Roadtrip from Hove (Antwerp, Belgium) to Estepona (Spain) - +/-6000 kms

azzurra_jo

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As usual we went on a 6 week trip to Estepona this year. Big difference is that we no longer did it with our trusted Macan GTS but with our newly purchased Taycan. The trip was taken from mid May till end of June and we drove approximately 6000kms.

The trip took us from Hove in Belgium to Barcelona to visit some friends and from there to Altea to visit family. From there to Valencia, Almeria, Malaga, Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona. The return trip went over Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, Burgos, San Sebastian, Biarritz, Chinon and back home in Belgium.

The car behaved like a dream other than an AC sensor packing up leaving me with no AC in 31 degrees outside temperature. This however was quickly fixed by the Porsche Service Center in Puerto Banus. They even did 5 overnight updates to the car's software and completely cleaned it inside and outside. It was waiting for me in their showroom to shade it from the sun and all that was done with a smile, with a nice coffee and at no cost. Splendid service !

As far as charging is concerned there were more than enough fast charging poles on the highways in Belgium and France, mostly Ionity but also some Total Energies charging points. Most were running fine although not always at the charging rate proudly indicated on the charging stations. Sometimes the car GPS sent me to charging stations at the opposite driving direction of the highway so watch out for that.

On the way we also used some Porsche charging points at Porsche Centers. Mostly very friendly staff. I even got offered coffee at some locations. However the Porsche Center in Barcelona was an exception to this with lousy service. First they told us we couldn't charge at their station because it was reserved for them and their customers. (2 of their cars were full but still connected so the 2 charging stations were blocked). Upon my complaint they reluctantly freed up one station and then my Porsche Connect card didn't work but they offered to open it up to me if I paid 50 Euros for the charge. My battery was low so I had to accept and I paid, waited for 20 minutes for an invoice to be produced and then I could charge. So one advice : avoid the Porsche Service Center in Barcelona as they are arrogant and provide a far below standard service, unworthy of a Porsche Service Center. I hope someone from Porsche picks this thread up and takes appropriate action.

In Spain the situation was quite different. The fast charging stations, whilst more thinly spread over the highways (mostly Ionity), were far more thinly spread once off the highway, especially in Andalucia where we really had to drive a fair distance to find a fast charger and charge the car. The Iberdrola stations were not always reliable. Sometimes they accept Porsche Connect cards but sometimes not and sometimes the stations were even out of service. So there is still a big amount of work ahead to increase the density of the fast charging stations in the South of Spain, although to be honest I witnessed several times the building of additional loaders so progress is on the way.

We did several trips in the mountains to the white villages in Andalucia (Mijas, Ronda and so much more) with a fantastic Taycan. Just needed to get used to the width of the car. Beware of the narrow streets in these villages and little towns. Before you know it they become VERY narrow for a car like the Taycan. So the advice is to avoid drifting into back streets if you want to avoid scratching your rear view mirrors.

All in all a very pleasant trip with a wonderful car. We are already looking forward to next year.

Jo
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Did the Porsche Centre in Barcelona show up in the PCM (or MyPorsche app) as available for public charging? If it did/does then what happened to you is not acceptable. But I've noticed that not all Porsche Centre chargers show up as being available on the Porsche Charging Service.

They should of course all be available to Porsche owners 24/7 – but as discussed in other places on this forum – Porsche have missed an opportunity here and are slow to address it.
 
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azzurra_jo

azzurra_jo

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Did the Porsche Centre in Barcelona show up in the PCM (or MyPorsche app) as available for public charging? If it did/does then what happened to you is not acceptable. But I've noticed that not all Porsche Centre chargers show up as being available on the Porsche Charging Service.

They should of course all be available to Porsche owners 24/7 – but as discussed in other places on this forum – Porsche have missed an opportunity here and are slow to address it.
Yes it did show as available. It was very disappointing and downright unworthy of the Porsche Service name.
 

YLA G

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Have a nice vacation!

Been there multiple times
 

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As usual we went on a 6 week trip to Estepona this year. Big difference is that we no longer did it with our trusted Macan GTS but with our newly purchased Taycan. The trip was taken from mid May till end of June and we drove approximately 6000kms.

The trip took us from Hove in Belgium to Barcelona to visit some friends and from there to Altea to visit family. From there to Valencia, Almeria, Malaga, Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona. The return trip went over Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, Burgos, San Sebastian, Biarritz, Chinon and back home in Belgium.

