Stranded!

MWarsaw

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I just took mine on it’s first long trip. Went 185 miles to the first destination non stop. Everything was awesome. Kept it at 72MPH and efficiency was great. After the first stop with four people and about 100lbs in the trunk, I had around 65 miles left of range. So, around 250 miles of real range loaded. Fantastic. But then, I went 30 miles more miles to an Electrify America charging station. The first two chargers could not connect (not clear if they couldn’t connect to the car or to the cloud). Then, I couldn’t get the plug out of the car. I have no idea why. My car was not turned “off” so maybe that was it? I turned it off and locked the doors. Still couldn’t get the plug out so I had to go to the emergency release inside the passenger door opening. Pulled the string and released the plug. It came out just fine. I tried a third high speed charger there and plugged everything in. This time there was a red light on the button in the charging port on the car. The message in the car was “impossible to charge”. Now, I had 30 miles left and no way to charge. Electrify America said that the chargers tested out fine on their end (but I don’t trust they know what they were talking about from the comments of the operator on the phone). I then called Porsche roadside assistance. NO HELP in terms of trouble shooting. All they know how to do is call tow trucks (which they did). Again, no trouble shooting in the “good to know” app, no tech team to call on the road. Only result was to wait 2 hours for a tow, find a rental car and trust that the tow truck driver get the car safely on the flat bed and hauled 2 1/2 hours back to my dealer. By the way, the tow truck driver had no idea how to put it in gear or set it to Park (I gave a full tutorial, believe me!). When it got to the dealer, all they were told to do is clear the faults and then it took the high speed charge just fine. I had the car by the end of the next day. But Porsche and the dealer have no idea. Was it the charger, the car? Who knows? What happened? One question is when you have a fault like that (with the red ring lighting up), is there a way to clear the faults “out in the field” or reboot the car so you can try to charge somewhere else? I realize everything is new and problems will happen. As early adopters, this is our risk. But, we should have a tech team to be able to call. Shouldn’t there be a 24/7 roadside assistance team for Taycan while there are bugs to be worked out? Unfortunately, I’m now not enthusiastic about taking this car on a long trip (which I really hate feeling that way). What do you think? Shouldn’t there be more of a 24/7 call line for Taycan emergencies? What do you think happened?
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daveo4EV

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Electrify America sucks! have a backup plan - let Porsche know how happy you are with EA
 

T-Fury

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Sorry to hear about your trip @MWarsaw! I agree with you--why not have a specific helpline for Taycan owners? Worst case scenario the problem can't be fixed, but at least it gets logged and Porsche learns something about pain points with the Taycan. I think if Porsche and the Volkswagen Automotive Group are serious about electrification it would be helpful to have something like this so the wheel doesn't need to be re-invented each time a new model comes out. Having purchased an Audi e-Tron and watched that forum for a year it has been a little disappointing to see so many of the same issues pop up on the Taycan forum. It's almost like they don't talk to one another, which maybe they don't. Presumably when we take our issues to the dealer or call Porsche it gets filed somewhere--just hopefully not in the trash!
 

LonePalmBJ

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...
Then, I couldn’t get the plug out of the car. I have no idea why. My car was not turned “off” so maybe that was it? I turned it off and locked the doors. Still couldn’t get the plug out so I had to go to the emergency release inside the passenger door opening. Pulled the string and released the plug. It came out just fine. I tried a third high speed charger there and plugged everything in. This time there was a red light on the button in the charging port on the car. The message in the car was “impossible to charge”.

What do you think happened?
This came up a couple of months ago. Plagiarizing @andyxxl :

Page 85 from this manual:
Performing an emergency release of the electric charge port door After an emergency release, the vehicle can only be charged using alternating current (AC). Fig. 55: Emergency release of the electric charge port door 1. Remove the emergency release tool from the tool kit. 2. Guide the metal hook of the emergency release tool behind the charge port door cover. 3. Position the emergency release tool and pull to loosen the charge port door from its anchor. 4. Carry out charging. 5. Place the charge port door cover on the anchor and push until it engages securely to close it. To have the unlocking mechanism of the charge port door checked: Visit a qualified specialist workshop. Porsche recommends a Porsche partner as they have trained workshop personnel and the necessary parts and tools.

My assumption is that this is a safety measure; that Porsche doesn't want 800V/350A flowing into a potentially damaged charge port, so they require a check and reset by a dealer. I realize the text above speaks to the charge port door itself but I imagine it applies equally to using the emergency pull to release the plug. I'm sure it is theoretically possible for an individual to clear the error through some combination of keypress cheat code or maybe an OBDII control, but if there is I've never heard of it.
 
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Reg

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This came up a couple of months ago. Plagiarizing @andyxxl :
Thanks for posting this.

It is the sort of thing that should be far more visible in the manual. I would have thought of this just like releasing the cover for a gas tank - never even thinking that it had significant implications.
 


louv

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Procedure to clear all non-fatal faults:
1. Turn off car
2. Lock car
3. Take key out of range of the car
4. Wait for 15 minutes
5. Return to car & Unlock

Any faults that can be cleared will be.
 

redrocket

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Electrify America sucks! have a backup plan - let Porsche know how happy you are with EA
I’m not going to drive any car on a trip that depends on EA for me to get the destination. Will take our ICE Bimmer for now, but maybe one day before the Taycan becomes an antique, EA will get their act together.

I am starting to long for my MS that I no longer have, it and the Tesla charging system were very reliable. In the end, I decided to buy the Taycan and because of EA’s problems, its mission became an around town only car, trips will always be in an ICE. Tesla has a big problem on the horizon though, they are producing a helluva lot of cars but their charging sites don’t seem to be increasing in size to keep up with the number of cars now on the road. I think routine lines at some charging sites will be the norm.

