First time charging at Electrify America

[Polar993]

I’ve had my 2023 Taycan ST GTS for about 6 months and I went to an Electrify America charger for the first time to help prepare for an upcoming road trip. I wanted to get familiar with the charging process before embarking on my long distance journey this weekend.

I pulled into the charging station with 72% SOC, and initially tried plugging into one of the 350 kW chargers. The process to initiate the charging was very easy and with my complimentary year of charging, I didn’t have to enter in any credit card information, or any payment information.

The charging began after about one or two minutes, and I noticed the rate of charge was only averaging 97kW. The car next to me, a Hyundai Ionic 5 was plugged into a 150 kW charger and I noticed their charging rate was at 135 kW! I thought something may be wrong with the specific charger I was using since my charging rate was relatively low at 97 kW, so I moved over to another charger. I tried a 150 kW charger and the charging rate was only averaging 89 kW at a SOC of 82%.

My charging rate dropped all the way down to 12 kW as I completed my charge to 100%.

After I switched to the 150 kW charger, a Mercedes EQS started charging at the 350 kW charger and I noticed it was charging at a rate of 260 kW.

Question…..how come my charge rate topped off at 97 kW even though I was at a SOC of 72% while using a 350 kW charger? Do I have my charge settings wrong? How can I achieve a higher rate of charge?

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[Jonathan S.]

The higher your SoC%, the lower your kW charging rate.
Almost every EV model has such a charging curve, i.e., the speed tapers down the closer you are to full.

But that is the obvious part.

The less obvious part is that most likely in the near future you will rue the day that you once complained about an EA charging session with speeds in the high double digits after merely a brief handshake as your future self pulls into a New England EA hoping to charge from, say, 10% to 80% along the Taycan's published charging curve, but after fighting traffic to reach a Walmart, then puzzling over exactly where the EA is in the Walmart parking lot (no, sorry, the station with 16 red chargers is for Tesla, not accessible to us yet), you will find the four green chargers, at least one of which will be broken, with a line for the other three, then after calling EA to reset a downed charger, you will be mired in the middling double digits even at 10%, with a long layover until you reach 80%.

 

[laua]

I’ve had my 2023 Taycan ST GTS for about 6 months and I went to an Electrify America charger for the first time to help prepare for an upcoming road trip. I wanted to get familiar with the charging process before embarking on my long distance journey this weekend.

I pulled into the charging station with 72% SOC, and initially tried plugging into one of the 350 kW chargers. The process to initiate the charging was very easy and with my complimentary year of charging, I didn’t have to enter in any credit card information, or any payment information.

The charging began after about one or two minutes, and I noticed the rate of charge was only averaging 97kW. The car next to me, a Hyundai Ionic 5 was plugged into a 150 kW charger and I noticed their charging rate was at 135 kW! I thought something may be wrong with the specific charger I was using since my charging rate was relatively low at 97 kW, so I moved over to another charger. I tried a 150 kW charger and the charging rate was only averaging 89 kW at a SOC of 82%.

My charging rate dropped all the way down to 12 kW as I completed my charge to 100%.

After I switched to the 150 kW charger, a Mercedes EQS started charging at the 350 kW charger and I noticed it was charging at a rate of 260 kW.

Question…..how come my charge rate topped off at 97 kW even though I was at a SOC of 72% while using a 350 kW charger? Do I have my charge settings wrong? How can I achieve a higher rate of charge?

I also had my first EA session recently. Similarly easy handshake. That said I didn’t precondition the battery so that could’ve been part of the reason I had slow charging speeds.

 

[Hirschaj]

Did you let the Porsche nav route you to the charging station? That is how the battery preconditions by warming itself up. I’m not sure it would make much of a difference though since you were already at such a high state of charge. The higher the state of charge the lowered the charging rate so that is what is accounting for your comparatively low rate of charge. When your battery is preconditioned and you start charging below 40% it should hit a much higher rate.

 

[Jonathan S.]

I doubt the possible lack of any preconditioning was a factor since the reported speed of 89 kW at 82% SoC looks like it was taken off this graph -- plus southern New England is so hot right now that no such thing as a cold EV battery!

