Is it easy to charge at Electrify America charging station?

[iSTATUS]

Hi All - I have my home charger setup at the house, so I haven't been to an EA station. I'm going to give it a try tonight. How easy is the charging process with the Porsche app + Plug & Charge activated? Do I have to enter the charging station ID into the app or it charges automatically? Trying to see if I need to do any setup in the app prior heading over to the charging station. Thanks

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[SergeyIndy]

This is what I did to test it out at an EA station near by:

1. Make sure all services are active including Plug & Charge checked.
2. Use Charge Planner to enter EA station as destination and note HV battery temp before start driving to the station so you can monitor if it is heating up as you navigate to it.
3. Then just Plug a working EA station cable and then I saw messages on the EA station screen about contacting, negotiating, and approving charge.
4. Then the charge started with nothing to press on the EA station, App, or Car.

I do like Spot On videos from Porsche as they show step by step. This is the closest one I found, but I am sure, there is one on Plug and Charge specifically.

 

[REIL]

This video describes the process for Electrify America plug & charge beginning at 4:50. Hope it helps.

 

[Teufel Hund]

[/QUOTE]

Hi All - I have my home charger setup at the house, so I haven't been to an EA station. I'm going to give it a try tonight. How easy is the charging process with the Porsche app + Plug & Charge activated? Do I have to enter the charging station ID into the app or it charges automatically? Trying to see if I need to do any setup in the app prior heading over to the charging station. Thanks

The key will be finding a charger that actually works. When it works it CAN work very well and very fast. It’s frustrating to arrive, start the process just to have it fail and then have to move stations…… IF another is available. When the station cooperates Plug n Charge can be great.

 

[IonFlow]

I’ve had my CT for 2 weeks and took it to the only EA facility for miles around (Columbus OH) for its 2nd charge. I set the nav to take me there and apart from the initial hesitancy for a first time user it was a breeze. Plugged it into a 350kw power unit, waited for about 45 secs for initialization and then pressed “start” on the EA unit. 28 mins later the vehicle had gone from 18% to 80%. Pressed “stop” on the EA unit and drove away. For me it truly was plug and play with no issues whatsoever.

 

[iSTATUS]

Thanks all. So anything over 30 mins will be charged to my CC on file in the Porsche app? What if i don't put my cc info in the app? Does EA know to stop charging?

 

[IonFlow]

Thanks all. So anything over 30 mins will be charged to my CC on file in the Porsche app? What if i don't put my cc info in the app? Does EA know to stop charging?

You can’t use the EA system without your CC info in the app, not even for the free 30 mins. The exception is if you are set up directly in EA’s own app but thats not a requirement. Yes - over 30 mins and it will charge your card for the extra time. Each charging cycle is recorded in the app (charging > transactions) as shown below …

 

[Tucson_Jim]

Agree with ionFlow. Plug in (no phone app interaction or plug identification needed if you're registered). Wait for connection. Press "Continue". Charge. Press "stop" when done. I just completed a 2,200 mile road trip. EA charger sites had between 50% and 100% of chargers "working" with about a 75% overall average. Found one 350 kWh Hyper unit that only charged at 65 kWh, even though everything looked ready to use. Called EA and was told that unit was "under maintenance" and the output ratcheted down. No indication on the unit that there was anything wrong.

Lesson 1: If one charger is giving you significantly lower than expected kWh, try another one.

Lesson 2: The charge time difference between a 350 and a 150 kWh unit amounted to only a few minutes. Regardless of 350 or 150, my turbo pulled a max of 170 at the low end of the SoC range but quickly settled into the 120's, tapering back gradually as the SoC approached 80%.

 

[Tucson_Jim]

Thanks all. So anything over 30 mins will be charged to my CC on file in the Porsche app? What if i don't put my cc info in the app? Does EA know to stop charging?

If you're set up on the EA app, they already have it. Exceeding 30 minutes was seamless for me, although some stations showed a $ charge building from the start and applied a credit for the first 30 minutes during the wrap up.

 

[JRNJTAYCAN]

Thanks all. So anything over 30 mins will be charged to my CC on file in the Porsche app? What if i don't put my cc info in the app? Does EA know to stop charging?

It is VERY easy, just pull up and plug into your car.....nothing else! As to the time, I charge to 29 mins and stop, if I did not hit 85% I unplug and connect until I hit 85%. This way you will not be charged for going over 30 mins.

BTW I am in NJ as well.

On a side note, all the chargers I have used in NJ are very slow. Even if it is a 350kw station I normally only get 50 to 90kw at a time. It must be a NJ thing.....I have not had this issue charging out of my area.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Two q's that are perhaps addressed elsewhere, but even if so, might as well include them here also:

1. Can battery temperature preconditioning for DCFC be achieved manually, or only via navigating to a DCFC station? (My wife's i4 has such a feature, although the first model year lacked it.)
2. If I include the battery temperature in the configurable right instrument cluster, what temperature range indicates that preheating has been achieved? (I found another thread that cited 90F, translated into Freedom Unit from the original subversive metric.)

 

[Jonathan S.]

It is VERY easy, just pull up and plug into your car.....nothing else! As to the time, I charge to 29 mins and stop, if I did not hit 85% I unplug and connect until I hit 85%. This way you will not be charged for going over 30 mins.

BTW I am in NJ as well.

On a side note, all the chargers I have used in NJ are very slow. Even if it is a 350kw station I normally only get 50 to 90kw at a time. It must be a NJ thing.....I have not had this issue charging out of my area.

Is this also the case with the East Brunswick location?
I've been scouting out EA stations for an upcoming Amherst MA <> Milton DE trip, and the East Brunswick station looks like a rare EA success story.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Is this also the case with the East Brunswick location?
I've been scouting out EA stations for an upcoming Amherst MA <> Milton DE trip, and the East Brunswick station looks like a rare EA success story.

Last week I traveled fairly widely in Northeast and almost always ran into EA issues: dead units; very slow charging; extremely busy (I am talking about you Newburgh, NY!). Once I had so many problems at an EA locale (with 8 chargers!; wow) that I went to EVgo and happily paid for a problem-free charge....please, Lord, give us broader access to Tesla chargers!

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Amen brother, I too am praying for universal CCS1 access to those ~12k Tesla V3 250kW Superchargers!

I've had good CCS1 DCFC experiences so far with my wife's i4, but I've always been just one or two cars away from getting skunked -- as bad as EA stations are with the four chargers (of which at least one is inevitably broken), the competition is mainly just clusters of just one or two chargers.

 

[blueslite]

If the plug and charge does not work, start the charging from the Porsche app and then plug it in

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