The car behaved like a dream other than an AC sensor packing up leaving me with no AC in 31 degrees outside temperature. This however was quickly fixed by the Porsche Service Center in Puerto Banus. They even did 5 overnight updates to the car's software and completely cleaned it inside and outside. It was waiting for me in their showroom to shade it from the sun and all that was done with a smile, with a nice coffee and at no cost. Splendid service !

As far as charging is concerned there were more than enough fast charging poles on the highways in Belgium and France, mostly Ionity but also some Total Energies charging points. Most were running fine although not always at the charging rate proudly indicated on the charging stations. Sometimes the car GPS sent me to charging stations at the opposite driving direction of the highway so watch out for that.

On the way we also used some Porsche charging points at Porsche Centers. Mostly very friendly staff. I even got offered coffee at some locations. However the Porsche Center in Barcelona was an exception to this with lousy service. First they told us we couldn't charge at their station because it was reserved for them and their customers. (2 of their cars were full but still connected so the 2 charging stations were blocked). Upon my complaint they reluctantly freed up one station and then my Porsche Connect card didn't work but they offered to open it up to me if I paid 50 Euros for the charge. My battery was low so I had to accept and I paid, waited for 20 minutes for an invoice to be produced and then I could charge. So one advice : avoid the Porsche Service Center in Barcelona as they are arrogant and provide a far below standard service, unworthy of a Porsche Service Center. I hope someone from Porsche picks this thread up and takes appropriate action.

In Spain the situation was quite different. The fast charging stations, whilst more thinly spread over the highways (mostly Ionity), were far more thinly spread once off the highway, especially in Andalucia where we really had to drive a fair distance to find a fast charger and charge the car. The Iberdrola stations were not always reliable. Sometimes they accept Porsche Connect cards but sometimes not and sometimes the stations were even out of service. So there is still a big amount of work ahead to increase the density of the fast charging stations in the South of Spain, although to be honest I witnessed several times the building of additional loaders so progress is on the way.

We did several trips in the mountains to the white villages in Andalucia (Mijas, Ronda and so much more) with a fantastic Taycan. Just needed to get used to the width of the car. Beware of the narrow streets in these villages and little towns. Before you know it they become VERY narrow for a car like the Taycan. So the advice is to avoid drifting into back streets if you want to avoid scratching your rear view mirrors.

All in all a very pleasant trip with a wonderful car. We are already looking forward to next year.

Jo
We popped into both Valencia and Le Mans OPCs. They were excellent - super friendly - both gave us coffee and ice cold water - maybe Barcelona is an outlier
 


mcr21

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As usual we went on a 6 week trip to Estepona this year. Big difference is that we no longer did it with our trusted Macan GTS but with our newly purchased Taycan. The trip was taken from mid May till end of June and we drove approximately 6000kms.

The trip took us from Hove in Belgium to Barcelona to visit some friends and from there to Altea to visit family. From there to Valencia, Almeria, Malaga, Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona. The return trip went over Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, Burgos, San Sebastian, Biarritz, Chinon and back home in Belgium.

The car behaved like a dream other than an AC sensor packing up leaving me with no AC in 31 degrees outside temperature. This however was quickly fixed by the Porsche Service Center in Puerto Banus. They even did 5 overnight updates to the car's software and completely cleaned it inside and outside. It was waiting for me in their showroom to shade it from the sun and all that was done with a smile, with a nice coffee and at no cost. Splendid service !

As far as charging is concerned there were more than enough fast charging poles on the highways in Belgium and France, mostly Ionity but also some Total Energies charging points. Most were running fine although not always at the charging rate proudly indicated on the charging stations. Sometimes the car GPS sent me to charging stations at the opposite driving direction of the highway so watch out for that.

On the way we also used some Porsche charging points at Porsche Centers. Mostly very friendly staff. I even got offered coffee at some locations. However the Porsche Center in Barcelona was an exception to this with lousy service. First they told us we couldn't charge at their station because it was reserved for them and their customers. (2 of their cars were full but still connected so the 2 charging stations were blocked). Upon my complaint they reluctantly freed up one station and then my Porsche Connect card didn't work but they offered to open it up to me if I paid 50 Euros for the charge. My battery was low so I had to accept and I paid, waited for 20 minutes for an invoice to be produced and then I could charge. So one advice : avoid the Porsche Service Center in Barcelona as they are arrogant and provide a far below standard service, unworthy of a Porsche Service Center. I hope someone from Porsche picks this thread up and takes appropriate action.

