PEC LA to Seattle, WA over 4 days/3 nights - Taycan GTS delivery trip

[foofighter]

We got lucky to pick up our Taycan GTS from PEC LA right before the holidays. We have a newborn and brought her along with us. I used ABRP to sketch out the trip and PlugShare to check on chargers along the way. Being paranoid, I also signed up for EVGO, ChargePoint, and EVCS ahead of time just in case. We also packed a TeslaTap in case we needed to charge at a destination charger. Except for one, every place we stayed had AC chargers we could use overnight. The total trip was ~1300 miles, 3 nights (stayed near Santa Barbara; a little north of Santa Rosa, CA; and Bandon, OR).

TL;DR: We took 101 from LA to Astoria, OR. Then because of the ice storm had to take OR-30 to I-5 just north of Washington/Oregon border and I-5 all the way back. Surprisingly, we had no issues with Electrify America. We never saw a charge speed over 200kW, but with the baby we always ended up stopping for at least 30 minutes, which was plenty to get us to 85-90%. Most of the chargers put out ~100kW. There was one place where we only got 60kW, but it was still good enough for us to eat breakfast and make it to the next stop. We did check PlugShare and were a bit worried driving through the earthquake area around Eureka, but all was well.

Day 1: PEC LA -> Santa Ynez

PEC LA was great and I highly recommend it -- I'll need to make a separate post about that. We left around 2:30 pm from there to drop off the rental car and onto Santa Ynez. I thought the hotel there had EV charging, but they actually only had Tesla SuperChargers. Luckily, there was an Electrify America charger 14 miles away in Los Alamos and we went off there in the morning.

Day 2: Santa Ynez , CA -> Healdsburg, CA

We took 101 to San Jose, then 280 up to San Francisco, and back on 101 across the Golden Gate bridge after meandering through the city. We stopped to charge twice: Los Alamos in the morning and Salinas in the afternoon. At Los Alamos was our first time charging and we weren't sure what to do. We noticed that of the 4 chargers, we couldn't get more than 60kW from any of them. In retrospect, I wonder if our battery temperature had something to do with it. We settled on one of the chargers after trying all of them and charged to ~85% while eating breakfast.

At Salinas Walmart we managed to get close to 200kW and charged faster than we expected. We also learned that Walmart is great for diaper changes for the baby. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we charged overnight at the hotel in Healdsburg, CA.

Day 3: Healdsburg, CA -> Bandon, OR

We took 101 the whole way and planned to charge in Garberville, CA and Eureka or Crescent City. Unfortunately, there was an earthquake a couple of days before us and Electrify America app showed the chargers offline in both Eureka and Crescent City. We saw that someone reported both of them working 12 hours before us on PlugShare and decided we'll use Shell Recharge in the worst case.

The Garberville, CA charger worked well -- we got ~100kW and charged within 30 minutes, but unfortunately picked up a screw in the front tire there. We discovered that leaving the charging station and pulled over. Luckily, the screw plugged the hole and I could use the compressor to get it up to ~30 PSI and it held (phew!). There was no signal there and the closest reasonable town was 70 miles away -- Eureka. We hoped the tire would hold up and were impressed that it did. I really didn't want to use the tire plug approach, but at least it was an option.

All the tire shops in Eureka were slammed and we had to wait a couple of hours, but they squeezed us in and patched the tire (we were lucky the puncture was right in the middle). We left for Crescent City at 4:30 pm -- much later than anticipated and hoped to make it to Bandon by 9 pm. Stopped at the Eureka Walmart charger and two of them were actually working (so don't necessarily trust the EA app!). We charged one more time in Crescent City just in case there was an issue at the hotel. Made it there by 9 pm and no one was using the only hotel EV charger (woot!). We had about 40% battery at that point, but it was nice to start the next day with a 90% charge.

Here is the car at the tire shop. Still feel lucky it wasn't worse!

Day 4: Bandon, OR -> Seattle, WA

we planned to take 101 through Oregon to Washington and cut over to I5 by Olympia. We knew there is a snow storm coming down and we didn't have chains, so avoided taking I5 earlier through Redding. Most of the routes from the Oregon coast to I5 also go through higher elevation and would require chains. I hoped going up to Astoria would avoid all that.

We made it to Newport, OR without any issues and the EA charger there worked fine as well (again, ~100kW). Then we drove to Astoria and charged by Fred Meyer with the same result. We were hoping that would be enough to get home. Unfortunately, the bridge from Astoria was closed because it iced over. Then OR-30 was closed because of downed power lines and got reopened at 5:30 pm. It was a little icy/snowy, but we didn't have any issues despite only having all season tires. We did drive slower, but the car handled well. We charged one last time in Washington where we got ~200kW at an EA charger in Lacey and that was enough to get us home.

 

[GoDucksYellO]

Sound like a great trip! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Genau]

We never saw a charge speed over 200kW,

Thanks -- it's always interesting to read about long distance Taycan adventures. Regarding the limited charging rate, was battery saving enabled in your PCM?

 

[VA_CT]

Congrats on your purchase! Nice write up.. Hats off for doing an EV long trip with newborn and glad it went uneventful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Genyosai]

Thanks -- it's always interesting to read about long distance Taycan adventures. Regarding the limited charging rate, was battery saving enabled in your PCM?

First, @foofighter -- congrats on the Taycan purchase. Congrats again on the long-distance delivery. We just did a 5,500mi round trip from SC to MD to AZ to SC.

*NOTE* I don't have a Taycan, I have an e-tron GT. But, still.

