New Porsche Charging Lounge Experience by Out of Spec

[RingoDingo]

I for one would love something like this in the US along the key interstate corridors. Road trips would be far more enjoyable.

Yes. You get your Amex Platinum card, your CLEAR membership, you hit the Centurion Lounge on your way to PECLA to pick up your new Porsche EV and then on the way back you can hit every exclusive Porsche charging lounge as you roadtrip back home, likely seeing the same people you saw in the Centurion lounge. The upper class American dream!

Kidding aside, this would be a nice selling point/perk to get people to buy into EV ownership. Make something exclusive and they'll throw money at you to belong.

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[Tooney]

Yes. You get your Amex Platinum card, your CLEAR membership, you hit the Centurion Lounge on your way to PECLA to pick up your new Porsche EV and then on the way back you can hit every exclusive Porsche charging lounge as you roadtrip back home, likely seeing the same people you saw in the Centurion lounge. The upper class American dream!

Kidding aside, this would be a nice selling point/perk to get people to buy into EV ownership. Make something exclusive and they'll throw money at you to belong.

Had to look up what CLEAR membership and Centurion Lounges are. I haven't traveled in style like @RingoDingo does.....

 

[RingoDingo]

Had to look up what CLEAR membership and Centurion Lounges are. I haven't traveled in style like @RingoDingo does.....

You're CLEARLY missing out. I do travel a fair bit for work. Chase Sapphire is now opening its own very fancy lounges in various US airports to compete with AMEX, so using these types of lounges to lure in and keep customers loyal is a "thing".

 

[Genau]

That station did me right last summer, but I did have to switch chargers at least once leading to extra "overhead."

ABQ was hot garbage though, all the chargers were under-rated.
I tried two different units before giving up.

I did a quick forum search and couldn’t find the post, but I believe someone provided evidence that the CCS combo connector at DC fast chargers contains a temperature sensor, so when you’re experiencing throttling or failure charging in a hot location, you can apply a wet rag or ice pack to the connector body to fool the temp sensor and improve charging.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

I did a quick forum search and couldn’t find the post, but I believe someone provided evidence that the CCS combo connector at DC fast chargers contains a temperature sensor, so when you’re experiencing throttling or failure charging in a hot location, you can apply a wet rag or ice pack to the connector body to fool the temp sensor and improve charging.

To scale, reminds me a bit of college days when guys would replace fuses with nails to keep the power on..

 

[McgR]

I find joy in the reasonable expectation that a reasonably fast charger will be available within a reasonable waiting time.

I had a chat with the Porsche engineer at the charging lounge. He asked me about my positive and negative experiences with charging. My answer was the most negative experience is non functional and occupied chargers.

They expect low waitings times because it is exclusive for Porsche. Because of really fast charging most people should be charging there for 20 minutes max. They made those 20 minutes comfortable.

Getting out of the car without getting wet in the rain. Good clean restrooms, a place to sit and work or relax a bit, coffee, snack.

And you can’t do anything else at that location, which is good. Just charge and go. Some Ionity stations are at a malls or restaurant. Because charging time is not billed people just let their car charge to 100% and leave it until finished shopping / eating.

Because they made it exclusive to Porsche waiting should be short. If you have to wait for a Mach e, Ipace, eqc, … all slow chargers occupying the charger for 45 minutes you may wait a long time.

 

[snstevens]

^ All of that sounds good to me. Although I’m happy to settle for just the basics.

The other point about security is a good reminder that not every EV driver suffers from YMIS (Young Male Immortality Syndrome, which can persist into old age).

My first CCS1 DCFC session was at a single charger at the dark end of an empty parking lot at a closed gas station late at night on the outskirts of a rural town in far northern New England.
I amused myself by doing work on my laptop and pondering whether the seemingly abandoned car nearby might have a dead body in the trunk.
Had anything happened to me, my body would not have been found until another driver eventually pulled up to the charger.
But my YMIS made me regard this possibility as merely entertaining.

@Jonathan S. - You sound a little goofy to me - I like it!

While I understand you could handle the situation, and even find some humor in the thought of how long it would take to find your dead bod, I think there is a legitimate issue here regarding security and safety. I for one would love it if my wife and granddaughters had access to clean, well-lighted, high-speed charging stations.

As EV adoption expands, I think the need for this is going to increase exponentially. I'd love to see a Porsche Charging Lounge in every city, but I'll take alternatives like the Tesla SuC network if they become available.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Who me, a little goofy?

Seriously though, my wife would not have been comfortable waiting at that location. But I figured, eh, it’s still Vermont. Lack of bathrooms, whatever, just took a leak behind the charger. (Or maybe it was in front…)

Good point about the Porsche design providing amenities but deliberately not being adjacent to shopping etc so as avoid drivers who leave their vehicles idling while doing other things they came there for. Now let’s get some of those in the Northeast! Along I95 near NYC could be a candidate.

