Wired4fun

Hi,

New Taycan owner here. My car came with 3 free years of charging at EA stations, but neither my dealer, Porsche customer service or EA can help me figure out how to activate it and use it.

Can anyone here walk me through what I need to do? I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find assistance.

thank you!!!!

Jasonamayes

Did you get started with the my Porsche/ Porsche connect activation?

you have to make sure all terms and conditions are accepted and that you have a credit card on file.

Wired4fun

I am all set up. I see under my account that I have the Porsche Charging Service and it’s set to go for a year.

Now, what do I do to USE it at an EA station and NOT get charged $$?

Thanks

Jasonamayes

you would search and find a station in your Porsche app NOT the EA app.

it will give you the free 30 minutes no charge

kort677

if your dealership cannot assist you I would find a better dealership.
you will need to load onto your phone both the porsche app and the charging NA app. login to your account on porsche connect then login into the charge NA account which should using your porsche connect ID.
once the accounts are established, you arrive at the EA charger, this is how I need to do it because plug and charge does not work on my car, so you arrive at the EA unit, open the charging NA app, locate the EA unit on the app, then note the actual charging unit you want to use, click on that unit, plug the car in and hit start charging on the NA app. with any luck charging will start.
it is imperative that you use the charging NA app for charging and not the porsche connect app.

kort677

this is not quite right, you have to use the charging NA app, not the porsche connect app

Wired4fun

Thanks everyone. Doing my first test run now. Working well! The EA station was found in the app (although it took some time as no stations were showing up. Don’t know what happened to change that. Maybe Bc I also opened the Porsche Connect app?) but once found, it was as easy as selecting the pump and plugging in.

awesome! Appreciate all of your assistance

daveo4porsche

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/th...e-2#post-57023

post #22 details all the different ways you can activate a EA charging session - only 4 of the 10 methods can/will result in the "free" 30 minute charging session - all other activation methods will result in billing fee's for the charge session

either Porsche Connect app
or
Charging app

can start a "free" 30 minute charging session - it's frustrating because sometimes one or the other or both are working or broken

here are the links to the two porsche apps for the free 30 min session

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/porsch...p/id1027326241
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/charging-na/id1487459638

here are the set of useful apps for owning an EV in North America

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/electr...a/id1458030456
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plugshare/id421788217
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chargepoint/id356866743
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/evgo-e...s/id1281660968
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-bett...p/id1490860521

Calkar

Does plug-n-charge work yet? And will it be a free session with plug-n-charge?

daveo4porsche

plug-n-charge from my assessment is "hit-or-miss"…

some people have it working great, other's not so much - a lot depends on MY of your Taycan - and regionally - EA is rolling it out - but it's not something you can rely on - I'd have the various apps at the ready.

NOTE: if you optioned the 19.2 kW AC charger for your North American Taycan plug&charge will NEVER work due to a hardware compatibility/provisioning issue - it apparently should/could/would/will-be fixed for MY'2022 - and MY'2020 Taycan's do NOT support plug&charge

so it's really really a mixed bag.

Wired4fun

Just checked my app. $0.00 charged. The “pump” showed $14.90 but before I started charging, it said “Taycan Plan” or whatever, so I knew it would be zero cost.

Thank You all for the help and links. Truly awesome.

Calkar

I have a MY2021 scheduled for August build. Should I be concerned that plug-n-charge may not work? I was at an EA DCFC station close to my home a couple of months back and met a guy with a brand new Turbo S and he drove quite a few miles there just so he can experience the fast charger. It was funny to see him moving around in the parking lot with his cell phone in hand just so he can activate the charger since that area has really spotty cellular connection. (And I am sure I would not be funny if I am the one trying to charge the car and not able to...)

daveo4porsche

plug&charge _SHOULD_ work on your Taycan unless you optioned the 19.2 kW home charging option (which I doubt you did) - so that will mean your MY’2021 Taycan _CAN_ plug&charge - the other part of the equation is will it - and that all depends on Electrify America…and frankly it’s sooo variable right now that there is no way to predict if it will or won’t work at any particular EA location…

the only thing I can think of is to either call & ask EA about Plug&Charge status at a particular location - or consult plug-share and see if any ‘check-ins’ report plug&charge working…

as I said it’s really really hit-or-miss so far…have your app’s at the ready.

daveo4porsche

there are at least 10 ways to activate an EA charging session:

1. Electrify America App
2. Electrify America Account added to your AppleWallet via NFC
   1. wave your phone for account ID in front of the wireless credit card reader for EA account activation
3. Porsche Connect App
4. Charging America App
5. Swiping a physical credit card at the charger using onscreen instruction at the charger
6. using a credit card via NFC at the charger using onscreen instructions
   1. this is distinct from method #2 - NFC credit card vs. NFC account membership card
7. Plug & charge (if station/vehicle support it)
8. Calling the Electrify America customer support
9. having it “just” work because for what ever reason EA has enabled charging at a specific location because of some fault with stations ability to accept payment locally
10. EA RFID card/fob? is this thing?

