daveo4EV
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- David
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- Jan 28, 2019
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- Santa Cruz
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- Cayenne Hybrid, 911(s) GT3/Convertable
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Dec. 22, 2023 - UPDATE - we have a RECALL folks!! - details here - new power supply cables mid-2024 - https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...to-overheat-20-24-apb6-december-13-2023.18185
I'm tried of collecting all these threads over and over and over again for people that can't use the search function.
the links are now broken into two sections
the included Porsche EVSE's (PMC+), the optional $1120 PMCC, and now the Porsche Wall Charger (PWCC) have been far from problem free in North America. But some customers have no issues, others do have issues and have been underwhelmed and frustrated by Porsche's response.
hidden original text on date 10/21/2023 (almost exactly a year later)
the PMC+/PMCC are living under a cloud of distrust since as of about Sept. 2022 Porsche has decided/communicated their desire/recommenation to limit the default charge rate to 20 amps (4.8 kW) due to potential electrical thermal problems/reliability - as of Dec. 2022 no long term fix schedule has been announced - some customers have no problems, others have definitive overheating problems, some have had outright failures.
many on the forum have chosen to forgo the Porsche EVSE's and have installed alternatives and they claim they are happy (they may or may not be right). I'm equally sure many lurkers, and people who have never seen an internet forum are happily and blissfully unaware that the internet community thinks they will have problems with their perfectly functional porsche EVSE (i.e. the internet always magnifies the impact of problems, when most of time the issues only affect a fraction of the affected population).
what is true is that other the included PMC+ the Porsche EVSE are quite expensive vs. high-quality competitive alternatives - and in this author's opinion not worth the price premium. They are in fact not a good choice in my opinion - but as with all things YMMV.
but the history is below and I think even the most die hard fan of the Porsche EVSE product line for north America would agree - it's not Porsche's best offering and it is factual documented at this time that Porsche would prefer you use their mobile chargers at 20 amps - doubling your charging time and they have no announced resolution process or schedule to this reduction in published specification (it is sold/marketed/documented to a 40 amp EVSE - but at the moment has challenges operating safely and reliably at that level).
below you will find a collection of pre-existing threads that will accomplish several things:
For our non-North American Taycan Customers
the european/other non-North American PMC+/PMCC is a far better product and does not suffer from the aliments documented in these threads (it is however still bulky/heavy/expensive vs. available alternatives, but data indicates it is a rock solid functional choice in other markets)
Pre-recall Threads
May 19th, 2023 edit - added some links for additional information and alternative EVSE
Aug. 2023 - added links covering warranty (2 years) for PMC+/PMCC - Porsche now has a bulletin about the PMC+ unit going "all red" LED on you - and what to do (hint there is nothing you can do it has to be 'reset' what ever that means) - data continues to accumulate on the quality of the PMC+/PMCC in North America
Dec. 2023 - added some new Porsche technical bulletins to "the list" - even porsche think's their EVSE's suck…
Jan. 2024 - added note that some Taycan owners are getting their PMC+/PMCC confiscated and replaced with a non-Porsche EVSE - other's just get the supply cable removed - others are left along - Porsche continues their lack of coherence on this topic - but seems to have finally capitulated that yes their North American EVSE "sucks" for 40 amp usage - and also finally put the "will void warranty to use non-Porsche EVSE" question to rest - which was always crap-no-good-dealer-FUD - but yeah if you've got dealers providing non-Porsche EVSE's to customers they can't exactly says you're voiding the warranty by using a non-Porsche on/off power flow control device (EVSE).
