Setting up 80-100A home charging: Porsche charger vs Lucid Home Charger

Which charger would you recommend?


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Slappy_G

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Hey guys,

I'm currently getting quotes for electricians to do a subpanel run to my garage. I will have the option to wire up to a 100A run (80A charger) and am considering the 2 listed above. I have seen some people saying to avoid the Porsche wall charger, but many of those complaints are from 1-2 years ago.

2 main questions:
  1. Which would you recommend and why?
  2. Can these chargers be limited to charge speed via apps (not having to open up and change switches, etc)? It'd be nice to be able to only use max charge speed when really needed.
Thanks a ton!
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Hirschaj

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As the weather is warming up again the complaints about the Porsche EVSE are coming back. I think it’s still good advice to use anything but the Porsche EVSE.
 

DougFrisk

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As the weather is warming up again the complaints about the Porsche EVSE are coming back. I think it’s still good advice to use anything but the Porsche EVSE.
The 19.2 KW Porsche wall charger isn't the mobile charger, and oddly enough, it's not overpriced compared to other options.
 

optik382

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https://enphase.com/store/ev-chargers/commercial-ev-chargers/cs-100

This one is a zero-nonsense (no adjustable rates etc. as far as I know) simple, reliable product. They just work. It's expensive but you'll have an industrial-grade charger that works with almost every vehicle out there. I saw the Porsche one says "enhancements by online software upgrades." For me that is a "no thanks, i just want the charger to charge." I realize there are good reasons to have adjustable rates, but simplicity wins for me.
 

Mr. 2021 Taycan

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The Porsche Mobile Charger Connect is a waste of money. It fails to support it's 40 AMP specification. Porsche remotely downgraded it's software via WiFi. You can manually set it to 40 AMPS each time you use it, but it errors out if it thinks it is "too" hot. Porsche has left buyers in the lurch here.

Porsche has another hard wired (not portable) charger that may not have this issue.

Many other portable and hard wired charges exist and should be evaluated.

By the way, there is no particular value in having a charger that is Wi-Fi enabled. It makes no practical difference. You plug in the cable and the battery will charge until it reaches the percentage of charge you set in the car itself. There is no need to query an app other than that for the Taycan itself.
 


DougFrisk

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By the way, there is no particular value in having a charger that is Wi-Fi enabled. It makes no practical difference. You plug in the cable and the battery will charge until it reaches the percentage of charge you set in the car itself. There is no need to query an app other than that for the Taycan itself.
Your utility is the reason for having a networked charger. A charger with OCPP can be enabled/disabled as part of demand response by your electric provider and may give you a lower rate because of that.
 

daveo4EV

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Hey guys,

I'm currently getting quotes for electricians to do a subpanel run to my garage. I will have the option to wire up to a 100A run (80A charger) and am considering the 2 listed above. I have seen some people saying to avoid the Porsche wall charger, but many of those complaints are from 1-2 years ago.

2 main questions:
  1. Which would you recommend and why?
  2. Can these chargers be limited to charge speed via apps (not having to open up and change switches, etc)? It'd be nice to be able to only use max charge speed when really needed.
Thanks a ton!
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...uide-to-the-porsche-evse-pmc-pmcc-pwcc.13886/

In North America Porsche EVSE offerings are crap regardless of their price - they demonstrably lack compatibility with other EV's and Porsche doesn't care

the correct answer is _ANY_ EVSE other than Porsche.

personally I'd get something like the Tesla J-1772, ClipperCreek, Wallbox EVSE's that can share load such that when you need to add a 2nd EVSE that you then just add the 2nd one and pair it with the 1st one and they dynamically split/share the single breaker load to allow seamless fuss-free charging of multiple EV's.
 

Mr. 2021 Taycan

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Your utility is the reason for having a networked charger. A charger with OCPP can be enabled/disabled as part of demand response by your electric provider and may give you a lower rate because of that.
Good to know for those who have utility companies that support demand response. Mine does not.
 


Hirschaj

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The 19.2 KW Porsche wall charger isn't the mobile charger,
Neither is the PMC+ but it’s still a pile of garbage. Porsche EVSEs = 💩
 
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Slappy_G

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https://enphase.com/store/ev-chargers/commercial-ev-chargers/cs-100

This one is a zero-nonsense (no adjustable rates etc. as far as I know) simple, reliable product. They just work. It's expensive but you'll have an industrial-grade charger that works with almost every vehicle out there. I saw the Porsche one says "enhancements by online software upgrades." For me that is a "no thanks, i just want the charger to charge." I realize there are good reasons to have adjustable rates, but simplicity wins for me.
I did see this one, and I was considering it, but wasn't sure how reliable it was. I should have stated one of my requests more clearly above:

I don't care about apps/wifi/etc. But, my max capacity to the garage is a 100A subpanel. I'd like to be able to have a 14-50 outlet with a 40-amp charger for my wife's Audi, and a 100A hardwire for my car.

