Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy

Scandinavian

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After reading about some new owners trouble with charging planning on a long road trip I have become very aware of the difficulties encountered when driving with an EV. And the extra planning efforts that you need to put in to make a trip enjoyable. Not much required, but still way too complicated with all the technology at our hands. With an ICE car you just get in the car, set the destination in the navigator and start driving. Fuel stations will be along the route and clearly advertised with pricing etc. And you fill up when the tank gets low, pay quickly and without any fuss with your credit card. And the same procedure at all brands of fuel stations, BP, Avia, Shell, ARAL, TOTAL etc etc.

Not so simple with an EV as we all know. And Porsche seem to have managed to complicate this even more!

Background and Challenge

Discussing with a few friends about long distance driving using an EV, I tried to convince them that it clearly was no problems at all in Western Europe ( I have no experience from the more Eastern European parts). Both of them are a quite sceptical about EV’s ease of use and practicality, not against EV’s in general though. But not ready to join the EV drivers community. A lot of negative reports on You Tube videos, articles about the state of charging networks, availability etc, have not helped the situation.
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So I set out to try to convince them and show how easy it is with the Taycan. And to share the many positive trip reports from the forum and my own experiences. As an exercise, I choose a trip to Trysil, Norway. We are all going to meet up for a reunion there later in the year so that seemed a good target destination. Trysil is a well known ski resort and a very popular destination, but would it work with an EV?? It is in Norway where chargers are very common though.

The plan was to plot a route from Nice Airport, France, to Trysil Ski Center, Norway, using the My Porsche app. And /or the Charging Planner in the car. Sounds easy to do, but it became a complete mess of a plan.

Here is how I tried to do it.

The map section of the My Porsche I app was set to only consider chargers above 250 kW and use Ionity only! I know that the route has plenty of Ionity stations available from my own experience.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 8C2BBD44-3E06-421B-A678-0AC51181E8B9


I let the app plan the route as normal. To my big surprise I noted that only one (1!!) Ionity station had been included in the overall plan. One station out of 12 charging stops. The charger is highlighted in the picture below

Plus that I knew from experience that the car would not even reach the first stop and in reality, would replan and send me to a 50 kW charger once starting to drive! And that lone charger is mostly off line or occupied. Have done that exercise already!

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 4B0D9B62-F12B-443D-BA28-B4C913ADCE1E






Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 2DEABC41-228D-43FA-8003-18A4EAE03208


The plan skipped the Ionity chargers at the bottom of the picture as well as the charger south of Milano?

The apps plan would mean stopovers at some stations where there was 1 (one ) or 2 (Two) charge plugs listed. With two plugs and 300 kW indicated. It would most likely be a shared power arrangement. Chargers with two cables at one station like the Alpitronic ( which is a very good and mostly reliable charger btw). Each cable then gives only 150 kW which I have experienced at some of those. Still powerful for the Taycan, but they do not always deliver that rate, which means a longer stop. And secondly all the chargers chosen in the apps plan, would have a much higher kWh price PLUS a per minute charge than Ionity. The result would be more than double the cost for charging on this trip!

The network names, in some cases, looked like belonging to some very local organisations. I think it is great that more local communities are trying to make it easier for EV owner in general. However they do not always seem to be connected, so difficult to check if they are free. Would they even work with the Porsche Charging services by app or card? Or work at all?? How is maintenance provided for them?? We have seen the difference between European experiences and US Electrify America experiences.

I very much doubt that the apps plan would have worked at all.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy DEF70637-4878-4013-8E36-CC10205026FA


This is normally a very good and reliable charger, but many stations have shared connections like in the picture. And then the power is limited.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 957EBCB9-1331-4245-BD1E-7F1AB76C4443


And only having two connectors is a high risk strategy. It can be off line or occupied.

The plan would also use a lot of chargers that would have a more expensive kWh pricing plus in all cases and additional per minute charge. That easily doubles the price compared to the Ionity rates.


Alternative plans

To check the plan I then tried two other charging planners. ABRP and Chargemap, to see how they would plan the route. The actual route was exactly the same by all three planners. And both ABRP as well as Chargemap included nearly exclusively Ionity stations as requested. The costs would be considerably higher using the Chargemap card, than the Ionity pricing for Porsche. Chargemap charge between 0.96 Euro to 1.14 Euro per kWH at Ionity stations. They do not have the preferential rate that Porsche owners get. The Porsche Charging Service costs about 0.35 Euro per kWh.

