Out of Charge and No Place To Go

[FLHusky]

I guess it had to happen, eventually! We turned in our 4S for a software update (scary I know) and noticed the loaner only had a small charge. We added some at home and left for a 70 mile trip with 112 miles range indicated. In about 6 miles that dropped to 85 miles but we checked the planner and it showed a couple of high speed charging options near our destination so in order to make our appointment we pressed on.

Appointment completed, we headed to option one for charging - nothing there! Option two had four stations all out of order. We started searching and the nearest options were 23 or 25 miles away and we were indicating range of 22 miles!

Well, we searched for the nearest Porsche dealer and that was way far away. Then we hit on the idea of calling the nearby Mercedes dealer and asking where the nearest charging station was. 20 minutes of helpful on line searching by the receptionist yielded nothing. Finally, I asked “where do you charge your EVs?” She checked with her boss, he told her to invite us over and we could use their charger for free. It was a DC charger so it took an hour but got us home.

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[daveo4EV]

plugshare.com - consulting their map of chargers will allow you to check for reliability, working/non-working, recent check-ins (which is a strong indications the site is functional)

most EV owner's use them to find chargers and determine likely hood of success…

 

[TRP]

plugshare.com - consulting their map of chargers will allow you to check for reliability, working/non-working, recent check-ins (which is a strong indications the site is functional)

most EV owner's use them to find chargers and determine likely hood of success…

Yes. Also, the EA app (for example) will tell you how many chargers are available, working or occupied for a given location. I generally try and have a couple of options planned out and not just assume a given location will be fine

 

[RickDCMD]

What Porsche’s is waiting for to give us access to Tesla supercharger network? Starting to believe that legacy companies will be better of if the EV transition fails.

 

[PrudentOcean]

Yes. Also, the EA app (for example) will tell you how many chargers are available, working or occupied for a given location. I generally try and have a couple of options planned out and not just assume a given location will be fine

The Porsche navigation system and the My Porsche app also have access to the EA utilization information, whereas Plugshare does not unfortunately. But Plugshare has access to this for other charging networks. Overall I find Plugshare to be indispensable.

 

[Pingechoreply]

Wow- I would have rejected the loaner. What sort of Visigoths would do that with an EV to a customer? That is so, shall we say "Yugo" of the dealer! Shame on them. But the most well known blunder is never go on a road trip when the indications are that you will "just" make it. I've had EV's now for 7 years, and the range estimate is just that : an estimate, not a promise. The destination at 1,500' and you are at 100' altitude? Well, that makes a big difference in that estimate. Almost did this once, and was saved by an actually great feature in our now ditched Tesla: It's routing takes elevation into account. Other manufactures can learn from this....(I haven't tried to see in the Macan yet).

Our use-case for our Macan4 is almost exclusively near enough to home that we have only had to use EA in one place (ChargePoint seems more a theoretical myth, like trolls under bridges, or a Nigerian prince that want to give us money). Was delighted that only one out of 10 stalls was out of order, and fast! But not having access to the best infrastructure is limiting if you are doing road trips.

I would suggest to the OP signing up for AAA- they are rolling out more and more trucks with generators for just this sort of emergency. Not that you really want to rely on that, just yet. Glad it all worked out for you. I'm hoping that soon we will be living in a world where we only need to give slight thought to a road trip, rather than actually having to research what we are doing for simple Interstate travel here in the US.

 

[PrudentOcean]

If you use the car’s navigation system or the My Porsche app then it will take altitude changes into account.

The car can also display a blue line around the car showing all the places that are reachable using the current state of charge. That too takes elevation changes as well as the current road conditions into account.

When you zoom in more you will see the charging stations in that area, their maximum charging speed, and the utilization. But there are many other charging networks that are not included, so Plugshare can be very useful especially when in an unfamiliar area.

 

[Pingechoreply]

Thanks for the info- glad to know it does this. Arizona has a LOT of elevation change... Now to figure out how to populate it with EA stations (and someday, Superchargers).