I know I cannot run them both at max capacity with a 100A panel max, so I was hoping I could run the high power one at 40A normally, and only punch it up to 80A when I need the speed. At such times, only the Taycan would be charging, so I would not exceed the panel capacity. The ultimate solution would be a dual-vehicle 80A charger, but it seems no one makes those anymore.
 

satchurator

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satchurator

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Porsche has another hard wired (not portable) charger that may not have this issue.

Many other portable and hard wired charges exist and should be evaluated.
FWIW my 80A PWCC has been rock solid for 1.5 years - with my Taycan. However it has compatibility issues with my wife's Audi Q4. It'll charge the Q4 but it cycles through some errors before getting going.

It is explicitly known that the PWCC does not have the overheating issue that affects the PMC+ and PMCC - providing it was installed correctly.

By the way, there is no particular value in having a charger that is Wi-Fi enabled. It makes no practical difference.
PWCC shortcomings aside, the wifi benefits supposedly are:
  • Reports charging sessions back to your My Porsche account.
  • Firmware updates (I've witnessed exactly 1 update in 1.5 years)
  • Connectivity for the HEMS for load/tariff management and solar etc. The HEMS is not available in the USA.
There are other EVSEs that make better use of their wifi connectivity.
 

daveo4EV

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I did see this one, and I was considering it, but wasn't sure how reliable it was. I should have stated one of my requests more clearly above:

I don't care about apps/wifi/etc. But, my max capacity to the garage is a 100A subpanel. I'd like to be able to have a 14-50 outlet with a 40-amp charger for my wife's Audi, and a 100A hardwire for my car.

I know I cannot run them both at max capacity with a 100A panel max, so I was hoping I could run the high power one at 40A normally, and only punch it up to 80A when I need the speed. At such times, only the Taycan would be charging, so I would not exceed the panel capacity. The ultimate solution would be a dual-vehicle 80A charger, but it seems no one makes those anymore.
if you get two EVSE's that support "shared" load (like clippercreek, Tesla J-1772 Wall Charger, or Wallbox) you can have each of them support up to 80 amps - or they will automatically "adjust" lower when both eV's are charging)

I highly recommend two EVSE's configured to share a 100 amp breaker - it's the best of both worlds and you can run both at once and get split loads, or one at a time and get "full" load.
 

Mr. 2021 Taycan

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FWIW my 80A PWCC has been rock solid for 1.5 years - with my Taycan. However it has compatibility issues with my wife's Audi Q4. It'll charge the Q4 but it cycles through some errors before getting going.

It is explicitly known that the PWCC does not have the overheating issue that affects the PMC+ and PMCC - providing it was installed correctly.



PWCC shortcomings aside, the wifi benefits supposedly are:
  • Reports charging sessions back to your My Porsche account.
  • Firmware updates (I've witnessed exactly 1 update in 1.5 years)
  • Connectivity for the HEMS for load/tariff management and solar etc. The HEMS is not available in the USA.
There are other EVSEs that make better use of their wifi connectivity.
Thank-you for the clarification. My Porsche Mobile Charger Connect is connected to a service that is 100% to specification. I initially set the PMCC to 40 AMPS and it worked for 18 months without issue, until Porsche remotely updated the software. The software now forces the unit to 20 AMPs on each startup. When I manually set it to 40 AMPS (an unnecessary requirement), I now get errors during charging (that I never received prior to the software update). There is no excuse for this except that Porsche is trying to avoid liability by down rating their product below specification.
 

satchurator

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Thank-you for the clarification. My Porsche Mobile Charger Connect is connected to a service that is 100% to specification. I initially set the PMCC to 40 AMPS and it worked for 18 months without issue, until Porsche remotely updated the software. The software now forces the unit to 20 AMPs on each startup. When I manually set it to 40 AMPS (an unnecessary requirement), I now get errors during charging (that I never received prior to the software update). There is no excuse for this except that Porsche is trying to avoid liability by down rating their product below specification.
Agreed - I also own a PMC+ and while it isn't wifi connected, it's subject to the same recall. Also of note - my wife's Audi Q4 EVSE is almost identical to the PMC+ and came pre-hobbled with the same limitation. It is often overlooked that the PMC+, PMCC, PWCC and the Audi sibling EVSEs are all produced by a third party - Katek/eSystems. While one could argue that Porsche is culpable, the entire VAG is affected by their partner's flawed design.
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