First time charging story

[krissrock]

So, i wanted to throw this out to you guys in hopes that it might help the next new owner for their first charging session.

I picked my 4 on 12/27 and I today was my first try at charging at all. I have the plug n charge cert and i was ready to rock n roll. I set the destination of the EA via the app and sent the station to the car. the nav new we were going to a charger, so it should have started preconditioning the batter. Whether it did this or not, idk...i wasn't paying attention.
the nav was attempting to me some roundabout way to the charger via the highway, when i can take one street straight to it...so ignore the Porsche nav and went to the EA while keeping the station as the destination.
I got to the station, plugged in,.. saw things get started, so I just walked away.
I just so happened to have left my phone in the car...I came back a half hour later to see....

$10 in idle fees..... WTF. how the fuck did that happen... I was only away for 30 mins, and we're supposed to get 30 mins sessions...
looking at the station, it said it only charged for 2 minutes! so 2 minutes, plus 10 min buffer, then about another 10 minutes of idle... smh
I look at the car, and the car's requested charge was set to 15% somehow! (i got there with 9%)...s o I'm dumbfounded as to how this happened, cuz I had the option checked in the battery settings to always request 80%...

Soooo what happened: there was a prompt on the screen stating that the navigation can set the desired charge...So the nav automatically lowered the requested charge to like 20% cuz it thought, that would be all we needed to get to the EA station we were already at, because I didn't follow the given routing...the guidance never ended.
I had to end the route guidance to be able to increase the requested charge.
Once that was done, I plugged back in, and the charger only charged for 30 seconds before stopping again....so it was also faulty.... i plugged into the other side, and that went normal...

So I say all this to note to ppl, to make sure you check the requested charge and/or be sure to end any route guidance if you use it to precondition the batter...

also, don't forget your phone...If i hadn't forgotten my phone in the car, i would have seen all the notifications that that charging ending 2 minutes after i walked away...that part of the app at least is WAD

 

[SteveInKirkland]

I had a very similar first charge experience at an EA charger. I also was shocked to learn that the charging system just stopped charging the car because the navigation system told it the car only needed 10% to make it to the next charging station.

My first charging experience was also complicated because, even after fighting with plug and charge for days, including multiple car factory resets, I had somehow missed that I had to select the downloaded certificate as the contract certificate with plug and charge.

Once all of that stuff was fixed, I knew when I showed up at the charger the next time to (1) disable navigation, (2) enable direct charging, and (3) then plug in.

 

[krissrock]

stopped charging the car because the navigation system told it the car only needed 10% to make it to the next charging station.

being that I plan to use the year of free charging, i'm going over to the station that's local to me when needed... But i no longer use the nav to "pre-condition" the battery.... I don't know how much it can do over 8 mi's anyway

 

[PSPJames]

I think this is another great example (especially for first time non-Tesla EV folks) to do a practice run at EA before heading off on a road trip. That way you can get an expectation of what will/could happen. Thank you for sharing your story so we all could learn!

 

[dgkhn]

I had a very similar first charge experience at an EA charger. I also was shocked to learn that the charging system just stopped charging the car because the navigation system told it the car only needed 10% to make it to the next charging station.

My first charging experience was also complicated because, even after fighting with plug and charge for days, including multiple car factory resets, I had somehow missed that I had to select the downloaded certificate as the contract certificate with plug and charge.

Once all of that stuff was fixed, I knew when I showed up at the charger the next time to (1) disable navigation, (2) enable direct charging, and (3) then plug in.

What exactly does the Direct Charging setting do, and does it impact both AC and DC charging?

 

[SteveInKirkland]

What exactly does the Direct Charging setting do, and does it impact both AC and DC charging?

I am hardly an expert on this but I figured it out by process of elimination. The Direct Charging setting appears to enable the car to start to charge immediately upon "valid" connection to a charger instead of waiting.

Scenario 1: in my home, I have a level 2 charger. The normal behavior of my car (Direct Charging = OFF; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) is to plug in when I arrive home but the car (or the app) determines when to actually start charging so that the state of charge is 80% at 5:50 am.

Scenario 2: in my home, I have a level 2 charger. I exit the car but set Direct Charging = ON; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.. I plug in when I arrive home and the car immediately starts charging until it reaches 80% or I disconnect it.

Scenario 3: At an EA (Electrify America) station on the road. (Direct Charging = OFF; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) I am navigating (using Porsche car navigation) to a destination and charging is part of my route. I roll up to the navigation provided charging station, plug in, and the EA station charges my car only the amount determined by the Porsche route planner.

