satchurator

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Back in September I purchased the new Porsche Wall Charger Connect, Porsche's new 80A hardwired level 2 EVSE.

I've been upgrading my garage ahead of my CT4 delivery, and have had plenty of time to plan out the PWCC installation. Getting quotes from competent and reliable electricians has been challenging - it took five quotes and multiple ghostings to get to the electrical install which was completed today.

For reasons I'll explain below, I decided to proceed with the mounting portion of the PWCC install myself, leaving the electrical portion to be tackled by a professional.

I'm sharing photos and lessons-learned here so that it might help others plan their installs and/or to show their electrician what's involved in the mounting.

Your Home's Electrical Capacity

It's important to note that in the US, because this is an 80A device, the PWCC needs to be hardwired to a 100A circuit. Your home will need to have enough capacity in its supply amperage to allow your electrician to add a 100A circuit dedicated to the PWCC. If your home has insufficient capacity (e.g. some older construction homes might only have a 100A total supply drop) then you will either need to upgrade your home supply drop to 200A or compromise on a lower amperage EVSE.

Choosing The Mounting Location

Hardwiring to a 100A circuit presents some factors in choosing a mounting location for your PWCC. There might be physical constraints in the routing of heavy gauge supply cable, and proximity to the main panel / cable run length will affect the cost of the project.

It's also worth noting that the PWCC's vehicle cable is 14.8 feet (4.5m) long. Consider the cable's reach. Will you park your Taycan nose-in or nose-out? Will there be another EV sharing the PWCC? Where is the charge port on that car?

In my case, I have a two-car garage and will be using the PWCC primarily for my Taycan, but want to have the option of charging a future second EV on the other side of the garage. This, combined with ease of access for a 100A supply cable means that the ideal mounting point for my PWCC is centered on the rear garage wall.

One bit of self-inflicted complexity - the target mounting location is covered by a Proslat slatwall system. For aesthetics, I want my PWCC mounted flush on top of the slatwall. However, the Proslat slatwall is hollow extruded PVC, with too much flex to support the PWCC. As you'll see, I tackled this by adding plastic spacers/standoffs so that the PWCC could be torqued down nice and tight. Not part of a typical install.

Unboxing

1. The PWCC ships in a large box - approximately 34x15x19 inches.

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall1


2. Contents
A cardboard template for locating the wall fasteners.
The PWCC itself and vehicle cable / J-1772 connector.
Owners Manual / Installation Instructions
Warranty
Duct Seal compound.
Envelope containing WiFi SSID, login credentials and MAC addresses for the WiFi, Power Line and vehicle network adapters.
Small bag of parts (some, but not all of what is required for the install).

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall5


3. Notable Details About The PWCC Enclosure

The installation instructions require that the supply cable enters the unit via metal conduit. There are two options for the point of entry, left-of-center top and bottom. The electrician is expected to cut at two points: coping saw or knife on the U-shaped breakthrough point on the exterior shell and holesaw through the chassis interior. Hidden beneath the breakthrough area, there is a target divot in the enclosure interior for a holesaw pilot bit.

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall6


The PWCC chassis has four screw bosses - 12cm (4.7 inch) hollow pillars that receive the wall fasteners. Other than for reachability with driver/wrench, I don't understand why these bosses were designed to be so high. However it explains why the installation instructions call for very long 200mm (7.9 inch) M8 flat head fasteners. They need to be flat head in order to mate with the provided rubber seals. Metric M8x200mm fasteners are hard to find in the US. The closest US size equivalent is 5/16 inch diameter. In my case, I found very nice fasteners online at McMaster-Carr.

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall7


Mounting

Beneath the slatwall, I have 5/8 inch thick gypsum drywall over 16” spaced vertical wooden studs. With the mounting template, I centered the PWCC over a wooden stud, and also drilled for toggle bolts on the sides. I used plastic decking spacers as standoffs to allow a firm but flush seating over the slatwall.

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall8

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall9

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall10


Electrical Install

The electrical install plan was to add a 100A circuit, and run about 40 feet of 2-AWG supply cable from my main panel to a small breaker / disconnect box. And from the disconnect, 3-AWG wire through 1.25" metal conduit into the PWCC. I really appreciated that my electrician was willing to measure carefully for the supply cable point of entry, location of the disconnect enclosure and bending the conduit to have everything visually centered.
Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall11

Holesaw entry point for the 1.25" metal conduit​

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall12

2-AWG Supply Cable Added To Main Panel​

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall14

1.25" Metal Conduit With S-Bend Aligned To Center of PWCC Unit​

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall15

Breaker/Disconnect As Junction For 2-AWG Supply and 3-AWG Wires to the PWCC​

Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install PWCCMountInstall16

The Completed Install​

Happy with the result! Now all I need is a Taycan to charge it with! Fingers crossed for delivery before US Thanksgiving.

