Taking One Lap of the Country in my Taycan Turbo - 10k miles in 6 weeks Cross-Country Journal

[Cpoarchy]

Baby, it’s cold outside. 7°F last night when I parked the car, and checked into a hotel. -8°F now, as I wake up. The car will be recharged and pre-heated when I get in in an hour or so.

“Do you have Electric Vehicle charging stations at this hotel?”

“Yes! They are around back!”

I was shocked. I picked this hotel at random. And a google search of the area didn’t show these.

I check in, the pull around back. Oh. There are two Tesla Destination Chargers. Basically what a tesla owner would have in their garage. Not a Supercharger. But... they have the Tesla proprietary connector, which does not fit my Porsche...

...unless you have an adapter. Which I do. Thank goodness I read about these online a couple of weeks ago. Some guy in California manufactures an adapter. So I bought one. It’s called TeslaTap, and it costs about $200. (Plus or minus depending on Amperage capacity: 40, 50, or 80A) Totally worth it to carry one in the frunk.

So as I slept, the car recharged. It won’t quite be at 100%, because it’s also keeping the car warm in subzero temperatures.

Such good information, thanks for that, I was assuming you could use all tesla chargers except the super chargers. Getting one of these. Cars looks great!

 

[Cpoarchy]

IS that factory window tint? Looks darker, I really like it

 

[ron_b]

Small plug for another thread on hotel charging started by @Cpoarchy
I also added alternate Tesla adapters info.
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/hotels-getting-ev-friendly.801/

 

[LivingWithPorsches]

Entertaining to follow you on your journey!
Porsche Parade is in Palm Springs this year and I was concerned with taking my Taycan from Seattle to there, but if you can go around the entire country, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

 

[SFEVER]

I started that list on Day One of ownership. I’m waiting to hear where Porsche wants me to send them. Private email or public posting.

The Nav said it got OTA map updates yesterday. Five times!

I found it interesting that on the Audi it also got navigation updates over the air all the time but the car never received any OS updates or function upgrades. They were calling it OTA updates. I question if it actually has that function activated yet.

 

[cometguy]

I found it interesting on the Audi it also got navigation updates over the air all the time but the car never received and OS updates or function upgrades yet they where calling it OTA I question if it’s actually has that function activated yet.

that's quite an amazing sentence, whatever you're trying to say....

 

[louv]

The Nav system went bonkers again this morning. It probably didn’t like the -10°F weather.

After an hour of driving, it finally recovered, but for that hour, it forgot it was an EV, it lost my history of searches, lost the destination towards which we were going, and it couldn’t search for EV charging stations.

Fortunately I knew where I was going. I also had Apple CarPlay and Maps.

An hour into my drive, it recovered. And then it started actually adding my needed charging stops to my route, as well.

I’m glad I have backup systems. And paper maps.

Oh, when it gets really confused, it defaults back to its mother tongue: German.

 

[louv]

Dammit. The charging station I was counting on (and my car insists I should go to) is not working. And the only thing nearby is a slow Level 2 charger. One App says there’s ’s a Level 3 here... but there isn’t. It is: “Level 3 Coming Soon”.

I need 90 miles of range to get to the next nearest charger. I have 40 miles of range now. It will take three hours (or more) to get those additional miles of range at this slow (but free!) charger.

I’m also equipped to plug in at RV parks. But the only two nearby are closed for the winter.

Oh well. At least it has warmed up to 11°F outside.

 

[louv]

IS that factory window tint? Looks darker, I really like it

No tint. Yet.

 

[louv]

Entertaining to follow you on your journey!
Porsche Parade is in Palm Springs this year and I was concerned with taking my Taycan from Seattle to there, but if you can go around the entire country, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

There will be challenges, but it’s possible.

 

[cometguy]

Dammit. The charging station I was counting on (and my car insists I should go to) is not working. And the only thing nearby is a slow Level 2 charger. One App says there’s ’s a Level 3 here... but there isn’t. It is: “Level 3 Coming Soon”.

I need 90 miles of range to get to the next nearest charger. I have 40 miles of range now. It will take three hours (or more) to get those additional miles of range at this slow (but free!) charger.

I’m also equipped to plug in at RV parks. But the only two nearby are closed for the winter.

Oh well. At least it has warmed up to 11°F outside.

I must ask, as I read your reports: what caused you to want to do this cross-Canada drive in the middle of winter in a BEV? Why not wait until warmer weather? Or instead do a cross-country winter trip in the USA, where there is better charging infrastructure?

 

[louv]

I must ask, as I read your reports: what caused you to want to do this cross-Canada drive in the middle of winter in a BEV? Why not wait until warmer weather? Or instead do a cross-country winter trip in the USA, where there is better charging infrastructure?

Because that would be just “taking a drive.”
This is an Adventure.

And I will return via the Southern route across the US. I like to get the hard stuff out of the way first.

 

[felixtb]

Fun read!!! We root for you all the way.

 

[Austin_yeahbaby]

Fantastic idea!

@louv - Did you take your mobile connect charger as an emergency backup ?

If you do use the charger then take some pictures as nobody has seen the colour screen and wifi control in action

 

[louv]

Fantastic idea!

@louv - Did you take your mobile connect charger as an emergency backup ?

If you do use the charger then take some pictures as nobody has seen the colour screen and wifi control in action

yes, absolutely, I brought the Mobile Connect Charger. It’s in the frunk. But I expect I’ll only need it for emergencies (like today) when my only option is a 50Amp RV park plug. (But all the campgrounds are closed for winter, here in Canada)

Pictures of the Mobile Connect Charger will be kinda boring. But I’ll take some as I use it. There’s some setup screens, and wifi connect, and then it’s pretty simple: Plug in. It analyzes how much power it can draw, then charges at that rate.

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