SWORDER
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2021
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- Location
- USA
- Vehicles
- 2021 Taycan Turbo S
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- #1
Sorry for the length of this rant. If you don't want to read it, I'm basically just asking if there're any short-term positive developments on the horizon that'll improve the public charging experience for Taycan owners.
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2021 Taycan Turbo S owner here...
I need to make a decision to either renew my lease on the existing vehicle, place an order for a new Taycan, or switch to Tesla and migrate back to Taycan in a few years when Porsche's charging infrastructure provides at least some minimal level of reliability.
It's such a difficult decision because the Taycan driving experience is phenomenal. It's the most enjoyable car ever. But Electrify America fails miserably on so many levels. It's by far the least reliable vendor in a notoriously unreliable industry. I truly loathe EA.
My complaints aren't unique. They've been documented by countless others on this forum:
• Inconsistent charging speeds; 150kW and 350kW chargers topping out at 40-50kW
• Frequently broken, offline, error messages
• Payment and protocol failures; In a bank of six chargers, it's not unusual for four or five to be out of order or just randomly fail mid-charge.
...and I'm not operating out of Gooberhead, Montana or some crazy remote area. I'm in San Diego, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, etc. -- cities where EVs are widely embraced.
I did my research on this forum prior to getting the car. I read that home charging is more than adequate for day-to-day use, but the Taycan may not be suitable for road trips.
My impression was that the public charging infrastructure was somewhat sketchy but was improving rapidly. So I knew what I was getting into. I only have myself to blame, but man, is it my imagination or does the public EV charging infrastructure actually seem to be getting worse with time?
Consider my main use cases: San Diego to Vegas (approx. 350 miles) and San Diego to Newport Beach (approx. 90 miles).
I can realistically expect to get only 160 miles on a charge, even with the more powerful battery. And yeah, I drive it in Sport Plus mode. That's fine. I knew the range sucked when I leased it but I guess I figured that there'd be at least some minimal number of working, reasonably fast (125kW+) chargers to balance the equation.
And there were, for a while. Between San Diego and Las Vegas, for example, there were solid EA chargers in weird little towns like Barstow and Hesperia that could deliver kWs in the mid 100's to low 200's. There were also some 150kW chargers in Baker via EVGo. But reliability started going down the toilet and as of now, the Barstow and Hesperia EA chargers are completely shut down.
There're now some solid EA chargers in Baker that'll put out 200+kW , but there's no way to make it from San Diego to Baker on a single charge, so I'm kind of screwed. There are some third party vendors like EVGo and ChargePoint that I'd be happy to use, but my experience and that of other PlugShare people is that few of them actually work. You basically have to wait for the one or two working chargers to become available and then get 50kW if you're lucky!
The public chargers at the rest stops have been vandalized or otherwise fallen completely into disrepair.
I can't even make the trip from San Diego to Vegas anymore in the Taycan. Well, I could, but it would be very long and very risky. I have to fly now.
My hope was that some of the EA charging locations that were taken offline were being "upgraded," since that's what's indicated on the PlugShare app. But I've found that "upgrade" seems to be a codeword for "abandoned" in EA parlance. Consider this EA charging station in San Diego at the UTC mall. Some EA employee wrote "upgrade" at the site, it was at one time posted to PlugShare with a "upgrade/maintenance" status, but it's been sitting idle since August of 2021. That's over eighteen months! They haven't even taken the plastic off the charging cords during that period. See pic below.
You might say, "Fine. Longer road trips specifically to Las Vegas are no longer possible for you but shorter ones to other CA cities should work." But even that's no longer viable. Consider a round trip from San Diego to Newport Beach. The EA in Newport has eight chargers and only two of them work. That's been the case for maybe six months. Now the site is shut down entirely, again for "upgrades."
There's a 6.6kW ChargePoint trickle-charger located in the upstairs parking lot of the Fashion Island mall. It's broken. Here's what someone wrote on it:
Notes like this, vandalizations, smashed plugs, and other misguided manifestation of EV-owner rage are becoming more common.
There's also a 50kW charger with a broken CCS handle. No one can use it. It's been like that for months. Which leaves one remaining 50kW ChargePoint charger at the mall, which occasionally does work, but when it does, it's almost always in use. There's a single offsite 50kW charger at the Newport Civic Center / Library that'll sometimes work. Had a forty-five minute chat with a homeless man last time I used it.
So, even a quick day trip to the Newport isn't really viable for me anymore. I did eventually find a 150kW EVGo charger located at an empty bowling alley in neighboring Irvine that has one working charger. The others are broken.
The public charging situation is looking really bleak for EV owners. Unless you're a Tesla owner. Those dudes seem to have no issues at all. Broken chargers aren't even on their radar as an area of concern.
All that said... Is there any good news on the horizon for non-Tesla EV owners? EA shows no signs of improving. They actually seem to be getting noticeably worse, and quickly. Other once-reliable vendors like EVGo and ChargePoint are letting their sites gradually fall into states of disrepair as well. What's the outlook for Taycan owners? Is it just a matter of, "Charge at home or don't charge at all and only use the vehicle for short in-town trips", or is there some light at the end of this dark tunnel?
