For a new Taycan driver, how important is using the Connect app?

[Tooney]

I will be picking up my Taycan later this week. This is my first EV and first Porsche.

Following @W1NGE ‘s advice:

Don't accept delivery of the car unless you can log into the car with your Porsche Connect ID and the app can pick up your car - insist on it.

my SA and I spent a couple hours today ensuring that I can log into the car with my PorscheID and my wife’s PorscheID (secondary). We also set things up so that the connect app on both our phones can communicate with the car and Porsche’s servers. Finally managed to get 360-degrees of “green” as connection status on apps on both phones. (Doing this with primary/main account was relatively fast, but getting things working with wife’s secondary account and phone took two hours more.)

After getting the phones, apps, car, and servers to communicate with each other, my question is:

What functions require a Taycan driver to use a cellphone and/or the connect app?

From what I have learned in the forum so far, a Taycan driver must have a phone:

--To use DC fast charging services other than EA plug and charge

--To do route planning during road trips with apps like A Better Route Planner, PlugShare, and other non-Porsche apps (because Porsche route and charging planning system is insufficient.)

It appears that except for the charging service, the other 15+ connect services either can be managed from the PCM, or are “nice to have” remote info/control app functions that are useful features but not absolutely necessary to use the car.

What am I missing?

My reason for asking is I want to start by focusing on the essentials of operating the car, including home and away from home charging, and not get buried in figuring out how to use and troubleshoot the connect app.

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[jontybutts]

Don’t bother with it currently, I can’t remember the last time I used it.
You will make your life less stressful by ignoring it ever existed.

 

[Mike in CA]

I wouldn't stress over it. Become familiar with your car and its other features, and spend a little time with the App when it's convenient, just to check it out. It has some features that I find useful from time to time but it's not something I constantly depend on. BTW, I have had no problems with it.

 

[W1NGE]

I will be picking up my Taycan later this week. This is my first EV and first Porsche.

Following @W1NGE ‘s advice:



my SA and I spent a couple hours today ensuring that I can log into the car with my PorscheID and my wife’s PorscheID (secondary). We also set things up so that the connect app on both our phones can communicate with the car and Porsche’s servers. Finally managed to get 360-degrees of “green” as connection status on apps on both phones. (Doing this with primary/main account was relatively fast, but getting things working with wife’s secondary account and phone took two hours more.)

After getting the phones, apps, car, and servers to communicate with each other, my question is:

What functions require a Taycan driver to use a cellphone and/or the connect app?

From what I have learned in the forum so far, a Taycan driver must have a phone:

--To use DC fast charging services other than EA plug and charge

--To do route planning during road trips with apps like A Better Route Planner, PlugShare, and other non-Porsche apps (because Porsche route and charging planning system is insufficient.)

It appears that except for the charging service, the other 15+ connect services either can be managed from the PCM, or are “nice to have” remote info/control app functions that are useful features but not absolutely necessary to use the car.

What am I missing?

My reason for asking is I want to start by focusing on the essentials of operating the car, including home and away from home charging, and not get buried in figuring out how to use and troubleshoot the connect app.

It is not an essential tool for daily use of the car and more of a convenience as and when it is working.

The hard part has been done and that is to ensure your Porsche Connect IDs are live and that you now have them entered into the car ( I assume with auto login enabled to make drive and go seamless).

Suggest experimenting with the app (and the new My Porsche) - you may get lucky and LTE connection permitting experience few if any glitches.

It is useful for configuring your charging process - profiles and timers - but all of this can easily be achieved within the PCM and so there are generally multiple ways and places to do the same thing.

If you have Porsche Vehicle Tracking System (PVTS÷) then the app is useful for alerts and for enabling / disabling modes (valet, geofence, transport etc) which can't be done without the app or using the My Porsche website.

I can't comment on the requirement or not to have it for EA as we don't have that here in Europe (we have Ionity as the equivalent and optionally are provided with Taycan RFID Charge Card).

Route planning is available from the app but the set of charging stations is limited so experiment with that. Obviously more is available via Nav on the PCM plus you have Google.

Other options are available e.g. ABRP but I've never had to use anything other than NAV (with Porsche Charging Planner and Porsche Intelligent Range Manager) or the app - everyone's experience is different and all things can be improved upon.

Remember to link your Apple ID for both music and podcasts.

In respect of the 4 green quadrants the minimum you need is 3 and typically can ignore the bottom right one (connection to PCM) as this can only ever be used and a connection established whilst in the car and serves only to sync calendar appointments (I've never used it).

Enjoy!

 

[whitex]

Does the Porsche phone app allow you to pre-heat the car remotely? That has been be the most used phone app feature on all our Teslas.

 

[Jhenson29]

Does the Porsche phone app allow you to pre-heat the car remotely? That has been be the most used feature on all our Teslas.

Yes, you can select “climate” from the top of the app and then hit “start”. You can also adjust settings. See below.

Is that what you’re looking for?

 

[whitex]

Yes, you can select “climate” from the top of the app and then hit “start”. You can also adjust settings. See below.

Is that what you’re looking for?

Yes, thanks. I suspect this will be the most used phone app feature for Porsche too, definitely so if my wife ever gets one.

Out of curiosity, does the app show you the car's and your location on the same map, so you can use it to find your car if you forgot where you parked it?

 

[Jhenson29]

Yes, thanks. I suspect this will be the most used phone app feature for Porsche too, definitely so if my wife ever gets one.

