submatrix

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When Tesla install destination chargers, they usually install three. 2 x Tesla only ones and 1 x any EV. The Tesla only ones are Type 2 chargers but have been set to only work if a Tesla is plugged in. I am unsure of the exact mechanism the charger is capable of detecting its a Tesla, but they have a way.

The Tesla only chargers will have a red sign saying "Tesla Vehicles" and the other charger will have a white sign saying "Electric Vehicle" - which is how you can tell them apart. You'll see the red Tesla only sign behind me in my picture.

This can be disabled by opening up the charger and setting some DIP switches to convert it into a Type 2 charger that will charge any EV. Some chargers overtime, seem to have these settings flipped as hotels don't really care and probably increasingly want their chargers to be more versatile now that there are a lot of EV brands turning up at their door.

I have discovered that if the DIP switches aren't set, you can *sometimes* trick the charger to start if you reset it a few times and have your Taycan plugged in while its rebooting. After a few attempts it can work – seems like there might be timing issues with the vehicle detecting code.

So when I said "coax" that is what I did in this case!
Anyone know how common this is (Tesla destination chargers set to "Tesla only") in the US? @daveo4EV perhaps? Up until I read this post I was under the impression that TeslaTap would allow charging at all Tesla destination chargers, no fiddling required.
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tigerbalm

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Anyone know how common this is (Tesla destination chargers set to "Tesla only") in the US? @daveo4EV perhaps? Up until I read this post I was under the impression that TeslaTap would allow charging at all Tesla destination chargers, no fiddling required.
Tesla chargers in US have a propriety connection – that "protects" the charger – and is what the TeslaTap is designed to get around. In Europe as all AC chargers have the same plug type – Tesla had to do something different here.
 

submatrix

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Tesla chargers in US have a propriety connection – that "protects" the charger – and is what the TeslaTap is designed to get around. In Europe as all AC chargers have the same plug type – Tesla had to do something different here.
So you're asserting that because EU charging is standardized by law, Tesla decided to add the ability to detect and only allow Tesla vehicles to charge on them via some detection/handshake? But in the US, they rely on the plug design being different as the sole way to achieve the same vendor lock in?
 
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tigerbalm

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So you're asserting that because EU charging is standardized by law, Tesla decided to add the ability to detect and only allow Tesla vehicles to charge on them via some detection/handshake? But in the US, they rely on the plug design being different as the sole way to achieve the same vendor lock in?
Yes, that is my understanding of the situation.
 

fullmetalbaal

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Yes, that is my understanding of the situation.
TeslaTap is not a surefire thing in the US either.

1- They are rolling out the ability to let hotels charge for the electricity at cost. When that is enabled, my understanding is that those chargers are only going to activate with Teslas.

2- Some hotels manage the EV charging via valet. Some of those refuse to use any additional attachments. (This has happened to me, but isn't very common)

3- I've seen a Tesla destination charger refuse to charge a car via TeslaTap and then just work fine with a Tesla a minute later here in the US. I do believe there's a way for them to lock it, they just haven't really bothered yet.

I still bought one, it's clearly working quite well right now...
But I'm also thinking this might change quickly once enough non-Teslas are around.

Medium term, I'm thinking of the TeslaTap as an adapter to use the smaller and better Tesla mobile charger instead of the bulky Porsche charger when on the road.,
 
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submatrix

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TeslaTap is not a surefire thing in the US either.

1- They are rolling out the ability to let hotels charge for the electricity at cost. When that is enabled, my understanding is that those chargers are only going to activate with Teslas.

2- Some hotels manage the EV charging via valet. Some of those refuse to use any additional attachments. (This has happened to me, but isn't very common)

3- I've seen a Tesla destination charger refuse to charge a car via TeslaTap and then just work fine with a Tesla a minute later here in the US. I do believe there's a way for them to lock it, they just haven't really bothered yet.

I still bought one, it's clearly working quite well right now...
But I'm also thinking this might change quickly once enough non-Teslas are around.