----
2021 Taycan Turbo S owner here...
I need to make a decision to either renew my lease on the existing vehicle, place an order for a new Taycan, or switch to Tesla and migrate back to Taycan in a few years when Porsche's charging infrastructure provides at least some minimal level of reliability.
It's such a difficult decision because the Taycan driving experience is phenomenal. It's the most enjoyable car ever. But Electrify America fails miserably on so many levels. It's by far the least reliable vendor in a notoriously unreliable industry. I truly loathe EA.
My complaints aren't unique. They've been documented by countless others on this forum:
• Inconsistent charging speeds; 150kW and 350kW chargers topping out at 40-50kW
• Frequently broken, offline, error messages
• Payment and protocol failures; In a bank of six chargers, it's not unusual for four or five to be out of order or just randomly fail mid-charge.
...and I'm not operating out of Gooberhead, Montana or some crazy remote area. I'm in San Diego, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, etc. -- cities where EVs are widely embraced.
I did my research on this forum prior to getting the car. I read that home charging is more than adequate for day-to-day use, but the Taycan may not be suitable for road trips.
My impression was that the public charging infrastructure was somewhat sketchy but was improving rapidly. So I knew what I was getting into. I only have myself to blame, but man, is it my imagination or does the public EV charging infrastructure actually seem to be getting worse with time?
Consider my main use cases: San Diego to Vegas (approx. 350 miles) and San Diego to Newport Beach (approx. 90 miles).
I can realistically expect to get only 160 miles on a charge, even with the more powerful battery. And yeah, I drive it in Sport Plus mode. That's fine. I knew the range sucked when I leased it but I guess I figured that there'd be at least some minimal number of working, reasonably fast (125kW+) chargers to balance the equation.
And there were, for a while. Between San Diego and Las Vegas, for example, there were solid EA chargers in weird little towns like Barstow and Hesperia that could deliver kWs in the mid 100's to low 200's. There were also some 150kW chargers in Baker via EVGo. But reliability started going down the toilet and as of now, the Barstow and Hesperia EA chargers are completely shut down.
There're now some solid EA chargers in Baker that'll put out 200+kW , but there's no way to make it from San Diego to Baker on a single charge, so I'm kind of screwed. There are some third party vendors like EVGo and ChargePoint that I'd be happy to use, but my experience and that of other PlugShare people is that few of them actually work. You basically have to wait for the one or two working chargers to become available and then get 50kW if you're lucky!
The public chargers at the rest stops have been vandalized or otherwise fallen completely into disrepair.
I can't even make the trip from San Diego to Vegas anymore in the Taycan. Well, I could, but it would be very long and very risky. I have to fly now.
My hope was that some of the EA charging locations that were taken offline were being "upgraded," since that's what's indicated on the PlugShare app. But I've found that "upgrade" seems to be a codeword for "abandoned" in EA parlance. Consider this EA charging station in San Diego at the UTC mall. Some EA employee wrote "upgrade" at the site, it was at one time posted to PlugShare with a "upgrade/maintenance" status, but it's been sitting idle since August of 2021. That's over eighteen months! They haven't even taken the plastic off the charging cords during that period. See pic below.
You might say, "Fine. Longer road trips specifically to Las Vegas are no longer possible for you but shorter ones to other CA cities should work." But even that's no longer viable. Consider a round trip from San Diego to Newport Beach. The EA in Newport has eight chargers and only two of them work. That's been the case for maybe six months. Now the site is shut down entirely, again for "upgrades."
There's a 6.6kW ChargePoint trickle-charger located in the upstairs parking lot of the Fashion Island mall. It's broken. Here's what someone wrote on it:
Notes like this, vandalizations, smashed plugs, and other misguided manifestation of EV-owner rage are becoming more common.
There's also a 50kW charger with a broken CCS handle. No one can use it. It's been like that for months. Which leaves one remaining 50kW ChargePoint charger at the mall, which occasionally does work, but when it does, it's almost always in use. There's a single offsite 50kW charger at the Newport Civic Center / Library that'll sometimes work. Had a forty-five minute chat with a homeless man last time I used it.
So, even a quick day trip to the Newport isn't really viable for me anymore. I did eventually find a 150kW EVGo charger located at an empty bowling alley in neighboring Irvine that has one working charger. The others are broken.
The public charging situation is looking really bleak for EV owners. Unless you're a Tesla owner. Those dudes seem to have no issues at all. Broken chargers aren't even on their radar as an area of concern.
All that said... Is there any good news on the horizon for non-Tesla EV owners? EA shows no signs of improving. They actually seem to be getting noticeably worse, and quickly. Other once-reliable vendors like EVGo and ChargePoint are letting their sites gradually fall into states of disrepair as well. What's the outlook for Taycan owners? Is it just a matter of, "Charge at home or don't charge at all and only use the vehicle for short in-town trips", or is there some light at the end of this dark tunnel?
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