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As a person road tripping Europe with a 2 year old Taycan, fast charging not being fast enough is never a problem. It's always software / payment / availability

As a person road tripping Europe with a 2 year old Taycan, fast charging not being fast enough is never a problem. It's always software / payment / availability / compatibility (not working). I just went to a Shell recharge station in France, and mobile payment / my debit cards / Porsche charging card / My Porsche app weren't working, so I payed cash to a nice person who had a shell recharge card. The app wasn't working because I don't have a French bank account to connect it to, and in my country where I have bank account shell recharge is ,,coming soon''. In another place in Spain I went to a 350kWh Porsche fast charger in a Porsche sales center recommented by the online Porsche navigation app, and the charger was out of service, and the dealership didn't take any accountability, just told me to go to another station. They didn't even realize that they should make sure that it's offline in their navigation app at least for their own chargers. I had many places where there were no wifi / mobile net available for me (or extremely slow), and most of the time was taken not by charging the car (which can happen while I'm in the restaurant / bathroom), but by waiting for the 100MB app to download and register with all my details. Quite often it takes 20 minutes to just start charging / 5-10 minutes to get to the charging station by going down from the highway.

steveBK123 2y ago
Yes the ubiquity & reliability of chargers remains a large problem. Americans are under an impression Europe is dramatically better at this and, from my experience traveling as well.. it is not. When we get even close to the distribution and reliability of gas stations, things will get dramatically better. In theory US is heading there with all this IRA spending, but remains to be seen. Musk RIFing his entire supercharger team as Electrify America continues to flail does not inspire confidence. Case in point - NJ signed some sort of deal a year ago to make EvGo the exclusive charging network at NJTP rest stops. Nothing is installed yet, and meanwhile the existing slow, 2 stall chargers at a handful of rest stops have been taken out of service. The other American charging problem is they tend to be located well off highways in the back of shopping centers, which is more useful for regular fast charging (if you don't have home charging) than it is for road trips.
qingcharles 2y ago
This sounds really frustrating. I've not owned an electric car, but am all for them. Can you not charge without the specific app for each brand of charger? Does your debit card not work? I did a 10 day, 12 country road-trip around Europe once in a Jap supercar and the trickiest bits were persuading the Italians who want to pump your gas that I need to add some octane booster because their gas was so crappy (the land of the supercar?), getting kidnapped at a Shell station in France, and getting shook down by Hungarian cops. Are you enjoying the trip otherwise? I would think it would be a blast in a Taycan. Did you do the Alps? Does your car have a speed governor? I thought 145mph on the Autobahn would be good, but everyone drives on their limiters and I was a traffic hazard; I had to stay above 160mph to be "safe".

steveBK123 2y ago

Yes the ubiquity & reliability of chargers remains a large problem. Americans are under an impression Europe is dramatically better at this and, from my experience traveling as well.. it is not. When we get even close to the distribution and reliability of gas stations, things will get dramatically better. In theory US is heading there with all this IRA spending, but remains to be seen. Musk RIFing his entire supercharger team as Electrify America continues to flail does not inspire confidence. Case in point - NJ signed some sort of deal a year ago to make EvGo the exclusive charging network at NJTP rest stops. Nothing is installed yet, and meanwhile the existing slow, 2 stall chargers at a handful of rest stops have been taken out of service. The other American charging problem is they tend to be located well off highways in the back of shopping centers, which is more useful for regular fast charging (if you don't have home charging) than it is for road trips.

qingcharles 2y ago

This sounds really frustrating. I've not owned an electric car, but am all for them. Can you not charge without the specific app for each brand of charger? Does your debit card not work? I did a 10 day, 12 country road-trip around Europe once in a Jap supercar and the trickiest bits were persuading the Italians who want to pump your gas that I need to add some octane booster because their gas was so crappy (the land of the supercar?), getting kidnapped at a Shell station in France, and getting shook down by Hungarian cops. Are you enjoying the trip otherwise? I would think it would be a blast in a Taycan. Did you do the Alps? Does your car have a speed governor? I thought 145mph on the Autobahn would be good, but everyone drives on their limiters and I was a traffic hazard; I had to stay above 160mph to be "safe".