândola service station which has a 160kW charger, a 90kW charger and a 50kW charger. When we got there, I was still at 30% so could have proceeded to the next service station (Alcåcer do Sal) but I had checked my charging app (mio) and a few people had complained a couple of days earlier that the ultra fast charger was having some issues keeping the charging rate. I decided not to risk it so went to charge "early".
I stopped by the two bigger chargers and I couldn't figure out which one was the 90kW and which one was the 160kW one. It's ridiculous someone actually forgot to identify which one was which.
Lots of Teslas and ionic 5s were swarming around so I knew I had to make a choice or I'd be in a queue in a few minutes. The right side charger looked beefier so there I went. Once I plugged it in, the charging rate immediately jumped to 120kW so I knew (I thought at least) I got the right charger. A shame it wasn't giving out the promised 160kW though (more on this later).
Went for a coffee, some pastries and to the bathroom and when we returned, the car was already at 83% and quickly tapering off. I waited a couple of minutes to get it to 85% since the next leg would be a long one to avoid Lisbon and the A1 (which was reported full of pilgrims heading to the capital).
We then continued on the A2, then on the A13 and finally on the A8 that took us up to Leiria, well out of reach of Lisbon and the A1. I had called my SA from the Leiria Porsche Center and asked if it was OK for me to pass by for a coffee and a courtesy charge. It was.
We arrived with 16% SoC and proceeded directly to one of the HP 350kW chargers. Once one of the girls at the front office swiped their card, the machine came to life and the Taycan felt at home at a 264kW charging rate. We barely had time to finish our coffees and check out the cars in the showroom.
We left, again, with 85% and headed towards Luso, home of one of the most well known water springs (and water brand) in Portugal. We arrived an hour later at the hotel with 55%. I immediately inquired about available chargers. To my surprise, they only had the standard tesla destination chargers (one red, one white) but the red one (tesla exclusive) was broken which means I would have to compete with other teslas staying at the hotel.
After spending there the afternoon and dining out, on my return I saw the charger was available so hooked up the Taycan seconds before an Ionic 5 passed by. The driver clearly wanted to charge too.
Once the Taycan finished the charge at around 11pm (at 11kW/h), I left the room and took the car out of the charging slot to give others the chance to charge up too.
We left the next day, in the morning, at 100% SoC and headed to Santa Maria da Feira which was having a Medieval festival. We spent our day there pretending we were back in 1389
In the evening we went to a business oriented hotel where we checked in and I asked the usual question "what charger do you have around". To my dismay, I was told the hotel didn't have any but a couple of normal outlets in the garage.
Well, to be completely honest, I wouldn't have needed to charge since I still had 68% battery left and the trip to Porto the next day would be a short one (around 60km) but I wanted to try out a "regular" plug and also to have plenty of charge to zip around Porto without worries. So glad I brought my porsche pccm or whatever that thing is called. I plugged it into the socket and I got a whopping 2.1kW charging rate. Estimate to charge completion was 18h (lol). I left it charge overnight and at the time of our departure it had reached 95%! Wow
The next day at Porto was uneventful and I spent my day doing uber service for the wife from shopping mall to shopping mall. Plenty of chargers around but I thought "I'll just charge at the hotel overnight" (big mistake).
When we arrived at the new hotel, I was informed that the garage was paid (fine by me) and that the charger wasn't a destination charger but a mobi.e public one (7.4kW)... MEH (should have charged up at the mall at 50kw)
So I plugged in the car and swiped the cheapest card contract I found for that charger. For some silly reason, I didn't look when the charge was predicted to finish and failed to remember that that card I had selected didn't charge per kwh but per minute (which is what makes it cheap on high power chargers).
So, the next morning, we woke up and went for a lazy breakfast. When we were done, one of my kids asked "you think the car is charged by now, dad?" that's when I realized I forgot totally about the charge. I checked the app and the car was at 100% for a long time. I did some mental math and it probably finished charging by 5 or 6 am so I was 4h late at least.
I was worried I might be stopping someone from charging up so went directly to the garage. Luckily the other chargers were all free so I didn't have to feel guilty about stealing someone's spot.
Unfortunately I then realized, the charger / card was still charging me by idle time. I don't think I ever paid âŹ43 for a charge oh well, lesson learned.
We eventually left and headed to GuimarĂŁes. Nice historical town/city with lots of things to visit. We spent our day there. Afterwards we headed to a nice restaurant more south and then proceeded to Coimbra.
When we arrived at the hotel, I inquired about a charger and was told it was a tesla destination charger and that guests could 'book' 4h time slots that could be extended if there wasn't anyone else in queue. Nice system. I ended 'booking' a charge overnight as I was low on charge and at midnight nobody else had booked for the 4am-8am slot. Charged up from midnight up to 8 am (to 100%).