Out of curiosity, does the app show you the car's and your location on the same map, so you can use it to find your car if you forgot where you parked it?

I’ve never looked. It appears so below. I usually use the “last place parked” on my iPhone maps for that though.

Looks like I have quite a hike back to the car! ? (I’m out of town).

 

[DANgerous]

TLDR; car is amazing without it!

Apparently it isn’t available in my country so I can’t use it anyway… but the car works wonderfully and is amazing to drive without it. So I guess I won’t miss what I’ve never had…

One thing I do want, and I think is related, is for each key to be associated with a different user to remember settings in the car. Apparently that’s not available in my country and I believe relates to being able to log in.

 

[Max Attack]

Scandinavian view: for a year-round daily drive that does not always reside in a warm garage and does not have a fixed drive schedule, the ability to pre-heat (or during the few hot summer days, pre-cool) and schedule pre-heat/charging on the fly is very important. Charging here does not require (or seem to substantially benefit from) this app.

Some things to consider:

- Unfortunately the Connect app hasn't been completely reliable to actually connect to the car in all circumstances. There has been reports in this forum about problems with Porsche servers preventing connection, as well as faults with the car internal LTE comm module (warranting a module change), and speculations that in some circumstances the car might cut 12V power resulting in the comm module also being shut down and thus preventing App to actually connect. Have had a few times with no connection myself, so here's hoping Porsche can sort these issues out with updates.

- There has also been speculation that app releated things might have something to do with some cars experiencing car alarm going off repeatedly, for no reason. These claims have not been substantiated and might be co-incidental, but some users have reported that false alarms seem have stopped going off after uninstalling the app.

- A different App called My Porsche has been rolled out officially in some countries, in some cases asking the user to delete the Connect App so that the two apps coexisting doesn't create problems. My Porsche seems now to be available in App Store (iPhone) and Play Store (Android). With My Porsche you can do same stuff than with Connect, such as pre-heat/pre-cool and location, destination, but at the moment some functionalities such as routes are missing that are available in Connect. I guess the word is that My Porsche App is the one for the future, and that it will eventually replace the Connect App. This remains to be seen. Both Apps use and require the same Porsche ID.

And oh yes, there is also a My Porsche website with some functionalities, that you can use with a browser. The look of the website is more geared towards desktop/pad use in my opinion, but can be accessed with a phone browser (such as Safari, Chrome ie.) as well.

 

[kailifish]

Yes, thanks. I suspect this will be the most used phone app feature for Porsche too, definitely so if my wife ever gets one.

Out of curiosity, does the app show you the car's and your location on the same map, so you can use it to find your car if you forgot where you parked it?

It does, the location of the car refreshes quite quick too. Source: I used it to chase down my car in a cab when it was being towed ?

Answer to OP:
I believe the most useful use case for the App would be
- monitor charge/stop charge remotely
- monitor location/ and also send you alarms etc (got one when they towed my car)
-lock/unlock remotely when you forgot your key

sometimes i totally forgot about the app for weeks.

Question for all:
Would you guys renew your subscription after the free period runs out? I believe its 3years after delivery. To you, are the above features worth the extra dough?

 

[Max Attack]

Question for all:
Would you guys renew your subscription after the free period runs out? I believe its 3years after delivery. To you, are the above features worth the extra dough?

Yes they are.

But to me, the most important feature is the pre-heat/pre-cool. With a few phone clicks 15 min before, you can make sure that the car interior is already at a pleasant temperature by the time you sit inside, no matter where or when you go. It's a feature that once you get used to it, there's no going back.

Of course, for an owner that only starts the car from a heated/air-conned home garage for a sunday drive, this is not important at all. But to me it is.

 

[W1NGE]

Yes, thanks. I suspect this will be the most used phone app feature for Porsche too, definitely so if my wife ever gets one.

Out of curiosity, does the app show you the car's and your location on the same map, so you can use it to find your car if you forgot where you parked it?

Yes it does but it can be incorrect (depends on the reliability of the connection and frequency of updates to the central servers). In my case there has often been quite a lag - sometimes measured in days and in '00s of miles (honest). The same implementation on my Panamera (old tech now) was always 100% accurate (and reliable) not sure why the Taycan implementation has been such a lottery.

In principle if offers these things but the achilles heel appears to be the connectivity from the car to Porsche servers to your phone and generally the weakest link is the one to the car unfortunately.

 

[W1NGE]

Yes they are.

But to me, the most important feature is the pre-heat/pre-cool. With a few phone clicks 15 min before, you can make sure that the car interior is already at a pleasant temperature by the time you sit inside, no matter where or when you go. It's a feature that once you get used to it, there's no going back.

Of course, for an owner that only starts the car from a heated/air-conned home garage for a sunday drive, this is not important at all. But to me it is.

To be clear - it will not work if the car can't be contacted (weak LTE connection) or the car is in an underground car park and there is no reception.

 

[W1NGE]

It does, the location of the car refreshes quite quick too. Source: I used it to chase down my car in a cab when it was being towed ?

Answer to OP:
I believe the most useful use case for the App would be
- monitor charge/stop charge remotely
- monitor location/ and also send you alarms etc (got one when they towed my car)
-lock/unlock remotely when you forgot your key

sometimes i totally forgot about the app for weeks.

Question for all:
Would you guys renew your subscription after the free period runs out? I believe its 3years after delivery. To you, are the above features worth the extra dough?

Probably and reluctantly but I'm on a 2 year refresh so will never actually pay to renew separately.

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