• I have personally used/experienced EA and gotten a charging session to work with 9 of the 10 methods listed above…
• this is too many methods and each trial via each method can take some time
• the method required will vary by station and current conditions
  • the method required may vary by stall at a given site
  • the method required will vary by the hour at the same station on the same day
    • see @chrisk recent experience at the belmont, ca station
• only method’s 3, 4, 7, and 8 are potentially able to utilize the “free” included North American Taycan charging billing for the 30 min “free” session
• sometimes all 10 methods will fail to initiate a session
  • this is the nightmare scenario and why EA still sucks sometimes
• my hope is that #7 becomes the primary method over time and the failure rate drops
• if you are not prepared to try each of the 10 methods to start a session then EA/Taycan is not the vehicle for you at this point in it’s life cycle - that’s a personal decision
• Porsche and their dealership’s are cluelss as to the real status of the EA network and challenges in actually attempting to travel with this vehicle with the EA network
  • they are sales/marketing people - they will claim the best possible outcomes in all circumstances blissfully unaware that EA at this point in time is a work in progress and some of that work is substandard with substandard results
  • prosche’s legal department is at least as good as their mechanical engineering department - attempting to get them to legally respond to mispresentaiton on this topic will at least be an expensive excercise taking time and money if you feel you’ve been mislead - I would doubt you can return the vehicle based on your personal feeling of misrepresentation on this topic.
    • at a minimum we’ll be onto the Taycan .2 or beyond if VW/Audi/Porsche were to ever “cop” to this via legal action
• my experience since July 2020 is that EA is getting better slowly - but it is still less than 100% reliable
• it has also been my experience that sometimes activating the session takes longer than the actual charging session - undermining the charging speed advantages of the Taycan
• when you can successfully activate an EA station w/350 kW charging and get 150kW or more charging rate - the Taycan is the fastest charging EV currently available in production for normal purchase - hands down the fastest network and fastest charging EV.
• there is a possibility EA station activation is failing due to hardware faults with
  • a) the vehicle - only your dealer can diagnose this
  • b) the actual physical station you are using
  • it is true neither the vehicle or the station will provide enough diagnostic information for you as a normal consumer to know the difference as to why you can not activate a charging session at a given stall
  • EA customer support MIGHT be able to suggest it’s not their station’s fault - but I would not trust their diagnosis 100%
  • your dealership is clueless - repeat this - a lot - but they will try
• Rebooting EA stations takes time, but it may resolve the issue
  • like all good computers they sometimes magically work after a good swift kick in the powersupply…
  • if you must charge at a given location - make the EA agent reboot each and every station in a vain atttempt to get at least one to work
  • this will take time…but it’s better than being stranded
• if you haven’t baked in extra time due to the incomplete list of possible failures listed above then you’re doing it wrong
  • or the Taycan is the wrong EV for your roadtripping plans and needs
• The Tesla supercharger network is in fact better and much more reliable - this is an indisputable fact at this point in EV development
  • tesla fan boy’s are sometimes right - this is frustrating - but on this topic - leave them alone - Elon is winning here for now…
  • it’s not flawless, but it is greatly better from a reliability and usability point of view
  • if this is important to you purchase your EV with this in mind.
• All of these issues occur at varing degrees of probabilility across the current and future CCS based EV fleet…
  • the grass is not greener with another CCS based EV.

As with all things YMMV - and the reasons it may vary are innumerable - this can lead to extreme frustration - back up charging plans are a way of life with a Taycan at this point in it’s life cycle - and you may lose vast amounts of time fiddling with an EA station attempting to get it to work.

spouse/travel companion approval will be very very low if you encounter any of these problems while traveling - it’s best to have your travel companions “buy in to” this as the current state of affairs before choosing your vehicle for that next trip - if they are un-amused by debugging new technology - they will be grumpy during the trip at some EA sites…find a new EV or a new Travel companion - but one will have to be swapped for the other - cost to swap one or the other will vary greatly…

the current state of affairs is unacceptable and I‘m hoping/trusting it will improve over time - having a high failure rate and many many different methods for charger activation is not sustainable over time - it will ether get better or this whole EV thing will stall because of this and other factors - I’m optimistic that over time things will get better and we’ll increasingly rely on and be successful with method #7 - and all the other “methods“ will fade into low utilization scenarios - but for now this is the state of affairs - and it’s likely to be this way for at least another 12-24 months…

we’ll all check in constantly on this topic - hey - it’s an internet forum - but if this goes like it has to this topic will fade because if it doesn’t - well then we have bigger problems for an EV transition.

XLR82XS

EA expansion plan states big updates and increase in charging stations from now through 2023. Will be interesting to see how it turns out especially with Rivian, Bollinger, and other EVs coming to market that will utilize this network.