We left Coimbra and proceeded to head back south. We did a stop for lunch (no charger around) and proceeded on the A13 to the A2. At this point, the Nav was recommending a charge at AlmodĂ´var Ionity Stalls but the predicted SoC at arrival was 5%. I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy. Ambient temperature was at 43-44C so just the thought of waiting for a tow in that kind of heat made me shiver (pun intended).
I pointed to Grândola again (this time the north/south side) and we arrived at 19% SoC.
This time I couldn't see any EV around but once again the bloody chargers weren't identified. Once again I went to the 'beefier' one and plugged in. After a few seconds, I got a 120kw charge rate. This didn't make sense at all.
1) the listed chargers are 160kW and 90kW.
2) in my short experience, I've never encountered a 'limited' charger ever and now there were two giving exactly the same output?
Since there still weren't any other EVs around, I decided to switch charger. I unplugged from the beefier one and went to the slimmer (albeit taller) one. Hooked it up and voila! Instant 160.4Kw!
So not only aren't those chargers identified but the listed output isn't correct. The 90kW chargers are in fact 120kW (hey, I'm not complaining).
Once we reached 75% SoC, I had enough of the burning heat and we proceeded home where I arrived with around 28%
So, after a 1800km round-trip in August, surrounded by thousands of Teslas and other EVs, I can confidently say: it's not a big deal to go around in an EV.
Is it exactly the same as travelling in an ICE car? Well if you're like me who only thinks about gas when the reserve lights up, then no. You have to have an idea of range and think about what chargers you gonna encounter en route. You should also plan ahead to have enough charge to explore a town or city at your destination.
Destination charging is very nice and cuts costs even further (when free) but each hotel has its own policies so one should make sure beforehand. I was very lucky with my selections on the road. Despite the massive amount of EVs travelling, I had no queue at any of my selected chargers. At the chosen hotels, I always managed to charge one way or the other. The only hotel that wasn't prepared for EVs, had at least free outlets so if I had arrived with low SoC it would have been enough to charge up to take me to a high speed charger in the neighbourhood.
All in all it was a great experience.
The month many in Portugal live for but for some, the dreadiest month of them all. It's the tourist high season. Towns of 50k inhabitants suddently become a sea of 2 million tourists. And some even bring their EVs. You're either happy visiting the Algarve or you're about to have a stroke being an Algarve native.
I live in the Algarve and when August approaches, I have only one thought in mind: fleeing.
This year I decided I'd grab the family and make a sort of "Tour De Portugal" fleeing from the south for a few days and testing how I would manage with the Taycan and my family on the Portuguese charging network during Tourist season.
We decided to depart last Thursday and head north. The goal was to avoid tourists but we realized that the Christian youth gathering with the Pope would be held in Lisbon (1.5 million pilgrims) and during the weekend events were planned for FĂĄtima. This meant we had to cut out Lisbon and FĂĄtima all together. There was no way I wanted to be near that chaos.
We left late morning with about 85% battery. Did the A22 until the the A2 intersection and proceeded north. I was doing steady 130km/h. We passed by an ionity stall near Almodôvar but we still had over 55% SoC so it would be useless to charge there. I had planned to make a charging stop at the Grândola service station which has a 160kW charger, a 90kW charger and a 50kW charger. When we got there, I was still at 30% so could have proceeded to the next service station (Alcåcer do Sal) but I had checked my charging app (mio) and a few people had complained a couple of days earlier that the ultra fast charger was having some issues keeping the charging rate. I decided not to risk it so went to charge "early".
I stopped by the two bigger chargers and I couldn't figure out which one was the 90kW and which one was the 160kW one. It's ridiculous someone actually forgot to identify which one was which.
Lots of Teslas and ionic 5s were swarming around so I knew I had to make a choice or I'd be in a queue in a few minutes. The right side charger looked beefier so there I went. Once I plugged it in, the charging rate immediately jumped to 120kW so I knew (I thought at least) I got the right charger. A shame it wasn't giving out the promised 160kW though (more on this later).
Went for a coffee, some pastries and to the bathroom and when we returned, the car was already at 83% and quickly tapering off. I waited a couple of minutes to get it to 85% since the next leg would be a long one to avoid Lisbon and the A1 (which was reported full of pilgrims heading to the capital).
We then continued on the A2, then on the A13 and finally on the A8 that took us up to Leiria, well out of reach of Lisbon and the A1. I had called my SA from the Leiria Porsche Center and asked if it was OK for me to pass by for a coffee and a courtesy charge. It was.
We arrived with 16% SoC and proceeded directly to one of the HP 350kW chargers. Once one of the girls at the front office swiped their card, the machine came to life and the Taycan felt at home at a 264kW charging rate. We barely had time to finish our coffees and check out the cars in the showroom.
We left, again, with 85% and headed towards Luso, home of one of the most well known water springs (and water brand) in Portugal. We arrived an hour later at the hotel with 55%. I immediately inquired about available chargers. To my surprise, they only had the standard tesla destination chargers (one red, one white) but the red one (tesla exclusive) was broken which means I would have to compete with other teslas staying at the hotel.