Medium term, I'm thinking of the TeslaTap as an adapter to use the smaller and better Tesla mobile charger instead of the bulky Porsche charger when on the road.,
Interesting info, thanks. I myself do use the TeslaTap with the Tesla mobile charger and find it a much superior option to the huge/bulky Porsche charger.
 

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Tell me when you’re going through Switzerland. I’ll be looking out for a blue Taycan?
 
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Day 4: Dijon (France) -> Lausanne (Switzerland)

Today we leave the European Union and cross into Switzerland, heading for Lausanne – the long way – driving around the southern shoreline of Lake Geneva, through Montreux. It's the first day we purposefully don't take the most optimal route between our two overnight stops, but instead start to take in the sights and the scenery.

The route is also optimised to not bring us in and out of France/Switzerland too much – assuming that there would be COVID vaccine checks being undertaken at each border crossing.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report 1630994417724


Today, even though it's a Monday, the traffic is noticeably lighter. To avoid bring routed to a single 50kW charger, we nudge PIRM to bring us to an IONITY charger at Bonneville, even though that takes us around 10 km (each way) off our route to Lausanne. I feel that a small detour like that to get the reliability and speed of IONITY is easily worth it. I achieved this by manually setting the chargers as a waypoint in our navigation route. This is the first time on this journey I had to do that so far.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2187


The charger instantly start to give us 270 kW of power and I only need to stay for 6 minutes, but with a toilet break and taking a quick snap, I accidentally take in too much power over a 15 minute duration – leaving the station with 65% of battery!

We drive on, getting to lake level at Thonon and drive along the shoreline until we get to the Swiss border crossing at St. Gingolph. Any concerns about delays with COVID checks was quickly abated – as the crossing was entirely unmanned!

There was lovely views of the lake – even from the motorway – as we pulled into our overnight pitstop in Lausanne.

Checking into our hotel – The Royal Savoy at Lausanne – was a breeze. Was glad to see that valet parking was optional and it was quick to both park and find the hotel chargers. This was our first set of destination chargers that had an equal number of "every-EV" to Tesla specific chargers. They were also unusual in that each charger had two plugs – one of which strangely seemed to be a J-1772 type. I've never seen that in Europe before – but a US spec car might actually be able to charge at this hotel.

These chargers are the first destination chargers to give me the full 22kW (20.7 kW after losses) and I move the car after three hours – as its full – to free up the charger.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2196


Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2188


Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2191


The days charging stats:

LocationStart SOC %End SOC %kWh addedCostDurationAmbient TempBattery TempCharger TypeNetwork
Bonneville, France33%65%41.60€13.7315 mins27.538
DC 350kW
IONITY
Royal Savoy Lausanne, Switzerland43%100%50.22€0.003 hours2631AC 22kWHotel

Today we did 407km over 5:56 hours, with an average speed of 70km/h, consuming 21.7 kWh/100km.
 
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B61

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Agreed with @Fish Fingers ... I'm just missing some more outside photos :like:
 

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Day 4: Dijon (France) -> Lausanne (Switzerland)

Today we leave the European Union and cross into Switzerland, heading for Lausanne – the long way – driving around the southern shoreline of Lake Geneva, through Montreux. It's the first day we purposefully don't take the most optimal route between our two overnight stops, but instead start to take in the sights and the scenery.

The route is also optimised to not bring us in and out of France/Switzerland too much – assuming that there would be COVID vaccine checks being undertaken at each border crossing.

1630994417724.png


Today, even though it's a Monday, the traffic is noticeably lighter. To avoid bring routed to a single 50kW charger, we nudge PIRM to bring us to an IONITY charger at Bonneville, even though that takes us around 10 km (each way) off our route to Bonneville. I feel that a small detour like that to get the reliability and speed of IONITY is easily worth it. I achieved this by manually setting the chargers as a waypoint in our navigation route. This is the first time on this journey I had to do that so far.

IMG_2187.jpeg


The charger instantly start to give us 270 kW of power and I only need to stay for 6 minutes, but with a toilet break and taking a quick snap, I accidentally take in too much power over a 15 minute duration – leaving the station with 65% of battery!

