UK intelligent charging (Octopus, OVO) won't work without Porsche Connect subscription (£269/year)

[Graeme]

Hi, this is my first post having bought a 2020 Taycan 4S a few weeks ago... please don't flame me if I've missed any etiquette.

Here in the UK I've been trying to connect Octopus Energy to my car and charger and have come up against an interesting hurdle. Octopus energy, OVO, ev.energy and others use the Enode common API to communicate with Porsche both for creating the connection and for this being able to communicate with your Taycan.

After weeks of trying to connect Octopus to my car (which says it's successful and then doesn't finally connect), numerous calls to Octopus and Porsche, I tried using the independent ev.energy App (these guys don't sell electric, they provide connectivity), which finally gave me an actual error which I reported to ev.energy.

ev.energy spoke to Enode (the aforementioned API middlemen) who came back with:

"There's unfortunately no way around this, as we use the same API endpoints as the Porshe app and rely on the necessary Porsche Connected Services subscription in order to communicte with the vehicle."

So this is a revelation... Porsche are requiring all UK 3+ year old Taycan owners to subscribe to their Porsche Connect at £269/year in order for any external service to control intelligent charging of our vehicles. What's most interesting is that last week I suggested to Porsche UK customer services that perhaps I needed to sign up to Porsche Connect and they specifically told me that I don't need Porsche Connect in order to intelligently charge my car.

What has everyone else done that has a 3+ year old Porsche Taycan? Is this also the case in the USA, Europe, or just the UK?

What do other manufacturers provide once a car is outside of the initial contracts provided with the car from new?

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[tigerbalm]

The same subscription also enables the 4G connection within the car for things like map updates, apple/spotify music streaming, etc. I know that Peugeot and Fiat also charge for similar connectivity and only provide six months initial free service.

When the time comes, I'll be subscribing to: Porsche Connect + Porsche Charging Service + Porsche Vehicle Tracking Service (paying this from day 1 already).

As a Porsche shareholder, I'm happy they are diversifying their income streams.

 

[Jin]

what EVSE do you have? Octopus Intelligent support a few directly (Zappi being one recently) which means the 'smart' element of OI is now between Octopus and the ESVE taking the car out of the picture.

not sure what the position is on some of the other energy company products.

on the flip side, if you don't have a supported EVSE.. you might be able to buy 3/4 years worth of subscription for the price of buying/installing a supported EVSE!

 

[Graeme]

The same subscription also enables the 4G connection within the car for things like map updates, apple/spotify music streaming, etc. I know that Peugeot and Fiat also charge for similar connectivity and only provide six months initial free service.

When the time comes, I'll be subscribing to: Porsche Connect + Porsche Charging Service + Porsche Vehicle Tracking Service (paying this from day 1 already).

As a Porsche shareholder, I'm happy they are diversifying their income streams.

Haha, perhaps I need to buy some shares too!

According to Porsche UK, the connect doesn't include apple/spotify (includes the connectivity, not the subscription), however I do like the E-control and car control options. What's surprising is the Porsche UK's own customer service team don't know that you need Connect in order to intelligently charge and I've had to spend 2 weeks on the phone going through hoops to get the answer from a third party API vendor.

what EVSE do you have? Octopus Intelligent support a few directly (Zappi being one recently) which means the 'smart' element of OI is now between Octopus and the ESVE taking the car out of the picture.

not sure what the position is on some of the other energy company products.

on the flip side, if you don't have a supported EVSE.. you might be able to buy 3/4 years worth of subscription for the price of buying/installing a supported EVSE!

I've just had an EO Mini Pro 3 installed which Octopus Intelligent is supposed to support but having chosen my car, I can't get past the Octopus setup process (because it can't talk to my car) to be able to configure something else.

I wonder if there there is a way to choose a "generic" car and jump straight to the EVSE setup?

 

[Jin]

I've just had an EO Mini Pro 3 installed which Octopus Intelligent is supposed to support but having chosen my car, I can't get past the Octopus setup process (because it can't talk to my car) to be able to configure something else.

