⚡️ Home Charging Issues after Software Update? (Tracking Thread)

[SandyHaus]

My local Porsche dealer service department got back to me. They said they know of the issue, have no idea when it will be fixed, presumably with a software update, and I should wait for a letter from Porsche. I pointed out that I do 99% of my charging at home. They invited me to use the chargers at their facility for free while this issue persists (I assume they'd let me use if for free anyway) but they are so far from my home that it wouldn't really help me. Fortunately, I still have free EA charging but the nearest ones are reasonably far from me.

I'm waiting for a voltage regulator I bought on Amazon to arrive in a couple of days.

Sandy

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[ScottM]

When did this happen? When I visited the dealership last, they said that Porsche has accepted the issue and are working on this as a high priority.

FYI, thinking through the legal approach too.

@toontoon - To answer your question: I took my car in on January 9th. As of today, I am at 39 calendar days out of service.


Regarding the high priority claim: Be extremely careful with that. I received a generic response from Porsche NA yesterday at 9:33 AM that offered zero specifics. While the dealers are often sincere, Corporate is currently using priority status as a placeholder while they issue formal denials behind the scenes.


In my case, they have already issued a final position blaming my home infrastructure, even after their own technician verified the car's software was the failure point during a house call.


If they truly accepted the issue, there would be a TSB or a software version number for the fix. Until that exists, working on it is just a way to keep you from starting your Lemon Law clock. I am holding firm to my Wednesday noon deadline for a repurchase offer. I will keep the group posted.

 

[ScottM]

Is Porsche legally required to operate on out of spec grids? If not, then what is the basis for any legal or lemon law action (the car is not broken)? Asking for a more disciplined/precise German friend ...

One may have to direct legal action at the service provider, I wouldn't expect any 240 V device to work well for long when fed with like 300 V. I've observed plenty of smoking power supplies over the years, and a few litigations. Sometimes it is a good idea to build in over voltage protection.

Good engineering practice or customer service is another issue.

1. The Standard: Under ANSI C84.1, the national standard for North American residential electrical service, the Range A service tolerance for a 240V nominal system is +/- 5%. This means any voltage between 228V and 252V is officially in spec. Any consumer product sold for the North American market—especially a premium EV—is legally expected to operate within this standard window.


2. The Software Defect: The likely German friend disconnect is that Europe operates on a 230V nominal standard. For a German engineer, a voltage like 246V is at the very ceiling of their tolerance. However, for the North American 240V grid, 246V is perfectly normal and right in the middle of the spec. It appears the recent software update narrowed the Macan’s tolerance to European 230V limits, incorrectly flagging standard American power as an over-voltage error. This is a localization failure in the software, not a grid failure.


3. Marketing vs. Reality: Porsche’s marketing for the Macan EV prominently features home charging as a core utility of the vehicle. By selling a car in the U.S. that rejects standard, ANSI-compliant residential power, Porsche has created a product that is no longer fit for the purpose for which it was sold. You cannot market a vehicle as a home-charging solution and then blame the standard American power grid when your software update refuses to accept it.

 

[daveo4EV]

1. The Standard: Under ANSI C84.1, the national standard for North American residential electrical service, the Range A service tolerance for a 240V nominal system is +/- 5%. This means any voltage between 228V and 252V is officially in spec. Any consumer product sold for the North American market—especially a premium EV—is legally expected to operate within this standard window.


2. The Software Defect: The likely German friend disconnect is that Europe operates on a 230V nominal standard. For a German engineer, a voltage like 246V is at the very ceiling of their tolerance. However, for the North American 240V grid, 246V is perfectly normal and right in the middle of the spec. It appears the recent software update narrowed the Macan’s tolerance to European 230V limits, incorrectly flagging standard American power as an over-voltage error. This is a localization failure in the software, not a grid failure.


3. Marketing vs. Reality: Porsche’s marketing for the Macan EV prominently features home charging as a core utility of the vehicle. By selling a car in the U.S. that rejects standard, ANSI-compliant residential power, Porsche has created a product that is no longer fit for the purpose for which it was sold. You cannot market a vehicle as a home-charging solution and then blame the standard American power grid when your software update refuses to accept it.

Mic Drop!

 

[daveo4EV]

1. The Standard: Under ANSI C84.1, the national standard for North American residential electrical service, the Range A service tolerance for a 240V nominal system is +/- 5%. This means any voltage between 228V and 252V is officially in spec. Any consumer product sold for the North American market—especially a premium EV—is legally expected to operate within this standard window.