Lessons Learned

RTFM - I've found that despite providing the PWCC manual, which includes very detailed installation instructions, most of the electricians I engaged for quotes didn't bother to look at it, or didn't catch important details. I recommend you take the time to read and comprehend the Installation Instructions section in order to hold the electrician accountable for quoting and executing on a proper install. You don't want an issue with warranty down the road, or worse - a denied insurance claim due to an electrical install that deviated from the manufacturer's requirements. You should also highlight the mounting hardware needs so that your electrician knows this ahead of the install.
 
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Dan1923

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You didn't mention it but did you order your car with the optional 19.2KW charger? The standard 9.8KW charger will only draw 40 amps no matter what the charger is capable of delivering.

In any case hope your CT4 makes it her soon! I'm waiting on a 4S that's due here in January and am having the mobile charger receptacle installed in a couple of weeks.
 
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satchurator

satchurator

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You didn't mention it but did you order your car with the optional 19.2KW charger? The standard 9.8KW charger will only draw 40 amps no matter what the charger is capable of delivering.

In any case hope your CT4 makes it her soon! I'm waiting on a 4S that's due here in January and am having the mobile charger receptacle installed in a couple of weeks.
Yes indeed - I ordered the 19.2kW charger option. Car has since arrived and I’m able to get close to the full 80 amps draw. The PWCC worked flawlessly on first attempt. Very happy so far.
Porsche Taycan Porsche Wall Charger Connect | Unbox & Install 08D9B14C-C75F-4ECB-857B-F9A6FF930BBB
 

Jhenson29

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What power do you see on the actual car while charging?
 


madeyong

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Yes indeed - I ordered the 19.2kW charger option. Car has since arrived and I’m able to get close to the full 80 amps draw. The PWCC worked flawlessly on first attempt. Very happy so far.
08D9B14C-C75F-4ECB-857B-F9A6FF930BBB.jpeg
Wow. Awesome. 1.26kWh delivered in 4 minutes of charging translates into 18.9kW if I’m doing my math right. Great.
 

madeyong

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That says remaining charging time.
Apologies you are correct. I made an assumption without zooming in that it was like the PMCC. That’s cool that it communicates the remaining time. AFAIK the PMCC cannot do that.
 


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satchurator

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Apologies you are correct. I made an assumption without zooming in that it was like the PMCC. That’s cool that it communicates the remaining time. AFAIK the PMCC cannot do that.
That number was going up minute by minute - I think it’s a UI localization issue, from observing, seems to be time elapsed on the charging session.
 
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What power do you see on the actual car while charging?
@Jhenson29 This was a quick run just to share the photo. Didn’t think to capture the car’s view before this session hit the general profile’s 85% min. I’ll grab both next session for the comparison.
 
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satchurator

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How much did the electrician charge out of curiosity?
Thanks.
I got multiple quotes, some as low as $1000, and one that was over $3000, not including the cost of the PWCC unit itself.

In the end I went with the most expensive quote because they were the only firm that was willing to RTFM, grok the very prescriptive installation instructions and engage with me fully on details that mattered to me. I’m pretty sure some of the lower quotes would not have passed inspection and would have faced scope/cost increase to remedy.

For other readers, keep in mind:
  • This was in the northeast USA.
  • Cost of parts, particularly copper cable has varied greatly recently due to supply chain challenges.
  • 100A disconnects and breaker boxes are surprisingly expensive for what they are.
 

madeyong

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@Jhenson29 Here you go: 79.6A draw at the PWCC, 17.9kW at the car.
D7C1188C-A4C2-4AB1-BB45-4721B142A708.jpeg
F3B68D36-97A5-471E-9A5D-6B08D00EA85D.jpeg
That is a beautiful sight for a home charger! Congrats. Those numbers make sense to me. On my PMCC I usually see the EVSE delivering anywhere from 0.8kW to 1.3kW more than what the car says it’s accepting into the battery. I assume that is attributed to thermal dynamics/general power loss, heat pump, fans, etc. Your numbers show the EVSE pumping out a little over 19.1kW at 240V vs. the 17.9kW the Taycan is taking in.
 

Jhenson29

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@Jhenson29 Here you go: 79.6A draw at the PWCC, 17.9kW at the car.
Thanks. I have an 18kW EVSE and see between 16.8 and 17.2 at the car and was just curious what you saw with a proper 19.2kW EVSE. I probably would have gotten the Porsche one had it been out at the time.
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