Now, to get certificates working so I'm not fiddling with credit cards at EA stations. Seems to be baffling the dealer, though not from lack of trying. Like the lack of Supercharger access, this too shall pass.

 

[Fun TC Driving]

I got mine as a CPO from across the country, so never had a local dealer explain anything to me before it showed up on my street. But all my Plug and Charge and other set up issues were resolved by my calling the Porsche customer service @ 800.767.7243 then ext # 2 (Macan EV specialists) . They figured it out Plug and Charge with me on the phone and it works perfectly now. Have used P-n-C successfully since at EA stations every time (however never tried ChargePoint yet). Have your mobile phone in the car and the Porsche app downloaded onto it before you call.

 

[daveo4EV]

I got mine as a CPO from across the country, so never had a local dealer explain anything to me before it showed up on my street. But all my Plug and Charge and other set up issues were resolved by my calling the Porsche customer service @ 800.767.7243 then ext # 2 (Macan EV specialists) . They figured it out Plug and Charge with me on the phone and it works perfectly now. Have used P-n-C successfully since at EA stations every time (however never tried ChargePoint yet). Have your mobile phone in the car and the Porsche app downloaded onto it before you call.

chargepoint works - but is not plug&charge - only EA is plug&charge - chargepoint you have to start your session with the app via the map/chargestation interface in the app - once the session has been initiated it will release the charging cable on the station and you can plug in and it will start charging.

 

[PrudentOcean]

Also, charging at ChargePoint won’t be free. The one year complimentary 30 minute charging sessions are only at Electrify America.

 

[TRP]

I'm glad to see the on board nav takes into account much more than just distance.

I've only been driving an Ev for a little over 3 yrs now and I learned a lot on this journey. Back up plans are your friend when traveling. Never rely on just your first choice to be enough.

My FIL recently bought an Ev, even after I desperately tried to talk him out of it. So anyway.............he decided to drive it to our house and chose a charge location before he left his house. When he arrived he found out the hard way it was not operable, or at least the unit he tried would not work. He failed to try another stall at the same location. Fortunately for him, our house was within his remaining range.....so he got lucky. After talking to him about it, turns out he only ever had the one location in his head and had zero back up locations. He had passed 2 functioning charge locations in the process. He's lucky he had the range to make it non-stop.

Point is.....Plan, Plan, Plan. Plugshare, ABRP, on board nav...whatever your choice, plan it out.

Plug&Charge is great in my opinion for the free sessions. After that, you are better off using the apps and taking advantage of the discount for being a member. JMHO....YMMV

 

[Fun TC Driving]

EA combined with P-n-C is working excellently for us. At the same time, just as TRP noted, we plan ahead, have a back up or better yet two of them, e.g.,

Point is.....Plan, Plan, Plan. Plugshare, ABRP, on board nav...whatever your choice, plan it out.

We always plan ahead, refine our draft A, then send draft B or C using the Porsche mobile app to our car, and drive —and so far been smiling 100% of the time on our trips. Heading out from Oregon to British Columbia in the next month and we will execute on what we just sent to our car last night. Nice that we all can select to our Macan via the mobile Porsche nav system app, a long time in advance our departure time/date via the app. Not that we will not just before take off, do a final check of the whole route and just as Dave also suggested, re-check in on PlugShare to insure that each of charging stations we are planning of using have still been pumping tons of electrons just before our departure without issues. All of them on our route plan are today PlugShare rated as a “10.”

 

[FLHusky]

Yes. Also, the EA app (for example) will tell you how many chargers are available, working or occupied for a given location. I generally try and have a couple of options planned out and not just assume a given location will be fine

We did think we had that covered!

 

[FLHusky]

Obviously, this experience has me thinking and planning. On a long trip would taking the wall charger along and looking to a campground with 50amp service for larger campers, to be an emergency option?

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