We drive on, getting to lake level at Thonon and drive along the shoreline until we get to the Swiss border crossing at St. Gingolph. Any concerns about delays with COVID checks was quickly abated – as the crossing was entirely unmanned!

There was lovely views of the lake – even from the motorway – as we pulled into our overnight pitstop in Lausanne.

Checking into our hotel – The Royal Savoy at Lausanne – was a breeze. Was glad to see that valet parking was optional and it was quick to both park and find the hotel chargers. This was our first set of destination chargers that had an equal number of "every-EV" to Tesla specific chargers. They were also unusual in that each charger had two plugs – one of which strangely seemed to be a J-1772 type. I've never seen that in Europe before – but a US spec car might actually be able to charge at this hotel.

These chargers are the first destination chargers to give me the full 22kW (20.7 kW after losses) and I move the car after three hours – as its full – to free up the charger.

IMG_2196.jpeg


IMG_2188.jpeg


IMG_2191.jpeg


The days charging stats:

LocationStart SOC %End SOC %kWh addedCostDurationAmbient TempBattery TempCharger TypeNetwork
Bonneville, France33%65%41.60€13.7315 mins27.538
DC 350kW
IONITY
Royal Savoy Lausanne, Switzerland43%100%50.22€0.003 hours2631AC 22kWHotel

Today we did 407km over 5:56 hours, with an average speed of 70km/h, consuming 21.7 kWh/100km.
Haha you drive right past my place! Where r u going next? Royal Savoy is nice ?
 
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tigerbalm

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Day 5: Lausanne (Switzerland) -> Zermatt (Switzerland)

Keeping to the theme of not going from A to B in a particularly direct way, we left Lausanne heading west along the northern shoreline of Lake Geneva – taking the non-motorway "1" route near the lake as much as possible – though thwarted by some closures due to roadworks.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report 1631038313688


Leaving Switzerland behind us for a while, we re-entered France and lunched in Chamonix – beside a fast flowing mountain stream. If you are not used to alpine regions – its always a surprise how "grey" and fast flowing the water is:



















Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2247


After lunch it was time to head to Zermatt via a quick "safety" charge at IONITY in Martigny – crossing back into Switzerland shortly beforehand. This time we got stopped by Swiss border guards – but they only wanted to have a look at what the inside of the Taycan was like!

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report 48A6FD17-64D8-4484-8732-7BB41EE02B95.JPG


Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report C809C64A-FE54-4B54-B325-B5ABEAF5995A.JPG


The charge at IONITY was only a "splash & dash" just in case we couldn't get a destination charge and needed to get back to another IONITY tomorrow. I'm starting to get more and more confident about destination charging in this region – and might stop being so careful soon.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2295


The passenger display showing 3D satellite view – combined with the normal map for navigation was really impressive. The shapes of the mountains and the valleys really come alive on the passenger screen and it really added to the experience.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report 5E14D334-FDB8-4B9B-B5DD-E5D836D7BBDF.JPG


For those who aren't aware, Zermatt – our hotel location for tonight is car free and you park in the nearby town of Täsch and take a short 12 minute train ride up the mountain to the village. There are tons of destination chargers at the parking garage and we plugged in with no issues.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2311


The EV the hotel uses in "car free" Zermatt to bring you from the train station to their reception:

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2332

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2335


We arrived late enough into our hotel – The Omnia – at Zermatt – but I am already looking forward to the views of the Matterhorn tomorrow morning. The hotel kindly provides a telescope to get a closer look at morning activity on the mountain.

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2341


Even without it, the views from our balcony are stunning – nobody could ever get used to this:

Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2381


Porsche Taycan Western Europe Taycan road-trip report IMG_2382


The days charging stats:

LocationStart SOC %End SOC %kWh addedCostDurationAmbient TempBattery TempCharger TypeNetwork
Martigny, Switzerland53%74%28.99CHF 10.7316 mins26.536DC 350kWIONITY
Täsch Parking Garage, Switzerland55%100%39.28€0.004.5 hours17.533AC 22kWGreenMotion

Today we did 301km over 5:48 hours, with an average speed of 54km/h, consuming 21.1 kWh/100km.
 
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