USB-C Charging capabilities

[whitex]

Taycan has front and back USB-C ports. I had some passengers tell me the rear USB-C is not charging their phones very fast. So I decided to check. It seems both front and back USB-C connectors are last century 5V, 0.5A max, USB-A simply masked with a USB-C socket. You might be able to draw more from it if you have a last century device which just draws as much as it can disregarding any charging protocols (so non-compliant with the USB spec, definitely nothing USB-IF certified), but the Taycan USB-C ports do not advertise any power delivery protocols, not even QC or other last century USB signaling. It would be like taking a 1st generation Nissan Leaf and putting a Taycan body kit on it - looks like a recent design, but really, old and nowhere near as capable. Couldn't Porsche stick a $3 Chinese USB charger under the seat and wire it to their USB-C sockets? Speaking of, has anyone retrofitted either the back or the front USB-C with a more contemporary charger from this century?


EDIT: See post #7 below for more detailed test resutls.

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[W1NGE]

Taycan has front and back USB-C ports. I had some passengers tell me the rear USB-C is not charging their phones very fast. So I decided to check. It seems both front and back USB-C connectors are last century 5V, 0.5A max, USB-A simply masked with a USB-C socket. You might be able to draw more from it if you have a last century device which just draws as much as it can disregarding any charging protocols (so non-compliant with the USB spec, definitely nothing USB-IF certified), but the Taycan USB-C ports do not advertise any power delivery protocols, not even QC or other last century USB signaling. It would be like taking a 1st generation Nissan Leaf and putting a Taycan body kit on it - looks like a recent design, but really, old and nowhere near as capable. Couldn't Porsche stick a $3 Chinese USB charger under the seat and wire it to their USB-C sockets? Speaking of, has anyone retrofitted either the back or the front USB-C with a more contemporary charger from this century?

The rear USB-C ports only offer charging (no data) and my guess is that power availability is deliberately limited to preserve battery drain (12v).

I think there is a post elsewhere where someone has detailed out the power available.

 

[whitex]

The rear USB-C ports only offer charging (no data) and my guess is that power availability is deliberately limited to preserve battery drain (12v).

I think there is a post elsewhere where someone has detailed out the power available.

USB ports are only active when HV battery and DC-DC converter are active, so while I suspect it is running from the 12V rail, it shouldn't deplete the 12V battery.

I hooked up a USB tester to the Taycan, it shows no charging protocols advertised at all, not even the old, old DCP 5V/1.5V (which is signaled by connecting D+/D- together, even my old old Blackberry USB charger had that).

EDIT: Rear ports do appear to have 5V/1.5A DCP, though there is still something weird/non standard about them that throws off some devices.

 

[Ryanchan0101]

That is not like a luxury car ，Porsche

 

[chalkrwd]

The front USB-C charger charges my iPhone extremely fast, almost as fast as a 18w fast charger does.

 

[Murph7355]

The rear ones charged my son's Nintendo Switch well enough at the weekend. And the front phone ones seem to work OK for the phones too.

That said, I don't really use them in the expectation of my phone being charged in an hour. If they gently charge, I'm OK with that It possibly helps that the cars it has replaced were from 2007 and 2010.

 

[whitex]

For completeness, it appears the front USB-C has CDP (which could be between 2.5W and 7.5W, need to measure with an actual device connected to see what it can negotiate as CDP doesn't advertise the max), rear has 7.5W DCP avertised. Red text means the standard is not supported.

For comparison, here is what a $3 wall wart supports:

 

[allroadusa]

This doesn’t sound right. I daily use the front USB-C port to charge my iPhone 14 Pro and I can tell you it charges very fast despite being use for CarPlay, way faster than the USB-A port I used to have in the Panamera. Hard to tell precisely but 20 to 100% in something like 3 to 4 hours.

 

[whitex]

This doesn’t sound right. I daily use the front USB-C port to charge my iPhone 14 Pro and I can tell you it charges very fast despite being use for CarPlay, way faster than the USB-A port I used to have in the Panamera. Hard to tell precisely but 20 to 100% in something like 3 to 4 hours.

That's about right and it's not "fast charging". iPhone 14 pro has a 12.4Wh battery (source). 80% of that (20-100%) would be 9.92Wh. There is some anti-bricking buffer, so perhaps 9.5Wh? Front USB seems to be 2.5W, so it would take less than 4hrs to go from 20-100%.

If you plug it into the Tayan's back USB-C, you should be able to charge 3x as fast, so a bit over an hour for 20-100% (it slows down towards 100% SoC, so faster charger doesn't help at the very upper ranges unless the phone is in use, see below).

HOWEVER, if you end up using the iPhone (e.g. your passenger is doing a video FaceTime call) while it's plugged into the front USB-C, there is a good chance the iPhone battery percentage will actually be dropping, just not as fast as if it was just sitting there. If you ever want to verify this, wait until you have an update pending on your iPhone, plug it into the front USB-C port, note the battery percentage of the iPhone, select "update now". When the update is done, your phone battery percentage will in fact be lower than when it started because the front Taycan charger is nowhere near able to keep up with an active phone - on a fast charger on the other hand the battery would have been higher after the update.

iPhone 14 Pro can utilize up to 27W, so way faster than any of the Taycan ports. That is why people who want to charge their phones fast buy 30W chargers - Apple supports it. That said, not all of that 27W can be utilized to charge the battery. Advertised charge time from 0-50% on a 30W charger is half an hour, so ~13.6W after ~10% loses for the battery charging, but the remaining 14W can be used by the phone to be running apps without draining the battery.

Last thing, I have not checked the wireless charging power in the front, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could charge faster than the wired front port. That is until the iPhone overheats in that closed space and throttles the charge rate.

 

[allroadusa]

Thanks, very clear

 

[whitex]

Thanks, very clear

If you ever want to charge your phone faster, get a 12V cigarette adapter USB-C with 30W (or higher) PD. I saw a metal, low profile (barely sticks out of the 12V socket) 90W dual USB-C for $17 on Amazon.

Personally I'm thinking of just converting the existing ones to 45W+ as a quick weekend project (keeping the existing sockets on the back, wiring a 12V aftermarket supply to it, on the front perhaps adding a USB-C hub so that it retains the connectivity for USB drives, but will need to see if PCM recognizes USB hubs).

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