July 31, 2024 - new recall cables are trickling out - but it's a mixed bag - apparently 8 AWG wire for an improvement, thermal sensor, new firmware for the PMCC presumably to deal with the thermal sensor (unclear on PMC+) - some people are noting you have to "twist" the NEMA 14-50P head of the cable to orient it to plug into the wall - but this matches the experience in my case with the non-recall cable - so this is not a new design/orientation in this case - I'll leave the posting here for completeness but based on my inspection of my non-recall unit this is nothing new - also in my case the amount of 'give' flexibility in the cable seems to absorb this 'twist' with no apparent stress or problem. I consider this a non-issue, but if you don't like it more power to you - all part of your decision to continue using the PMC+/PMCC. I gave up using Porsche's products in this space over a year ago and I'm very happy with my non-Porsche EV chargers…we can argue all we want as to if this required 'twist' is a good thing, bad thing, neutral thing - I can confirm that 100% in my case it's not a "new" discovery - so it's same as it ever was…
I'm simply amazed at Porsche's incremental break down here with no clear end game in sight - they seem simply unable to admit their wire gauge is too small and simply changing it to 8/6 gauge wire would answer a lot of problems…
I'll be curious to see what EVSE ships w/macan EV's inSpring/Summer Fall/Winter of 2024/2025 in North America.
Answer it looks like a new "Basic" Porsche EVSE will be shipping if the PMC units coming with 2024 Cayenne eHybrids are any indication…see this post…
https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-9y0-2019/1421901-another-e-hybrid-questiono.html
I'm tried of collecting all these threads over and over and over again for people that can't use the search function.
the links are now broken into two sections
- Pre-Recall - links posted before the recall
- Post-Recall - links posted post recall normally involving the "recall" part - a new power supply cable for NEMA 14-50/6-50
hidden original text on date 10/21/2023 (almost exactly a year later)
the PMC+/PMCC are living under a cloud of distrust since as of about Sept. 2022 Porsche has decided/communicated their desire/recommenation to limit the default charge rate to 20 amps (4.8 kW) due to potential electrical thermal problems/reliability - as of Dec. 2022 no long term fix schedule has been announced - some customers have no problems, others have definitive overheating problems, some have had outright failures.
Compatibly with non-Porsche EV's is spotty and if there is a problem with a non-Porsche EV - Porsche has been unresponsive to resolving the issue. Some people think this is horrible, others have trouble seeing why they should care if all they own or will own are Porsche's.
many on the forum have chosen to forgo the Porsche EVSE's and have installed alternatives and they claim they are happy (they may or may not be right). I'm equally sure many lurkers, and people who have never seen an internet forum are happily and blissfully unaware that the internet community thinks they will have problems with their perfectly functional porsche EVSE (i.e. the internet always magnifies the impact of problems, when most of time the issues only affect a fraction of the affected population).
what is true is that other the included PMC+ the Porsche EVSE are quite expensive vs. high-quality competitive alternatives - and in this author's opinion not worth the price premium. They are in fact not a good choice in my opinion - but as with all things YMMV.
but the history is below and I think even the most die hard fan of the Porsche EVSE product line for north America would agree - it's not Porsche's best offering and it is factual documented at this time that Porsche would prefer you use their mobile chargers at 20 amps - doubling your charging time and they have no announced resolution process or schedule to this reduction in published specification (it is sold/marketed/documented to a 40 amp EVSE - but at the moment has challenges operating safely and reliably at that level).
below you will find a collection of pre-existing threads that will accomplish several things:
- a non-pharmaceutical solution to insomnia
- demonstrate a deep and complex history and evolution of PMC+/PMCC issues and discoveries
- alternative therapies for your North American EV charging needs
- frustration with Porsche North America
- compatibility problems with non-Porsche EV's that may or may not be worth caring about depending on your situation and/or goals
- overheating scenarios documented for porsche since Aug. of 2020…
- an OTA update that was and then wasn't that reduced charging capacity to 20 amps by default, but could be overridden if you are sufficient motivated
- Porsche has since pulled this version from distribution but provided no revision to undo the "update" - so now some portion of the "fleet" of PMCC's have a "bad" software release that nerf's the unit to 50% - but no revision to restore this behavior which Porsche now claims was an unintentional bug - Porsche claims was a coincidence the software defaulted to 50% along with porsche's written recommendations to set units to 50% - interesting…but I'll take Porsche word at face value here and spot them "confusion" rather than malice
- to my knowledge no additional update has been provided or is available to "undo" this bug.