With ABRP you can also get a summary of the costs for the trip, which was missing in Chargemap and also in the Porsche Charging Planner unfortunately. Both these planners showed a much more realistic plan, even if the Chargemap planner would plan for some stretches up to 340 km between stops. And that is not going to be realistic in winter driving in my car. Maybe not even in summer time?


ABRP plan

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 590F9F89-B34D-4EB0-9226-42E16C5F4990




Chargemap plan


Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy DCF08C78-667F-433B-A5FC-277A912D5385


Ionity as Favourites in app and car

I have set up the Charging Planner in the app and the car to include the Ionity stations for the route as favourites! They will the all be shown as a star in both the app and the PCM. This is very useful to have, when driving on a trip as you are likely to receive multiple map updates, with the result that the trip will be replannned.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 3C591854-ED4F-498D-9EF9-B98889709BED

Picture of app display


Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy DD999DF5-0DE5-438C-9ED2-B1C6997E64A5


As can be seen there are many stars on route and each star represents an Ionity station.

Plan in the car

After sending the route from the app to the car, I set the car to only use HPC above 250 kW and wanted the car to plan the route to the destination. The Planner took some time but did present the route after a while together with charging stops.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy AD48CA75-F075-46B9-951E-527197850A79




Unacceptable result of the Porsche Charging Planner!

However it seems to be programmed to AVOID all the Ionity stations on route. It choose some obscure stations with 1 or 2 chargers shown in some cases. Networks that I never have seen or heard about again. And this occurred with Ionity stations in close proximity to such a Charging Planner stop!

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 1FF1EED0-2D77-44C7-8732-46EAF9906409




Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 4A10A153-AE4C-4A97-8A23-6E7BF0250D0F

The flags in the photos show the planned stops at charging stations, while the white stars show location of nearby Ionity stations

CONCLUSION

So in summary both the My Porsche app and the Charging Planner in the car leaves a lot to be desired. I certainly would not follow any of the plans that are produced automatically. I use the Charging Planner for the benefit of preheating the battery for each stop but will always check that it is an Ionity charger. If it isn’t, I will replan a stopover at the Ionity station and charge there.

So, did I manage to convince my friends about how easily you can make a trip in an EV through Europe?


NO, I have to give that a FAIL!!


They were quite amused with the complexity and need for different charge cards or dongles? They simply did not understand why you could not just use a normal Credit Card as you do at a fuel station.

I have to admit I did not convince any of them to join the EV community in the near future even if they absolutely enjoyed the short trips in the Taycan. But it wasn’t for them.

Missed opportunity!

I just can not understand how Porsche, who are Board members at Ionity, plus are a major owner, can ignore up to 90% of Ionity stations on such a trip. Why make plans that would be costing twice the price for a long trip?? It can not be difficult to program and optimise the costs of a road trip in the Charge Planner.

Why have Porsche missed the opportunity to make the ownership of the Taycan a joy, by including a decent Charge Planner? I personally think Porsche have massively missed a trick here. It is an achievement in it self to make such lousy Charging plans in 2023. With all the software, communications, networks and route planners available.
The Taycan is an expensive car and surely deserves to have such a feature. It can not be difficult to add some filters in the settings to prioritise 350 kW Ionity chargers where available. The VW group have a stake in Ionity, why not use the network in the planning? To plan for one Charger out of twelve on a 2700 km drive is a complete disaster in my mind!

It would make life very easy as an owner and give all new EV owners a very positive first experience if the planning was frictionless. What a very positive feeling and message that would send to prospective EV owners. And there are so many new charging stations being planned and built in Europe now, not only Ionity.



Any comments about this. It became a much longer post than I thought when I set out.

Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy 53027E6C-3704-4A7D-9B16-B36237A6A3AA


Porsche Taycan Trying to prove that Planning a long Road Trip in a Taycan is very easy F329401B-837E-433D-B28B-C670E1BD62D3
 

f1eng

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IME satnav systems do not calculate my favourite route on routes i know, often routing me on a longer boring motorway route to save maybe a minute or two. So for years I have used them only as a guide or when there are road blockages.
I planned the only route I have done requiring charging away from home by studying the route I would take using Zap-map and ABRP looking for promising looking charging locations, then used the PCM to navigate to them.
It was OK but analogous to the good old days when I just got my map out and looked for a route before there was an internet.
This method still works btw, my wife doesn’t like using a mobile phone but is an excellent map reader.

I am not sure it is my job to encourage my friends one way or another with EVs, too risky to a friendship.
 

ciaranob

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Wow heck of a report - thx for sharing and disappointing if indeed re the result - on a positive I now know you’re climate zone for placement in the SoH tread :)!!