After spending there the afternoon and dining out, on my return I saw the charger was available so hooked up the Taycan seconds before an Ionic 5 passed by. The driver clearly wanted to charge too.
Once the Taycan finished the charge at around 11pm (at 11kW/h), I left the room and took the car out of the charging slot to give others the chance to charge up too.
We left the next day, in the morning, at 100% SoC and headed to Santa Maria da Feira which was having a Medieval festival. We spent our day there pretending we were back in 1389
In the evening we went to a business oriented hotel where we checked in and I asked the usual question "what charger do you have around". To my dismay, I was told the hotel didn't have any but a couple of normal outlets in the garage.
Well, to be completely honest, I wouldn't have needed to charge since I still had 68% battery left and the trip to Porto the next day would be a short one (around 60km) but I wanted to try out a "regular" plug and also to have plenty of charge to zip around Porto without worries. So glad I brought my porsche pccm or whatever that thing is called. I plugged it into the socket and I got a whopping 2.1kW charging rate. Estimate to charge completion was 18h (lol). I left it charge overnight and at the time of our departure it had reached 95%! Wow
The next day at Porto was uneventful and I spent my day doing uber service for the wife from shopping mall to shopping mall. Plenty of chargers around but I thought "I'll just charge at the hotel overnight" (big mistake).
When we arrived at the new hotel, I was informed that the garage was paid (fine by me) and that the charger wasn't a destination charger but a mobi.e public one (7.4kW)... MEH (should have charged up at the mall at 50kw)
So I plugged in the car and swiped the cheapest card contract I found for that charger. For some silly reason, I didn't look when the charge was predicted to finish and failed to remember that that card I had selected didn't charge per kwh but per minute (which is what makes it cheap on high power chargers).
So, the next morning, we woke up and went for a lazy breakfast. When we were done, one of my kids asked "you think the car is charged by now, dad?" that's when I realized I forgot totally about the charge. I checked the app and the car was at 100% for a long time. I did some mental math and it probably finished charging by 5 or 6 am so I was 4h late at least.
I was worried I might be stopping someone from charging up so went directly to the garage. Luckily the other chargers were all free so I didn't have to feel guilty about stealing someone's spot.
Unfortunately I then realized, the charger / card was still charging me by idle time. I don't think I ever paid âŹ43 for a charge
oh well, lesson learned. We eventually left and headed to GuimarĂŁes. Nice historical town/city with lots of things to visit. We spent our day there. Afterwards we headed to a nice restaurant more south and then proceeded to Coimbra.
When we arrived at the hotel, I inquired about a charger and was told it was a tesla destination charger and that guests could 'book' 4h time slots that could be extended if there wasn't anyone else in queue. Nice system. I ended 'booking' a charge overnight as I was low on charge and at midnight nobody else had booked for the 4am-8am slot. Charged up from midnight up to 8 am (to 100%).
We left Coimbra and proceeded to head back south. We did a stop for lunch (no charger around) and proceeded on the A13 to the A2. At this point, the Nav was recommending a charge at AlmodĂ´var Ionity Stalls but the predicted SoC at arrival was 5%. I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy. Ambient temperature was at 43-44C so just the thought of waiting for a tow in that kind of heat made me shiver (pun intended).
I pointed to Grândola again (this time the north/south side) and we arrived at 19% SoC.
This time I couldn't see any EV around but once again the bloody chargers weren't identified. Once again I went to the 'beefier' one and plugged in. After a few seconds, I got a 120kw charge rate. This didn't make sense at all.
1) the listed chargers are 160kW and 90kW.
2) in my short experience, I've never encountered a 'limited' charger ever and now there were two giving exactly the same output?
Since there still weren't any other EVs around, I decided to switch charger. I unplugged from the beefier one and went to the slimmer (albeit taller) one. Hooked it up and voila! Instant 160.4Kw!
So not only aren't those chargers identified but the listed output isn't correct. The 90kW chargers are in fact 120kW (hey, I'm not complaining).
Once we reached 75% SoC, I had enough of the burning heat and we proceeded home where I arrived with around 28%
So, after a 1800km round-trip in August, surrounded by thousands of Teslas and other EVs, I can confidently say: it's not a big deal to go around in an EV.
Is it exactly the same as travelling in an ICE car? Well if you're like me who only thinks about gas when the reserve lights up, then no. You have to have an idea of range and think about what chargers you gonna encounter en route. You should also plan ahead to have enough charge to explore a town or city at your destination.
Destination charging is very nice and cuts costs even further (when free) but each hotel has its own policies so one should make sure beforehand. I was very lucky with my selections on the road. Despite the massive amount of EVs travelling, I had no queue at any of my selected chargers. At the chosen hotels, I always managed to charge one way or the other. The only hotel that wasn't prepared for EVs, had at least free outlets so if I had arrived with low SoC it would have been enough to charge up to take me to a high speed charger in the neighbourhood.
All in all it was a great experience.
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