Need help locating DC fast charger

Dave T

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I've had my Taycan about a month and next week will be making my first trip where I will need to top off the battery. With all the time I've spent on this forum, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still not sure I understand the best way to find a charging station. If there's a road warrior out there who wants to advise me - I'll be going round trip from Manchester, MA to South Gardiner, ME. What's the best app to use to find charging stations? Free charging at a Chargepoint station would be nice, but I'd choose convenience and reliability over cost - it's a long trip and I don't want to go out of my way just to save a few bucks. Plus I've heard so many horror stories of failed charging sessions at Chargepoint stations.

Should I try to find a station with a lot of chargers? Is there an app that shows how many chargers there are at a station?

Should I even bother with having the car try to find the charging station?

Can I use Tesla stations if I get a TeslaTap?

Another stupid question - I see CHAdeMO stations - are those compatible with the Taycan?
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Dave T

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Found the answer to one of my questions - TeslaTap is only for AC (L2) charging. I just ordered the 80 amp TeslaTap, but that won't help me for this trip...
 

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Download the PlugShare app and you can use it to figure out what chargers work in places you are going.

On your PC, you can use https://abetterrouteplanner.com to plan stuff. When I looked at it, that site is conservative, but you can set different flags to find different sorts of stations.

CHAdeMO is not compatible with the Taycan, and anywhere that has it probably has CCS also that will work with the Taycan in the US.

So you are looking for minimum 150kW CCS charging stations (all 150kW stations in the US will be CCS anyway).
 

evanevery

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I've had my Taycan about a month and next week will be making my first trip where I will need to top off the battery. With all the time I've spent on this forum, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still not sure I understand the best way to find a charging station. If there's a road warrior out there who wants to advise me - I'll be going round trip from Manchester, MA to South Gardiner, ME. What's the best app to use to find charging stations? Free charging at a Chargepoint station would be nice, but I'd choose convenience and reliability over cost - it's a long trip and I don't want to go out of my way just to save a few bucks. Plus I've heard so many horror stories of failed charging sessions at Chargepoint stations.

Should I try to find a station with a lot of chargers? Is there an app that shows how many chargers there are at a station?

Should I even bother with having the car try to find the charging station?

Can I use Tesla stations if I get a TeslaTap?

Another stupid question - I see CHAdeMO stations - are those compatible with the Taycan?
1. Use ABRP (A Better Route Planner - Web and/or App) to plan your route and charging stops...

2. Use PlugShare (Web and/or App) to confirm quantity/size/number/status of chargers at your selected stops. It will also show/allow you to check in each station and note the condition and utilization of the chargers. (IOW: Feedback from real users)

3. Use Electrify America App to double check FREE charger locations. Set up an account and you can also activate their charge points without having to rely on "Porsche Connect" or "Charging NA" which are riddled with bugs and extremely unreliable...

4. Use Porsche Connect or Charging NA to activate your free charging sessions. (Good Luck!) If you have an issue with the Porsche Apps call Electrify America, explain your situation, and they will likely activate a free charge for you. ...or just use the EA app and pay the price to skip all the headaches!

* If you are traveling in an area with a relatively dense distribution of chargers I think you can just let the car choose the stations. However, it doesn't always make "reasonable" choices. If you are on an extended trip, you will want to use ABRP to figure out where you are going to stop, your desired charge levels, distances, etc.

* You can't use Tesla SuperChargers with the tap but you can use lower power Tesla Destination Chargers at Hotels, etc. Keeping a TeslaTap and a portable charger in the car (with plug adapters) is always advised for road trips. I use the Mustart TravelMaster Charger.

* You can't use CHAdemMO connectors. I'm not sure anyone even makes an adapter.

Go out and run a test charge so you know what works and what doesn't. You don't want to be figuring this out at Zero-Dark-Thirty some morning on your first trip. You need to establish a process YOU are comfortable with.
 


evanevery

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Thanks everyone!

Looks like this station will work:
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?charger_id=6398181

There are some gripes regarding it on Plugshare, hopefully I don't have any issues.

Ed - I went ahead and ordered the Mustart Travelmaster. Thanks for the referral!
You might want to include the Nema 6-50 (Drier) cable accessory as well. I think it comes with a Nema 10-50 (RV, Welder) and a standard 120V plug but the 6-50 is also fairly common. I also just ordered a Nema 10-30 cable as well since the home I will be visiting next week (700 mi ea way) has a 30A drier plug...
 
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louv

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There are two EA stations along your route. Seabrook, NH and Scarborough, ME. You probably don’t even need the Seabrook station

In the car, enter the final destination. The car should then find stations along the way.

Do you have the Porsche “Charging NA” app? That app is used to activate the session.
Depending on when you are traveling, I could meet you at that station.
 
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Dave T

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There are two EA stations along your route. Seabrook, NH and Scarborough, ME. You probably don’t even need the Seabrook station

In the car, enter the final destination. The car should then find stations along the way.

Do you have the Porsche “Charging NA” app? That app is used to activate the session.
Depending on when you are traveling, I could meet you at that station.
Thanks Don! I'm thinking I'll hit the Scarborough station on the way back. Likely late Monday afternoon. Have you used that station? Looks like it's at a Wallmart? Hoping we can get some eats nearby while charging.
 


louv

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Thanks Don! I'm thinking I'll hit the Scarborough station on the way back. Likely late Monday afternoon. Have you used that station? Looks like it's at a Wallmart? Hoping we can get some eats nearby while charging.
Yes. It’s at a WalMart. It is the ONLY ElectrifyAmerica station in Maine. So, yes, I’ve used it. It’s only 7 miles from where I live.