My personal experience using the sw in the US, specifically Texas, is somewhat more favorable but limited and I suspect due to a serious paucity of fast charge locations I.e. there are so few the planner cannot basically get it wrong!

I recall reading different experiences here from folk in CA and some areas in the NE/E US which I’m sure will be shared here.
example: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...s-country-trip-in-my-new-cross-turismo.12760/

But yes in respect your account a Def Porsche fail - I’m guessing @tigerbalm and other frequent long distance travelers in the Eu are using more custom strategies (ARBP and Plugshare etc to heavily augment trip planning vs using the Porsche sw alone.

PS - and like @f1eng I too tend to work my routes manually and preload in the system vs using the automated setup - and. a bit off topic but to those naysayers the the passenger screen option, having the passenger screen is really useful in long trips where my wife can real-time edit the route, setup a station as a destination for optimal batt temp arrival etc - pers find that super useful.
 
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Scandinavian

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planned the only route I have done requiring charging away from home by studying the route I would take using Zap-map and ABRP looking for promising looking charging locations, then used the PCM to navigate to them.
It was OK but analogous to the good old days when I just got my map out and looked for a route before there was an internet.
Yes I agree with a lot of the comments about using a Sat Nav. Once you have local knowledge it many times is much more practical and faster to use the roads you know. Especially for ICE cars. But the point I tried to get across is that EV’s need more planning.

To find that a route the car chooses may take you to stations that are not working or occupied when empty stations are near by. And the cost, albeit much less than en ICE equivalent, is 2.5 times more than it needs to be is just a waste.

Especially when Porsche are partowners and the VW group representative on Board level.
 

WasserGKuehlt

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My 2c:
- the Porsche planners (built-in or the app) are laughably optimistic wrt consumption/range; that's despite having all.the.fing trips for _this_ car stored right there.
- planning is overrated (remember, these are _my_ 2c); just budget in more time, and you'll be fine - especially in a densely populated area like Europe (or in a dense charging-station-network country like Norway)
- don't plan for more than one day's driving; when deviations occur (which they will), you only need to make that night's destination - and it's easier if even that is flexible.
- it does take a bit of a plunge to go into EVism, and (again my 2c) ease of planning isn't "it" - an easily-made plan that doesn't come true is arguably worse than winging it. Further, there's no planning/infrastructure for the middle-of-nowhere places, so a great plan that works out but keeps you on interstates/EU highways isn't all that helpful - in the grander scheme of switching to an EV.

I'd say you'd be better off at convincing your friends by just .. driving there; bonus points if you beat them to the destination.

I admit that, ~1.5 months and 3k miles in, I still have quite a bit of anxiety about longer trips - when should i start/stop charging to be at 100% exactly when I leave, where will I charge and what adapters will I need, how will weather/elevation/traffic affect my consumption, making constant mental calculations for range and battery level etc. But nothing dissolves that anxiety as just making the damn trips - and it all turns out to be fine. Worst case I have to put more miles/time in the car (to get to a charger), and that's really not such a hardship.
 


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- planning is overrated (remember, these are _my_ 2c); just budget in more time, and you'll be fine - especially in a densely populated area like Europe (or in a dense charging-station-network country like Norway)
- don't plan for more than one day's driving; when deviations occur (which they will), you only need to make that night's destination - and it's easier if even that is flexible.
Yes I agree with what You re saying. Remeber this was just a hypothetical plan. No way I would ever attempt such a trip at my age or even when younger.

Absolutely right about time. All of them are optimistic. And yes I will never plan for more than about 600 to 800 km driving. There are a lot of very nice hotels along the route and so much to see. The exercise I wanted to share was more about the failure to plan suitable charging stops. Nothing else. I have done the route up to Oslo already and know very well that it is absolutely possible. Only when you go into more of the sparsely populated areas in Scandinavia will you find a lack of fast chargers. ( NORWAY a clear exception)
 

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Kinda long post to complain about the car not doing something for you that you can easily do yourself, don’t ya think? In less time than it took to read your post I could have pulled out my phone and planned out all the charging stops.
 

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Kinda long post to complain about the car not doing something for you that you can easily do yourself, don’t ya think? In less time than it took to read your post I could have pulled out my phone and planned out all the charging stops.
Me too...............except I would have been calling airlines and booking flights. Way, way too long of a drive for me in any kind of vehicle.
 


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Agree with everything you've written @Scandinavian. I actually think things are getting worse with the Porsche charging planner. They have added a lot of chargers into its database now – and because its algorithm isn't very smart – that is causing it to pick more and more inappropriate charging stops.

When north of the arctic circle recently – where there aren't very many >150 kW charging options – the Porsche charging planning leaned heavily towards putting in the new open Tesla charging stations into the plan – which worked out great.