I think the solution to EA’s problems is someone, dare I say Musk, buys them out and fixes the technical issues. Current EA management seems to be clueless on what to do, if they even care.

I’m sorry OP had trouble, but this is where EA has been and will probably be for a while. If folks insist on taking a Taycan on a long distance trip you’d better have a trunk full of adapters so that you can charge at places other then EA. Other companies are getting in the game. There is a company I recently stumbled on, Volta, that is installing L2 chargers that can be used for no fee. I like them!
 
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daveo4EV

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Musk Lies and over promises and generally over promises and under delivers - except in one area - superchargers - and they monitor congestion and seem to respond reasonably - I won’t say congestion is never a problem - but so far the sites seem bigger and they are getting more density - Hwy 101 in CA used to only have Atascadero - and now has Paso Robles, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach - relieve congestion along that route…

as a current Tesla & Taycan owner - the Taycan’s charging network is the US is a complete failure - where as the Supercharger network is reliable and growing. I prefer driving the Taycan, but I also prefer arriving at my destination and being able to refuel my vehicle - the best car to drive and the best driving experience is the vehicle that can actually get you there - and right now that vehicle is not the Taycan if you want to drive further than one full charge.

you will have few if any problems attempting to use any of the supercharger sites listed below - and now we know from europe that the Taycan and other EV’s work just fine with the superchargers, so there is not even really a technical issue…

Porsche needs to step up and work with who ever can provide a functional EV charging network…cause EA ain’t it.

Porsche Taycan Stranded! 3B4ED873-FAB5-48C2-8277-89DB1770C15D
 


daveo4EV

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also Tesla seems smart enough to not shutdown an entire EV charging route to upgrade equipment…EA continues to impress me - and not in a good way.
 

redrocket

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you will have few if any problems attempting to use any of the supercharger sites listed below - and now we know from europe that the Taycan and other EV’s work just fine with the superchargers, so there is not even really a technical issue…
That’s why I mentioned Musk. Imagine a world where you could pull into an EA site or a Tesla site and juice up your Taycan, e-tron, Tesla, or your whatever. Tesla and EA have the 2 largest charging networks in the nation, and teamed together would do a lot to increase acceptance of EV’s. I don’t think many buyers of VAG EV vehicles have any idea how bad EA is. They may be buying an e-tron with the notion they’ll use it to go long distances to visit Grandma. Salesman tells the buyer the vehicle EPA range, shows the EA network on a map, and says ‘see, you can actually drive this e-tron from Bofu** to Timbuktu’. Not gonna gonna happen reliably, so over time the word about EA will get off of forums and out into the real world which will not help EV sales or acceptance at all. And last, no doubt the engineers at Tesla would be able to make the EA sites reliable, and also a great opportunity to send the mgt at EA packing. The mgt team must have a bonus metric of ‘charger unreliability’. The larger the % unreliable, the more they get paid. Or so it seems.
 

Reg

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And last, no doubt the engineers at Tesla would be able to make the EA sites reliable.
Funny!

People have lost all perspective. When Tesla launched there was a skeletal collection of "Superchargers" and Tesla has been promising a more aggressive rollout for a while. Anyone who thought EA would catch up in the first year is just delusional. They have a longer term plan and have a lot of money. Having Tesla "help" EA is the last thing that the industry needs.
 

redrocket

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No disrespect meant, but what you wrote is funny. It seems EA doesn’t know how to tie their shoes. If they have a lot of cash they sure don’t know how to use it wisely. I know of one person that walked from an e-Tron deal because of EA. More will do they same once they figure out what a joke EA is. Does not have to be Tesla, but someone needs to fix EA.
 

Bikergal

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One answer to a question is yes you can charge in the field after you have a red charging button. We did it last weekend on our road trip. Which BTW included hundreds of miles through the Eastern seaboard EA blackout and we made it!
 

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Just have to note that the car must be unlocked in order to be able to release the charging plug. If you lock the car it also locks the charging port. This stood out in the OP where you said "locked the car and still no luck getting it out". I've run into this many times trying to press the unlock button in the port and it doesn't release the locking mechanism. Then I notice the car is locked. So locking at least does not help the situation.
 

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Since this is also about roadtrip, I will add here rather than start a new thread. I did my first longer trip in the Taycan. Few observations - some good some bad.

1. The first charging stop at Madison WI Walmart worked very well for charging (faster than Tesla). I pushed the button on the car to release, which then turned the light to red. When I pushed the release button on the cable I could not remove it. After couple attempts I pushed the cable harder in until it clicked, then when pushing on the cable release button it let go. I still don't know if this was me not pulling hard enough the heavy cable or problem with the charger, but I think the second (see below).
2. The brief stop at Rockford Sam's Club location was flawless. Fast, no problems.
3. On the return trip I stopped again in Madison, and now the 350W charger cables from the unit I used early on both gave red light. They had another 350W unit, both cables same error. The screen said connection failure. I plugged to the 150 kW unit, worked OK.

Other things:
1. Dodgy places. I would never charge at the Madison place at night. The chargers are in a secluded area on the side of the building, far from any road, business, traffic. Furthermore, with the Walmart now being closed at 10 PM, you cannot even go and wait inside. I would feel seriously uncomfortable. If EA are serious about the network they need to put them in places that feel safer. The place at Sam's Club was just as any other Tesla Supercharger. More than one business, couple restaurants around, close to several main roads - felt OK safety-wise.
2. Charging at 150 kW appears slower than the 350 kW at any battery state of charge. I only had to top up on the return trip. At 80+% the 350KW would charge at around 95-100 kW, while the 150 kW at 80-90 kW. I cannot understand why, and it may be just N=1.

So overall: faster charging when working, need more and better locations, need reliable chargers.
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