Scenario 4: At an EA (Electrify America) station on the road. (Direct Charging = ON; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) I am navigating (using Porsche car navigation) to a destination and charging is part of my route. I roll up to the navigation provided charging station, disable navigation, plug in, and the EA station charges my car until I disconnect it or it reaches the maximum state of charge (80%, in this case).

Does that help?

 

[dgkhn]

I am hardly an expert on this but I figured it out by process of elimination. The Direct Charging setting appears to enable the car to start to charge immediately upon "valid" connection to a charger instead of waiting.

Scenario 1: in my home, I have a level 2 charger. The normal behavior of my car (Direct Charging = OFF; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) is to plug in when I arrive home but the car (or the app) determines when to actually start charging so that the state of charge is 80% at 5:50 am.

Scenario 2: in my home, I have a level 2 charger. I exit the car but set Direct Charging = ON; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.. I plug in when I arrive home and the car immediately starts charging until it reaches 80% or I disconnect it.

Scenario 3: At an EA (Electrify America) station on the road. (Direct Charging = OFF; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) I am navigating (using Porsche car navigation) to a destination and charging is part of my route. I roll up to the navigation provided charging station, plug in, and the EA station charges my car only the amount determined by the Porsche route planner.

Scenario 4: At an EA (Electrify America) station on the road. (Direct Charging = ON; Departure time set to 5:50 am. Max charge set to 80%.) I am navigating (using Porsche car navigation) to a destination and charging is part of my route. I roll up to the navigation provided charging station, disable navigation, plug in, and the EA station charges my car until I disconnect it or it reaches the maximum state of charge (80%, in this case).

Does that help?

Yes, that helps, thank you, but follow ups if I may.
In scenario #2, is that behavior any different from shutting off the scheduled charging and leaving direct charging off (ie are the two methods equivalent?)

in scenario #4, similar question: why would you need to BOTH shut off navigation and turn on Direct Charging. Wouldn't either action in isolation let you achieve max SOC?

 

[SteveInKirkland]

In scenario #2, is that behavior any different from shutting off the scheduled charging and leaving direct charging off (ie are the two methods equivalent?)

in scenario #4, similar question: why would you need to BOTH shut off navigation and turn on Direct Charging. Wouldn't either action in isolation let you achieve max SOC?

I can easily answer the scenario #4 question because it smacked me today!

If you don't shut off navigation, the navigation system tells the charging system how much power to put into the car to make the next charging stop. Charging stops and you begin to eat into your 10 minute grace period to leave the charging station.

If you shut off navigation and enable direct charge before connecting the charger, the car takes power until you manually stop it or it hits a limit that you've set (such as 80% max charge).

Why is this important? In today's trip, the nav wanted me to stop and sip 11 minutes of charging. I went to the bathroom during the stop. It took me 14 minutes to walk into the store, find the men's room, buy a drink, and leave. When I returned to the car, it had stopped charging at 54% and I had 7 minutes of wait time left. I would have rather had the car charge for those 3 minutes.

Your question about Scenario #2 requires more research from me. I have a departure schedule enabled because I want the system to warm the battery and set the climate control for the car. Not just because I want it to charge overnight. I don't remember what happens if there is no departure schedule. I'll try to remember to look at it this week.

 

[dgkhn]

If you shut off navigation and enable direct charge before connecting the charger, the car takes power until you manually stop it or it hits a limit that you've set (such as 80% max charge).

But what if you do only one of those two things: i.e. Shut off navigation OR enable Direct Charge. Why would you need to do both?

and set the climate control for the car. Not just because I want it to charge overnight.

That probably is the answer to my question about scenario #2.

 

[SteveInKirkland]

But what if you do only one of those two things: i.e. Shut off navigation OR enable Direct Charge. Why would you need to do both?

This may be an artifact of my initial problems with Electrify America and they may be resolved. When I first picked up the Macan, if I plugged it to an EA EVSE with Direct Charging=Off; Navigation=Off; Charging Limit=80%; Charging_Schedule=0550 Departure ... then the car would not start charging after a handshake with EA. The EA system would time out waiting for my car to start charging.

This brings up another problem that I encountered that is also related. Car has Direct Charging=Off; Navigation=ON; Charging Limit=80%; Charging_Schedule=0550 Departure. Navigation is calling for charging and there are two groups of EA chargers near each other. One group (GROUP A) is full and the other group (GROUP B) has 1 opening. The navigation selected to go to GROUP A. But I drove to GROUP B. Park at Group B space. Plug in. Car refuses to take any charge because it is not at the Nav Destination EVSE. Solution: Unplug EA CCS cable. Disable Navigation. Put car in Direct Charging mode. Plug EA CCS cable back in.

It may be that adding Direct Charge=ON and shutting off navigation isn't always required. I'll try it again. But I began doing it because it eliminated early problems that may (or may not) now be resolved.

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