 

[Edward]

You're CLEARLY missing out. I do travel a fair bit for work. Chase Sapphire is now opening its own very fancy lounges in various US airports to compete with AMEX, so using these types of lounges to lure in and keep customers loyal is a "thing".

I'm surprised I haven't seen you at the AUS airport! I was a regular at the Austin Admirals Club for many years.

Re: Porsche charging lounge, I actually cannot see PCNA investing in this. The US is too vast a country for the utilization rate of such a facility to approach a reasonable ROI. Maybe near Atlanta to show off to PCNA HQ VIPs? Or in between PEC Atlanta and Barber Motorsports Park for Porsche Track Experience customers?

When I had a Taycan, the EA station at the Round Rock Outlet Mall was the closest to me. I'd pop by occasionally for a fast DC charge. It was never full, and many folks would just leave their cars there to go shopping.

 

[whitex]

The US is too vast a country for the utilization rate of such a facility to approach a reasonable ROI.

Exactly. Not enough Tyacans per square mile of the US. I have yet to come across a Porsche charging at EA, which is both included for free with all Taycans for 3 years, and one of the major DC charging providers. I drove home 3,500 miles across the country after picking up my Taycan from the dealer, saw only one Taycan on the highway in Atlanta, that's it - none at chargers I visited. I see some Taycans driving around where I live, but I guess Taycan owners don't usually DC charge near their homes. I haven't come across any Taycans at EA or hotel chargers I've visited so far.

 

[RingoDingo]

I'm surprised I haven't seen you at the AUS airport! I was a regular at the Austin Admirals Club for many years.

Re: Porsche charging lounge, I actually cannot see PCNA investing in this. The US is too vast a country for the utilization rate of such a facility to approach a reasonable ROI. Maybe near Atlanta to show off to PCNA HQ VIPs? Or in between PEC Atlanta and Barber Motorsports Park for Porsche Track Experience customers?

When I had a Taycan, the EA station at the Round Rock Outlet Mall was the closest to me. I'd pop by occasionally for a fast DC charge. It was never full, and many folks would just leave their cars there to go shopping.

Maybe you have and didn't know it. My travel has really picked up only in the past couple of years as I've gotten more involved in the industry/networking aspects of what I do.

I hear you about ROI. It would have to be a very niche product in very specific areas. However, there are a ton of Cayennes and Macans on the road in certain pockets such that, were they all EVs, it might make sense. Maybe one in between Dallas and Austin or Houston and Austin, for example.

I tried to park at that EA station once on the coldest, windiest day of the year last year just to experience the fast charging. Huge mistake.

 

[whitex]

MB throwing its hat into the ring:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...pen-its-first-charging-hubs-in-october.17112/

 

[DCYL725]

The company HAS to spend the money here as per their IPO prospectus.

The lounge is exactly what it is, a rest stop, like a business/First class VIP lounge prior to boarding a flight.

I'm going to deviate here a bit and tell you about my experience with Porsche Chargers here in the Middle Kingdom.

1. They don't make money even when charging 3x the electricity price of other DC chargers, it is here to sell cars. I know the amount needed per charging destination and did some easy math.
2. They charge max at 120KW, due to local regulations. Average is 75KW.
3. They are often set in pairs with at least one under repair (two chargers per designation point, with over 50% of the charge points having at least one charger under maintenance.)
4. Maintenace is horrendous as it is outsourced to a third party that likely is making very little money from servicing such small volume chargers.

So what's the final takeaway?

Enjoy the chargers as much as you can and KEEP complaining/asking for improvements, because it's a sign that a company cares about their customers.

I left the best for last:

5. A lot of the public chargers here are used by app taxi hail cabs that drive to earn, such that they maximize their earning potential by urinating around the charging vicinity to save time. Disgusting and dumb, I know, but at least they can't charge at Porsche Chargers. These guys have it rough, the best we can do is to be empathetic and find somewhere else to charge.

So, I hope that brings into view under better lighting the charging station in the video.

 

[snstevens]

A lot of the public chargers here are used by app taxi hail cabs that drive to earn, such that they maximize their earning potential by urinating around the charging vicinity to save time.

I haven't seen this but it sounds disgusting. I think this may be the biggest reason I've ever heard for having restroom facilities at charging stations.

 

[DCYL725]

I haven't seen this but it sounds disgusting. I think this may be the biggest reason I've ever heard for having restroom facilities at charging stations.

Charging actually will take at least 15+ minutes. You would think that was enough time to go to the proper bathroom.

You will unlikely to ever see this in the US or any developed nation as monetary penalties will be heavily enforced.

In China, local building management is not incentivized to do anything and just let things like this slide. There is a large gap between levels of civilized behavior, most evidently in the behavior of rural migrant workers and first-tier city residents

Major city underground parking lots with free parking when charging are the most prone to this type of vile behavior.

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