You might not have time for a meal. Your car could be recharged in 30-40 minutes. :)

There’s a charger in the Gardiner Service Plaza (where 295 rejoins 95). It’s a little harder to find... you have to follow the exit signs, the it’s in the Employee parking lot.
 

evanevery

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Thanks everyone!

Looks like this station will work:
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?charger_id=6398181

There are some gripes regarding it on Plugshare, hopefully I don't have any issues.

Ed - I went ahead and ordered the Mustart Travelmaster. Thanks for the referral!
Also, you can push down that charger location to your Nav System using Porsche Connect. I can't get the app (Android) to run at all (it crashes EVERY time I try to "explore" for chargers) but the Web Version seems to work "occasionally".

Anyway, log on to the "My Porsche" portal

Click on "Service Overview" (under your car)

Hopefully you will see "Navigation Plus" in one of the service boxes. (Note that sometimes you don't see any boxes. If this happens make sure the login portal didn't misdirect you to the wrong country. Sometimes I get sent to the UK. Make sure you are logging in to the USA site. If not log out and try again.)

Once you click on Navigation Plus you should see a map. Click on Add Destination and type the address for the desired charging station. Make sure you mark it as a "FAVORITE" before you save it. The location will be transferred to your car!

BUT! You are not done yet! (More Porsche Software Crappiness!)

Now go into your car and pull up that "favorite" in the Nav system. Even though it is the EXACT address of a charging station, you will have to select the option to "Find Nearby Charging Stations" and then select "Porsche Charging Services". Once you have done this, you can mark THAT NEW address as a favorite and discard the one you sent from the web.

You can obviously do this whole exercise from the car but if you are loading a bunch of charging locations for a longer trip its nice to have the benefit of a mouse and keyboard. Just don't forget you have to "convert" them to actual CHARGERS from inside the car!

UPDATE: Although either "favorite" will get you to the desired address, the REASON you need to CONVERT the address is so the Nav system understands this is a charger. Otherwise, it may (inexplicably) route you to some OTHER charger miles away. As log as your "favorites" are known to be charging locations then the Nav system SHOULD use them as a charging stop (and also pre-warm your battery for optimum charging speed etc).
 
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Dave T

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Yes. It’s at a WalMart. It is the ONLY ElectrifyAmerica station in Maine. So, yes, I’ve used it. It’s only 7 miles from where I live.

You might not have time for a meal. Your car could be recharged in 30-40 minutes. :)

There’s a charger in the Gardiner Service Plaza (where 295 rejoins 95). It’s a little harder to find... you have to follow the exit signs, the it’s in the Employee parking lot.
Ha. Well we will be hungry anyway. Is there a restaurant in walking distance? Or we could try Gardiner if that's more meal friendly. Looks like that's a 62kw station?
 

evanevery

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There are two EA stations along your route. Seabrook, NH and Scarborough, ME. You probably don’t even need the Seabrook station

In the car, enter the final destination. The car should then find stations along the way.

Do you have the Porsche “Charging NA” app? That app is used to activate the session.
Depending on when you are traveling, I could meet you at that station.
I'm sure Don knows this but be aware that the current version of the Porsche Charging NA app will not activate 350KW chargers. All it does is list 150KW chargers instead. (Porsche knows about this) This might not be a big deal but it could help avoid some confusion...

I've been told that the Porsche Connect app will activate them but it crashes EVERY time I try to show any chargers on my Phone (Android 10). They key to activating chargers from Porsche Connect is to use the little "explore" button (lower left) to bring up the map and then click on the "pin" icon (upper left) to display chargers. I understand you should then be able to click on a charging location at that point and activate a particular charger...

I would encourage you to try both methods even if the first one works for you. You will want to know whats working and not working on your phone/app/operating system for future reference. I have Android and its pretty obvious Porsche is taking better care of its IOS customers... :(
 
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louv

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Ha. Well we will be hungry anyway. Is there a restaurant in walking distance? Or we could try Gardiner if that's more meal friendly. Looks like that's a 62kw station?
Yes. There are a couple of sit-down chain restaurants there. Red Robin is one I think.
 

louv

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I'm sure Don knows this but be aware that the current version of the Porsche Charging NA app will not activate 350KW chargers. All it does is list 150KW chargers instead. (Porsche knows about this) This might not be a big deal but it could help avoid some confusion...

I've been told that the Porsche Connect app will activate them but it crashes EVERY time I try to show any chargers on my Phone (Android 10). They key to activating chargers from Porsche Connect is to use the little "explore" button to bring up the map and then click on the "pin" icon to display chargers. I understand you should then be able to click on a charging location at that point and activate a particular charger...
I just checked... (iOS) I can see both 350kW stations in Scarborough.

Porsche Taycan Need help locating DC fast charger 35C461BA-848D-479C-A6CB-2879BA314F7B
 
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Dave T

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Ed - I'm trying to follow your instructions. If I go to "Service Overview" on the My Porsche website, the only services it shows are "Charging at Home", and "Online Software Update". No "Navigation Plus". Thoughts?

Also, I don't see any pin icon when viewing a map in Porsche Connect...
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