- confused and conflicting dealer recommendations and knowledge
- current service bullitin's where Porsche North America is adding stickers and owner manual updates recommending not using the PMC+/PMCC at full capacity
- NOTE: it is a factual result via arbitration that no one at Porsche is able to document what the iconography on the new stickers "means" or is intended to communicate - fact!
- arbitration w/Porsche yielding a capitulation that yeah their charger sucks
- documented incompatibility with non-Porsche vehicles where Porsche's response was to shrug their shoulders and say "yeah maybe that's true but we don't care".
- people who are perfectly happy with their Porsche charger and don't know what all the fuss is about
- confused new owners that are unclear about why they are not seeing a full 9.6 kW charge rate
- an emerging picture that even in the face of a recall with a redesigned power supply cable Porsche managed to "miss a detail" and the new cables require an awkward "twist" due to the orientation of the NEMA 14-50P male plug on the end of the cable…
For our non-North American Taycan Customers
the european/other non-North American PMC+/PMCC is a far better product and does not suffer from the aliments documented in these threads (it is however still bulky/heavy/expensive vs. available alternatives, but data indicates it is a rock solid functional choice in other markets)
Pre-recall Threads
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/tesla-gen-3-wall-charger-works-better-than-the-pwcc.12087/
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/replaced-pmc-with-tesla-gen-3-j1772-wall-connector.13296/
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/psa-for-na-owners-do-not-bring-your-pmcc-to-dealer.18688/
Post Recall Threadshttps://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/i-got-a-new-charging-cable-replacement-from-porsche.20051/
Macan Porsche EVSEMay 19th, 2023 edit - added some links for additional information and alternative EVSE
Aug. 2023 - added links covering warranty (2 years) for PMC+/PMCC - Porsche now has a bulletin about the PMC+ unit going "all red" LED on you - and what to do (hint there is nothing you can do it has to be 'reset' what ever that means) - data continues to accumulate on the quality of the PMC+/PMCC in North America
Dec. 2023 - added some new Porsche technical bulletins to "the list" - even porsche think's their EVSE's suck…
Jan. 2024 - added note that some Taycan owners are getting their PMC+/PMCC confiscated and replaced with a non-Porsche EVSE - other's just get the supply cable removed - others are left along - Porsche continues their lack of coherence on this topic - but seems to have finally capitulated that yes their North American EVSE "sucks" for 40 amp usage - and also finally put the "will void warranty to use non-Porsche EVSE" question to rest - which was always crap-no-good-dealer-FUD - but yeah if you've got dealers providing non-Porsche EVSE's to customers they can't exactly says you're voiding the warranty by using a non-Porsche on/off power flow control device (EVSE).
July 31, 2024 - new recall cables are trickling out - but it's a mixed bag - apparently 8 AWG wire for an improvement, thermal sensor, new firmware for the PMCC presumably to deal with the thermal sensor (unclear on PMC+) - some people are noting you have to "twist" the NEMA 14-50P head of the cable to orient it to plug into the wall - but this matches the experience in my case with the non-recall cable - so this is not a new design/orientation in this case - I'll leave the posting here for completeness but based on my inspection of my non-recall unit this is nothing new - also in my case the amount of 'give' flexibility in the cable seems to absorb this 'twist' with no apparent stress or problem. I consider this a non-issue, but if you don't like it more power to you - all part of your decision to continue using the PMC+/PMCC. I gave up using Porsche's products in this space over a year ago and I'm very happy with my non-Porsche EV chargers…we can argue all we want as to if this required 'twist' is a good thing, bad thing, neutral thing - I can confirm that 100% in my case it's not a "new" discovery - so it's same as it ever was…
I'll be curious to see what EVSE ships w/macan EV's in
Answer it looks like a new "Basic" Porsche EVSE will be shipping if the PMC units coming with 2024 Cayenne eHybrids are any indication…see this post…
https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-9y0-2019/1421901-another-e-hybrid-questiono.html
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