I wonder if there there is a way to choose a "generic" car and jump straight to the EVSE setup?

I'm not sure (I don't think) that is supported for direct integration with OI hence why its getting you to set up via the car/porsche app.

this was the closest I could see for supported 'chargers'

https://octopus.energy/get-an-ev-charger/

 

[Graeme]

I'm not sure (I don't think) that is supported for direct integration with OI hence why its getting you to set up via the car/porsche app.

this was the closest I could see for supported 'chargers'

https://octopus.energy/get-an-ev-charger/

When signing up for IO it lets you choose your vehicle and charger and both my vehicle and charger are listed... but I can't get past the vehicle comms bit.

 

[Jin]

yep, and if you're subscription is up then then your porsche app won't be able to communicate with the car.

the way OI works in terms of compatibility is

1) Supported ESVE
this would be the mentioned EVSEs. The OI app schedules charges directly with the EVSE and 'sends' power to the car during those windows.


2) non supported EVSE but supported car
OI support a set of cars for integration via their app. This is done by setting up the OI with the Car app and then it being able to perform a test charge. OI will then set profiles on the car for when to charge. Zappi is set to 'fast' and delivers power when the car asks for it.


it sounds like you're in category 2 and without the Porsche app being able to talk to the car (if your subscription has expired) then I can't see how it can work.

leaves the option of renewing the sub or looking at a supported EVSE (for direct integration) if you stick with OI.

 

[Graeme]

yep, and if you're subscription is up then then your porsche app won't be able to communicate with the car.

the way OI works in terms of compatibility is

1) Supported ESVE
this would be the mentioned EVSEs. The OI app schedules charges directly with the EVSE and 'sends' power to the car during those windows.


2) non supported EVSE but supported car
OI support a set of cars for integration via their app. This is done by setting up the OI with the Car app and then it being able to perform a test charge. OI will then set profiles on the car for when to charge. Zappi is set to 'fast' and delivers power when the car asks for it.


it sounds like you're in category 2 and without the Porsche app being able to talk to the car (if your subscription has expired) then I can't see how it can work.

leaves the option of renewing the sub or looking at a supported EVSE (for direct integration) if you stick with OI.

Thanks Jin, one of the issues is knowing what service I'll actually get if I sign up to Porsche Connect in order for IO to be able to connect to it.

If IO is merely going to load some charging profiles into my car then it's not very intelligent (I can do that myself). I was lead to believe that it would dynamically change/optimise charging to give me the best unit rate, but am I already expecting too much?

 

[Jin]

Thanks Jin, one of the issues is knowing what service I'll actually get if I sign up to Porsche Connect in order for IO to be able to connect to it.

If IO is merely going to load some charging profiles into my car then it's not very intelligent (I can do that myself). I was lead to believe that it would dynamically change/optimise charging to give me the best unit rate, but am I already expecting too much?

the intelligent part (or so they say) is the ability of Octopus to be able to schedule charges when the grid demand/excess dictates. This would be at the cheap rate and could be outside of the 23:30-05:30 off-peak window too). For example, if you plugged your car in the you got back from work, OI could schedule a charge window at say 8-9pm, if they had excess capacity to do so. This also means any other home usage at this time would be at the cheap rate too.

This is why it needs to be able to communicate to the car (in the case of car integration) as the schedules will vary day by day.

you can also turn off the 'intelligent' charging and just do as you say, set the charge profiles for the off-peak window. But you're going to need a way to get OI set up in the first place which means having the app working so it can do that initial test charge

 

[Jin]

(ignore)

 

[Graeme]

(ignore)

What’s the ignore for?

thanks for the other - as a software engineer, I’m just dubious as to how much of that they will have actually implemented

 

[Jin]

What’s the ignore for?

thanks for the other - as a software engineer, I’m just dubious as to how much of that they will have actually implemented

that was me double posting!