(BTW, love that the OP is in Greenwich. Late last October, I drove down there to road bike with a friend after getting in my obligatory monthly ski day, resorting to Big Snow NJ out of desperation! We were running short on time in the evening, so just did laps on your beautiful Greenwich Point Park. While riding back through the downtown, I saw 4x Taycan, which is more than I've seen ever since then in ... hmm, anywhere except at a Porsche cars & coffee?)

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

@OP, 3 things:
- preconditioning
- max charging rate per SoC
- check if "battery-friendly optimized charging" is enabled (see this, or virtually every thread under the Charging section)

@Jonathan S. wow, and you didn't mention "consent decree" once in 2 (two!) posts; you alright? (Is it the heat wave?)

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Oh yes, definitely hot here! (Although fortunately the more serious of my two tennis outings today was in the morning when it was merely hot -- as opposed to, whoah, how hot is is now?!? -- and then an incoming thunderstorm prevented me from attending a track workout when it would have been even hot Hot HOTTER!) But rest assured I have been getting in my consent decree references over in a FB EA group thread where some posters have claimed that the gubmint would have prevented EA from spending add'l $ on maintenance.

 

[DerekS]

Please don't charge to 100% at a public charger unless you REALLY need it to make your next leg on a road trip.

This doesn't work like gas cars.

You will spend more time from 80->100% than you spend from 0->80%.

 

[Tooney]

You ask good questions.

Here are a couple of links I found useful.
Old forum thread: I ask and answer: Why won't my Taycan Charge as fast as I want it to?

Shows actual charge rate profile vs SoC: Tom Moloughney video Porsche Taycan 0 to 100% DC Fast Charge Test

 

[Polar993]

Hey everyone. Thanks for your feedback regarding my first EA charging experience.

To answer a few questions off the bat, yes… I did have the app and navigation system direct me to the EA charging location, and therefore likely would’ve had a fairly preconditioned battery at the time of charging. That said, as someone else mentioned, ambient temperatures were in the mid 80° range today, so my battery was fairly warm regardless. I also do have optimized charging selected through the app.

It looks like my results are pretty typical for my situation. I guess I should not have been expecting higher charging speed considering my relatively high SOC.

Again, this was more of an experiment than anything, to prepare for a possible road trip on Saturday to Southern New Jersey. It seems like I should be more concerned about the reliability of the overall EA charging network and its charging stations, more than anything else! Yes, I have heard the EA infrastructure across the US is terrible at best, and more often than not, you will find broken, non-functioning chargers at many of these charging locations. There were a total of 4 350 kW chargers at this particular EA, charging location in Stamford, Connecticut. Of the 4, 3 were not working! There were another 4 or 5 150 kW chargers at the location, of which only one was not working.

fortunately, there was not a long line, and I did not have to wait at all to plug into any chargers. I am not sure what to expect if I go on this road trip on Saturday when I try to charge at an EA station down in southern. it could be a total shit show, and I could find myself in a potentially bad situation.

I have a few other cars I can drive instead of the Taycan, but I kind of would like to drive the Taycan on a road trip for the experience. We’ll see….

And yes, I do live in Greenwich, Connecticut. There are no shortage of high-end, luxury and sports cars in this town! I typically see at least four or five. Taycans every day, along with a ton of other fancy cars around town. It’s a great town for car spotting!

 

[Tooney]

Good that you are practicing charging at EA before your trip.
Some other road trip suggestions and resources in this post:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/first-long-trip.16176/#post-248963
Enjoy your roadtrip in your Taycan!
Let us know how it went.

 

[Horizontally Opposed]

I’ve been really happy with EA experience locally. Sometimes they are full, but it hasn’t been much of a problem.
The other day I went about 50 miles away to an appointment, and was early. I had several stops to make before heading home so I took a sip at an EA location.
It was one of the 150kw Max chargers. I was charging for 10 minutes, and went from 75-91%. Charging rate showed 100kw.
Here is the report:

 

[gtm]

... I am not sure what to expect if I go on this road trip on Saturday when I try to charge at an EA station down in southern. it could be a total shit show, and I could find myself in a potentially bad situation.