2. The Software Defect: The likely German friend disconnect is that Europe operates on a 230V nominal standard. For a German engineer, a voltage like 246V is at the very ceiling of their tolerance. However, for the North American 240V grid, 246V is perfectly normal and right in the middle of the spec. It appears the recent software update narrowed the Macan’s tolerance to European 230V limits, incorrectly flagging standard American power as an over-voltage error. This is a localization failure in the software, not a grid failure.


3. Marketing vs. Reality: Porsche’s marketing for the Macan EV prominently features home charging as a core utility of the vehicle. By selling a car in the U.S. that rejects standard, ANSI-compliant residential power, Porsche has created a product that is no longer fit for the purpose for which it was sold. You cannot market a vehicle as a home-charging solution and then blame the standard American power grid when your software update refuses to accept it.

not to mention:

1. the vehicle previously functioned with out issue
2. all other EV and hybrid vehicles from Porsche accept this grid voltage as operational
   1. other Macan EV vehicles that have not been updated operated without issue
3. the fault can be deterministically traced to installation of a vendor approved/provided software update applied by vendor authorized service personal following vendor approved procedures…

 

[SandyHaus]

My update:
The voltage regulator arrived this evening. Plugged it in to my “110v” outlet, set the voltage to 110v attached there Porsche charger to the regulator, and plugged it into the charge port on my car. . .
got the same unable to charge message and red lights. Dropped the voltage to 105v -same, to 100v -same. Then tried 97v and. . . car started charging - green lights all around. I unplugged the Porsche charger and replaced it with my Tesla 220v charger with adapter and all stayed green and charging went smoothly! Thanks to this forum and its great participants, I can survive the months it will take for Porsche to fix this software issue without having to head to distant DC chargers each week!!

Sandy

 

[Bauer83]

My update:
The voltage regulator arrived this evening. Plugged it in to my “110v” outlet, set the voltage to 110v attached there Porsche charger to the regulator, and plugged it into the charge port on my car. . .
got the same unable to charge message and red lights. Dropped the voltage to 105v -same, to 100v -same. Then tried 97v and. . . car started charging - green lights all around. I unplugged the Porsche charger and replaced it with my Tesla 220v charger with adapter and all stayed green and charging went smoothly! Thanks to this forum and its great participants, I can survive the months it will take for Porsche to fix this software issue without having to head to distant DC chargers each week!!

Sandy

What unit did you end up buying? Same question for you Danbar? Voltage fluctuation was live and well today at the house seems, and wasn’t able to get the L1 to start without fiddling with it and timing it to drops. Willing to spend a few bucks to try and remove the guess work until this is addressed.

 

[Dandar245]

What unit did you end up buying? Same question for you Danbar? Voltage fluctuation was live and well today at the house seems, and wasn’t able to get the L1 to start without fiddling with it and timing it to drops. Willing to spend a few bucks to try and remove the guess work until this is addressed.

I got a SKYSHALO 2000VA from Walmart online. 67 bucks and received next day. Pleasantly surprised with the experience. Service appointment scheduled for Mar 6. Will update with hopefully a fix

 

[SandyHaus]

I purchased this for $79 on Amazon. For $13 less you can get one with a pointer meter instead of a digit one.

VEVOR Auto Variable Voltage Transformer 2000VA, 15.3 Amp, 110V Input 0-130V Output AC Voltage Regulator, with LCD Display 4 Extra Fuses Thermal Control Switch

Sandy

 

[jergans]

My update:
The voltage regulator arrived this evening. Plugged it in to my “110v” outlet, set the voltage to 110v attached there Porsche charger to the regulator, and plugged it into the charge port on my car. . .
got the same unable to charge message and red lights. Dropped the voltage to 105v -same, to 100v -same. Then tried 97v and. . . car started charging - green lights all around. I unplugged the Porsche charger and replaced it with my Tesla 220v charger with adapter and all stayed green and charging went smoothly! Thanks to this forum and its great participants, I can survive the months it will take for Porsche to fix this software issue without having to head to distant DC chargers each week!!

Sandy

Just so I’m clear on this: Once you got the Porsche charger working, you unplugged it (presumably ending the charging session), plugged in your Tesla Wall Charger/220v and it started right up?

Wanted to check because I’m going to try the same solution this weekend. Someone previously had mentioned plugging the Level 1 and 2 chargers in at the same time, then ending the Level 1/110v charger.

Thanks for helping find a workaround!