I've been following the myenergi forums for a while and the beta testing that was taking place for OI/Zappi integration and it's been pretty well received.. a few teething problems as with any bit of software as you know!


I've just picked up my car so want to try it all out today properly (had previously set up my zappi and Oi against a Tesla).. but I've got app issues with it not connecting and that sounds like issues on Porsche's end!


this is useful for the different set up options documented by myenergi https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/18470101583377-Zappi-Intelligent-Octopus-Go

 

[clivep]

Hi, this is my first post having bought a 2020 Taycan 4S a few weeks ago... please don't flame me if I've missed any etiquette.

Here in the UK I've been trying to connect Octopus Energy to my car and charger and have come up against an interesting hurdle. Octopus energy, OVO, ev.energy and others use the Enode common API to communicate with Porsche both for creating the connection and for this being able to communicate with your Taycan.

After weeks of trying to connect Octopus to my car (which says it's successful and then doesn't finally connect), numerous calls to Octopus and Porsche, I tried using the independent ev.energy App (these guys don't sell electric, they provide connectivity), which finally gave me an actual error which I reported to ev.energy.

ev.energy spoke to Enode (the aforementioned API middlemen) who came back with:

"There's unfortunately no way around this, as we use the same API endpoints as the Porshe app and rely on the necessary Porsche Connected Services subscription in order to communicte with the vehicle."

So this is a revelation... Porsche are requiring all UK 3+ year old Taycan owners to subscribe to their Porsche Connect at £269/year in order for any external service to control intelligent charging of our vehicles. What's most interesting is that last week I suggested to Porsche UK customer services that perhaps I needed to sign up to Porsche Connect and they specifically told me that I don't need Porsche Connect in order to intelligently charge my car.

What has everyone else done that has a 3+ year old Porsche Taycan? Is this also the case in the USA, Europe, or just the UK?

What do other manufacturers provide once a car is outside of the initial contracts provided with the car from new?

Hi, this is my first post having bought a 2020 Taycan 4S a few weeks ago... please don't flame me if I've missed any etiquette.

Here in the UK I've been trying to connect Octopus Energy to my car and charger and have come up against an interesting hurdle. Octopus energy, OVO, ev.energy and others use the Enode common API to communicate with Porsche both for creating the connection and for this being able to communicate with your Taycan.

After weeks of trying to connect Octopus to my car (which says it's successful and then doesn't finally connect), numerous calls to Octopus and Porsche, I tried using the independent ev.energy App (these guys don't sell electric, they provide connectivity), which finally gave me an actual error which I reported to ev.energy.

ev.energy spoke to Enode (the aforementioned API middlemen) who came back with:

"There's unfortunately no way around this, as we use the same API endpoints as the Porshe app and rely on the necessary Porsche Connected Services subscription in order to communicte with the vehicle."

So this is a revelation... Porsche are requiring all UK 3+ year old Taycan owners to subscribe to their Porsche Connect at £269/year in order for any external service to control intelligent charging of our vehicles. What's most interesting is that last week I suggested to Porsche UK customer services that perhaps I needed to sign up to Porsche Connect and they specifically told me that I don't need Porsche Connect in order to intelligently charge my car.

What has everyone else done that has a 3+ year old Porsche Taycan? Is this also the case in the USA, Europe, or just the UK?

What do other manufacturers provide once a car is outside of the initial contracts provided with the car from new?

 

[clivep]

I have MY21 4S Plus delivered Nov 20.

I have IO but after much discussion with Octopus following various failed/faulty charges they advised me to use my Ohme charger to link with IO as they are partnering with them. I have renewed Porsche Connect because I think that without remote operation including charge planning, I am losing a valuable if pricy feature.
This has worked perfectly for 9 months although I have to input the charge to be added because until last week, Ohme did not have the Porsche API. Then suddenly the Ohme app asked me to log in to Connect and reads the SoC automatically so a standard target charge schedule can be used repeatedly.

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