I have a few other cars I can drive instead of the Taycan, but I kind of would like to drive the Taycan on a road trip for the experience. We’ll see….

If you haven't already, look at PlugShare. You have multiple options for DC charging outside the EA network. Take the Taycan. It is a wonderful car for effortlessly eating up highway miles. You will arrive much less fatigued. A "potentially bad situation" is a remote possibility as far as charging goes.

 

[SteveDC]

Hey everyone. Thanks for your feedback regarding my first EA charging experience.

To answer a few questions off the bat, yes… I did have the app and navigation system direct me to the EA charging location, and therefore likely would’ve had a fairly preconditioned battery at the time of charging. That said, as someone else mentioned, ambient temperatures were in the mid 80° range today, so my battery was fairly warm regardless. I also do have optimized charging selected through the app.

It looks like my results are pretty typical for my situation. I guess I should not have been expecting higher charging speed considering my relatively high SOC.

Again, this was more of an experiment than anything, to prepare for a possible road trip on Saturday to Southern New Jersey. It seems like I should be more concerned about the reliability of the overall EA charging network and its charging stations, more than anything else! Yes, I have heard the EA infrastructure across the US is terrible at best, and more often than not, you will find broken, non-functioning chargers at many of these charging locations. There were a total of 4 350 kW chargers at this particular EA, charging location in Stamford, Connecticut. Of the 4, 3 were not working! There were another 4 or 5 150 kW chargers at the location, of which only one was not working.

fortunately, there was not a long line, and I did not have to wait at all to plug into any chargers. I am not sure what to expect if I go on this road trip on Saturday when I try to charge at an EA station down in southern. it could be a total shit show, and I could find myself in a potentially bad situation.

I have a few other cars I can drive instead of the Taycan, but I kind of would like to drive the Taycan on a road trip for the experience. We’ll see….

And yes, I do live in Greenwich, Connecticut. There are no shortage of high-end, luxury and sports cars in this town! I typically see at least four or five. Taycans every day, along with a ton of other fancy cars around town. It’s a great town for car spotting!

Early in my ownership I drove down interstate 95 from the mid Atlantic to northern Florida and back , charging at EA along the way without a hitch. It has been sort of downhill from there with EA. Sometimes plug and charge works great and I get a fast charge from lower SoCs . Other times, just last week actually, the charger won’t connect with the car — and these were with newer model chargers. So you never know, and it really degrades the driving experience, even at only maybe 8-10% failure rate —because you never know. The result is you build in a wide margin of extra charge, enough to try to reach the next charging station. It’s not good. Of course, the car itself is a hoot.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Funny to learn that my four sighting during a brief bike ride through Greenwich was merely the norm!

Discouraging to learn though that half of the Stamford EA chargers were broken. I had picked that location out previously during some trip planning as a possible charging stop since it has eight chargers instead of the usual four. Then again, that still provides four working chargers, which is far better than the typical EA station of four chargers with at least one broken.

Given your destination, if your Taycan has the 150kW/400v option, then download the Tesla app for Magic Dock stations along your route.
You’ll receive only 130s for kW, but reliably so (until you reach the SoC at which the charging curve is below that).
And highly unlikely to have to wait, or deal with broken charger problems.

If you do stick with EA, then don’t worry about the 150 vs 350. A properly functioning 150 will hit the 170s. A properly functioning 350 … well, if you do find that unicorn in NJ, either it’s your lucky day and you should play the lottery, or you used up all your luck and should shelter in place for the remainder of the day. But either way, the portion of the charging curve above the 170s won’t save you so much time that it’s worth waiting for a 350 to be available, switching chargers, etc.

Alternatively, if you want a NJ station with at least six 150kW chargers, the only other options are the Mt Laurel and Edison EVgo locations. Also note that many EA locations listed in PlugShare with more than four plugs are only for four drivers at a time, since those older stations have two cables per charger (typically a total of seven CCS1 plugs and one CHAdeMO plug) with the duplicative cables and plugs serving only as de facto backups for when its mates fail.

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