Now, in regards to charging speeds, did you use Carplay/Android Auto for navigation vs the Porsche built-in Navi/route planner? I see that you used ABRP to plan stops. I do the same in my GT, but I actually plug the charging stops recommended by ABRP into the built-in Navi as waypoints/stop-overs (because the built-in route planner isn't the best at choosing only EA stations).

The car won't precondition the battery when we use CarPlay/Android Auto vs the built-in route planner, at least that's been my experience. Once I started using the built-in Navi, I almost always get 268kw+ all the way to 50% depending on the SoC when I arrive at the charger.

So, again, congrats on the purchase!

Let us know if you used the built-in Navi or CarPlay/Android Auto. This will also make the difference in your charging speeds. Even on a 150kw stall, if you use the built-in Navi you're likely to get 170kw out of that stall provided it's working as advertised.

--Nick

 

[foofighter]

Thanks -- it's always interesting to read about long distance Taycan adventures. Regarding the limited charging rate, was battery saving enabled in your PCM?

Good point! We do have this turned on, which probably explains why we only got ~200kW at most.

Now, in regards to charging speeds, did you use Carplay/Android Auto for navigation vs the Porsche built-in Navi/route planner? I see that you used ABRP to plan stops. I do the same in my GT, but I actually plug the charging stops recommended by ABRP into the built-in Navi as waypoints/stop-overs (because the built-in route planner isn't the best at choosing only EA stations).

The car won't precondition the battery when we use CarPlay/Android Auto vs the built-in route planner, at least that's been my experience. Once I started using the built-in Navi, I almost always get 268kw+ all the way to 50% depending on the SoC when I arrive at the charger.

Thanks for this! We used the Porsche navigation but it didn't always select the same stops for charging. I did figure it out toward the end of the second day and the third day, but I don't remember if we added all the charging points in the route. That's probably another plausible explanation. I'll try to remember to do this in the future.

Do you know how long before arriving at the charger precooling/heating has to be turned on? I think there is a manual option to do it, but we never enabled it. In the end 100kW was always fast enough because we'd still have to stop and change the baby and usually the car waited for us to finish.

 

[Genyosai]

Do you know how long before arriving at the charger precooling/heating has to be turned on? I think there is a manual option to do it, but we never enabled it. In the end 100kW was always fast enough because we'd still have to stop and change the baby and usually the car waited for us to finish.

I'm not 100% certain at what point preconditioning begins. For some reason I have it in my head that it starts ~30min before the estimated arrival time to the charging station.

As far as a manual option to start preconditioning, that's pretty cool if Taycan has this. My e-tron GT does not have a manual preconditioning feature.

 

[PNWTaycan4S]

Congrats! We take the 101 Oregon Coast / Olympia route over the Astoria Bridge regularly between Manzanita and Seattle. It's a lovely curvy two-lane drive along Willapa Bay and through the forest. By setting up your stops in the navigation, you'll often get 250 KW (at a 20% state of charge) to start at the 350 KW on that route. Enjoy your new toy!

 

[SlipAngle]

Congrats on the car and what sounds like a fun trip! I just drove from Atlanta to Universal Studios for Christmas (~450 miles). During my trip, I was definitely getting 266kW charging speeds at EA stations. From reading the forums and trying it for myself on this trip, I think the best way to get those speeds is to first use ABRP to plan the trip (and any alternatives in case the EA station is not working) then use Google Maps/Waze/favorite app to actually navigate you to the station.

Around 30 minutes away from the station, I switched to the Porsche Navigation. There's a tab in that section that will look for charging stations (it's the symbol that looks like a EA station). I believe I have mine set to only find charging stations with a minimum charge speed of 250kW. The navigation then will list the EA stations that are nearby and I've always been able to select the one I'm heading to with this method. When the Porsche navigation is used, it will time the preconditioning of the battery so that you get maximum charging speed. Obviously, the correct station has to be selected as it is trying to time the preconditioning.

Also, I had deselected, "Battery-saving fast charging" to get the fastest speed.

By the way, I don't think we can manually start preconditioning the battery. I have a 2022 4S with the latest uPdates and haven't seen this option.

 

[Cwood#44]

Thanks -- it's always interesting to read about long distance Taycan adventures. Regarding the limited charging rate, was battery saving enabled in your PCM?

Thanks for this. I had that ticked on during a 5000 Km (3106 Mi) road trip from Collingwood to Treasure Island Florida in November. Going to Florida again in February will make certain this box is left Un-Ticked.

 

[foofighter]

By the way, I don't think we can manually start preconditioning the battery. I have a 2022 4S with the latest uPdates and haven't seen this option.

I think I misinterpreted the preheat/cool option on the charging screen. I thought it conditions the battery, but looks like it's only for the internal climate.

 

[whitex]

Nice @foofighter! Looking forward to maybe seeing your GTS around. I have not seen almost any Taycans around yet.

I wanted to do this trip myelf but the dealer where I found my car on the east coast said it would delay my delivery by 2-3 months to have it delivered in PECLA, so I went for picking it up there and shipping the car instead. I am still thinking whether or not I would like to drive the car coast to coast. I've driven similar routes in ICE and Tesla, but given it's winter time, and the car would not have any of the radar/laser countermeasures installed yet, windows would not be tinted yet, EA is always a question mark, so really not as keen on the idea. PECLA would have been a great trip, probably could do it in ~2 days, one night (I've driven from Northern California to Seattle in a single shot in the past, with some naps in the car along the way - with an EV you can nap while charging, as I've done when traveling in a Tesla). I got about a month to decide whether or not to undertake such a long drive in a brand new Taycan - it would definitely be a nice way to get to know the car, but could turn into a nightmare.

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