In Spain the situation was quite different. The fast charging stations, whilst more thinly spread over the highways (mostly Ionity), were far more thinly spread once off the highway, especially in Andalucia where we really had to drive a fair distance to find a fast charger and charge the car. The Iberdrola stations were not always reliable. Sometimes they accept Porsche Connect cards but sometimes not and sometimes the stations were even out of service. So there is still a big amount of work ahead to increase the density of the fast charging stations in the South of Spain, although to be honest I witnessed several times the building of additional loaders so progress is on the way.

We did several trips in the mountains to the white villages in Andalucia (Mijas, Ronda and so much more) with a fantastic Taycan. Just needed to get used to the width of the car. Beware of the narrow streets in these villages and little towns. Before you know it they become VERY narrow for a car like the Taycan. So the advice is to avoid drifting into back streets if you want to avoid scratching your rear view mirrors.

All in all a very pleasant trip with a wonderful car. We are already looking forward to next year.

Jo
Agree on all points re. the charging network in France and Spain - could definitely be improved. Also had a good experience with Porsche dealership charging in Mallorca + friendly staff.

Seems like you had a fun trip!
 

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With regards to your bad experience in Barcelona with Porsche center, you should write to Porsche customer service through your Porsche app under account > Contact and help > and then there will be an email address depending on your home country which for me is Switzerland and therefore [email protected] (But get your native one instead).

Based on a conversation with an acquaintance who is a Porsche dealer in another country, porsche dealers have a *mandatory* install of fast chargers in their dealership agreement, otherwise they get less allocation for Taycan and other in-demand Porsche cars. This contract mandates that they provide “public access” to the chargers, including to electric vehicles that are not from porsche. I believe that in certain cases, Porsche even goes so far as to subsidise the cost of installing the fast chargers.

Long story short, Porsche takes the kind of experience you’ve had with the Barcelona dealer very seriously and you should do us all s favour and report it to Porsche, who I believe will maybe even reimburse you the €50 you paid, and most definitely issue a stark reminder to the offending dealer.
 
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azzurra_jo

azzurra_jo

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Agree on all points re. the charging network in France and Spain - could definitely be improved. Also had a good experience with Porsche dealership charging in Mallorca + friendly staff.

Seems like you had a fun trip!
Hi and yes it was a fun trip. We are planning on repeating this next year from mid May till end June. Andalucia is such a wonderful region especially at that time in the year when temperatures are still good.
 


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azzurra_jo

azzurra_jo

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With regards to your bad experience in Barcelona with Porsche center, you should write to Porsche customer service through your Porsche app under account > Contact and help > and then there will be an email address depending on your home country which for me is Switzerland and therefore [email protected] (But get your native one instead).

Based on a conversation with an acquaintance who is a Porsche dealer in another country, porsche dealers have a *mandatory* install of fast chargers in their dealership agreement, otherwise they get less allocation for Taycan and other in-demand Porsche cars. This contract mandates that they provide “public access” to the chargers, including to electric vehicles that are not from porsche. I believe that in certain cases, Porsche even goes so far as to subsidise the cost of installing the fast chargers.

Long story short, Porsche takes the kind of experience you’ve had with the Barcelona dealer very seriously and you should do us all s favour and report it to Porsche, who I believe will maybe even reimburse you the €50 you paid, and most definitely issue a stark reminder to the offending dealer.
Thanks for the advice. I will certainly do do.
 
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azzurra_jo

azzurra_jo

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With regards to your bad experience in Barcelona with Porsche center, you should write to Porsche customer service through your Porsche app under account > Contact and help > and then there will be an email address depending on your home country which for me is Switzerland and therefore [email protected] (But get your native one instead).

Based on a conversation with an acquaintance who is a Porsche dealer in another country, porsche dealers have a *mandatory* install of fast chargers in their dealership agreement, otherwise they get less allocation for Taycan and other in-demand Porsche cars. This contract mandates that they provide “public access” to the chargers, including to electric vehicles that are not from porsche. I believe that in certain cases, Porsche even goes so far as to subsidise the cost of installing the fast chargers.

Long story short, Porsche takes the kind of experience you’ve had with the Barcelona dealer very seriously and you should do us all s favour and report it to Porsche, who I believe will maybe even reimburse you the €50 you paid, and most definitely issue a stark reminder to the offending dealer.
Done
 

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I completely agree that your experience at the Barcelona Porsche Center is unacceptable. Also, may I suggest if anybody else is charging in Barcelona, to use Ionity in Pallejá or the 150kw Porsche Charger at Avenida Diagonal … bypassing any potential problems.
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