However, when in area's where there are lots of high-speed chargers – the planner no longer seems to lean towards IONITY and picks some crazy risky stops. Before, when IONITY was most of the high-speed chargers it only knew about – it would nearly always pick them.

When we were going between Kiel in Germany and Ghent in Belgium – it picked four chargers for the route (at least one too many in my opinion) – only one was IONITY. Last year, when we did a similar trip – it was all IONITY that was chosen. More charging data is making it plan worse routes!

From my perspective, Porsche need to add these two options to the charing planner:

a] The ability to mark any stopover as requiring battery preparation – and have the car do it regardless.

b] Allow us to set "preferred networks" such as IONITY, Tesla, Shell or whatever (as many as we want) and select chargers from those networks first when route planning.

I think its interesting that you were trying to convince "normal" people that road-trips in an EV are perfectly fine.

As I think the fundamental issue with the Porsche charging planner is that they tried to make that their primary requirement. They thought – ordinary people – don't have a clue about EV charging – so we're going to make it simple.

You just put in your destination and the car will do everything to tell you where to go and charge. But unfortunately, its algorithm is so primitive and its source data so poor – that it will think that a station with one 350 kW pedestal is better than a nearby station with 12 x 150 kW pedestals. Or have no appreciation of pricing at the stations it recommends.

The thing that drives us crazy on a road-trip is that as you drive – or get map updates – it keeps changing your stops. No normal person is going to be happy with that.

We might have been happy with a stop – perhaps have a food option in mind – or going to meet someone nearby – and we'll be coasting down a hill – and suddenly the planned IONITY station is off the list and instead spending an hour at some 50 kW broken charger round the back of some public toilets is the plan!

Nuts.

It's very fixable if they'd allow us to select charging networks we prefer – but is Porsche too stubborn to implement it ?
 
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tigerbalm

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IME satnav systems do not calculate my favourite route on routes i know, often routing me on a longer boring motorway route to save maybe a minute or two.
Something that Porsche are trying tackle with their Porsche Roads app (http://roads.porsche.com). They should incorporate it into the PCM navigation.
 

tigerbalm

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he Porsche planners (built-in or the app) are laughably optimistic wrt consumption/range; that's despite having all.the.fing trips for _this_ car stored right there.
I have to say that in my case – I find the PCM/built-in consumption estimates very accurate to one or two percentage points – if I drive calmly and to speed limits. Outside of battery pre-condition – its the other feature that has me using the PCM over Carplay apps. I've learnt to really trust the consumption estimates.
 

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I downloaded ‘Roads’ and it appears to be an app for creating a circular road trip not a tool for journeys to and from places. Not much use for me.
 

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I’m guessing @tigerbalm and other frequent long distance travelers in the Eu are using more custom strategies (ARBP and Plugshare etc to heavily augment trip planning vs using the Porsche sw alone.
That is exactly what we do and those are the two services we use to do it – paying for their premium subscription to support each service too.
 
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The thing that drives us crazy on a road-trip is that as you drive – or get map updates – it keeps changing your stops. No normal person is going to be happy with that.

We might have been happy with a stop – perhaps have a food option in mind – or going to meet someone nearby – and we'll be coasting down a hill – and suddenly the planned IONITY station is off the list and instead spending an hour at some 50 kW broken charger round the back of some public toilets is the plan!
Yes that drives me crazy. This replanning issues have been there for so long and I feel they are getting worse. This Issue has bben my experience a few times driving over to Italy. There are two Ionity stations, one in each direction, driving to and from Genoa. But they are ignored and suddenly you are directed into a small village with one or two 50 kW chargers.

In summertime when driving on a long trip, I have started leave the PCM in peace and use CarPlay instead. Once I know where I am at, I have used Sport+ mode. Battery gets warmed up but maybe not as much as with automatic pre heating? But it works. In the wintertime it is usable but not as effective.

I at times wonder if Porsche have had their hands tied with regards to filters and prioritising Ionity in their algorithms?? Could that have been the price that they pay in order to get access at the other chargers at preferential rates in the Porsche Charging Service?? Would the other networks have been reluctant else if they could not compete for the charges?? I do not know?
 
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That is exactly what we do and those are the two services we use to do it – paying for their premium subscription to support each service too.
Same here.
I use ABRP and ChargeFinder. ABRP for a good solid plan and ChargeFinder to search for chargers. They both have great filter settings.
The other thing is that I have marked as many Ionity stations on routes that I travel and can easily find them as stopovers if needed quickly. Takes out the pain of the replan!
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