 

[SandyHaus]

I did exactly as you initially described in your note. I plugged the 110v into the driver’s side charge port. I waited until there was a green surround on the button and interior lights all went green. I further waited until I saw the power starting to climb on the center screen. Then I pressed the button in the lower right of the charge port to stop the charging (otherwise you can’t unplug). I unplugged the 110v and plugged in the 220v (in my case, a gen 1 Tesla home charger with an adapter) The green lights all came on again and I was charging at a bit over 9 kw (as usual before all these charging problems began). I don’t believe it’s even possible to have both charge ports open at the same time on the Macan EV.

Sandy

 

[ColdCase]

1. The Standard: Under ANSI C84.1, the national standard for North American residential electrical service, the Range A service tolerance for a 240V nominal system is +/- 5%. This means any voltage between 228V and 252V is officially in spec. Any consumer product sold for the North American market—especially a premium EV—is legally expected to operate within this standard window.

Thanks for the clarification, from earlier posts I was under the impression that some grids were out of spec and it would be hard to argue lemon law for that.

 

[verdee]

have a 2024 Macan 4. Had the update in December. Starting the past 3 weeks have been getting intermittent charging errors both at home and and work. Same charger at home that I have had for 6 years. Interested to see what the resolution is

 

[pm4s]

2. The Software Defect: The likely German friend disconnect is that Europe operates on a 230V nominal standard. For a German engineer, a voltage like 246V is at the very ceiling of their tolerance. However, for the North American 240V grid, 246V is perfectly normal and right in the middle of the spec. It appears the recent software update narrowed the Macan’s tolerance to European 230V limits, incorrectly flagging standard American power as an over-voltage error. This is a localization failure in the software, not a grid failure.

Don't know who or how comes up with these theories but I can tell you our grid is 230v +-10% and maximum voltage is 253.
Btw we charge 3ph 400v (max. voltage 437) at 11kW (16A) as 1ph will only give you 7.4kW (32A).
If the OBC is 22kW we can charge at 32A 3ph

 

[ScottM]

Don't know who or how comes up with these theories but I can tell you our grid is 230v +-10% and maximum voltage is 253.
Btw we charge 3ph 400v (max. voltage 437) at 11kW (16A) as 1ph will only give you 7.4kW (32A).
If the OBC is 22kW we can charge at 32A 3ph

I’ve been tracking the data reported across this community, and a consistent pattern has emerged that suggests a specific conflict between the December 2025 software (WSJ0) and standard North American residential electrical architecture.

The Evidence: Certified Infrastructure The most telling data point is the timeline. Like many others on this thread, the failures only began immediately following the installation of the December WSJ0 update. To rule out any local hardware issues, I installed a completely new electrical setup—including a dedicated NEMA 14-50 outlet and a Porsche Mobile Charger Connect. I also had a Master Electrician audit the new wires and verify the outlet was properly configured on both legs. Despite this new, 100% Porsche-certified infrastructure, the failure persists.

The Control Test: Cayenne vs. Macan To further isolate the vehicle as the failure point, we performed a side-by-side test with a Porsche Master Technician:

• The Test: A 2025/26 Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid was plugged into my exact same outlet and charger.
• The Result: The Cayenne successfully performed the handshake and began charging immediately at 246V. My Macan—on the same wire at the same time—errored out. The Porsche Master Technician witnessed the Macan show 245V in the PIWIS diagnostic software and immediately reject the handshake.

This confirms that Porsche hardware is physically capable of accepting this power; it is specifically the Macan's current software logic that is rejecting the handshake.

The Architectural Observation: 3-Phase vs. Split-Phase The data suggests the software is struggling with the specific phase architecture of US homes:

• Success on 3-Phase: My car (and others) charge perfectly on 208V 3-phase commercial power at the dealership.
• Failure on Split-Phase: The car fails on standard 246V Split-Phase residential power (two 120V legs).

It appears the WSJ0 update narrowed the voltage tolerance specifically for the North American 180 degree Split-Phase handshake. If the residential line is stable (standard 244V–250V per ANSI C84.1), the car appears to interpret it as an over-voltage fault and rejects the charge.

The Regional Variable (Voltage Droop) This explains why owners in high-load regions like the Sun Belt are reporting success. Heavy seasonal grid load causes voltage droop, pulling their lines down to 230V–235V, which keeps them under the software's current ceiling. My theory is that here in the Midwest, where we have a very stiff/high voltage grid in the winter, the car fails—but come summertime, as the voltage naturally decreases due to the massive AC load on the grid, these cars may suddenly appear to work again while still maintaining the same December patch.

Conclusion For a high-end EV, having home charging that is dependent on neighborhood load to drop the voltage is a fundamental non-conformity. I suspect we are looking at a localization failure where North American residential standards were overlooked in the latest software calibration.

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