2 Public NACS locations now open

[MP3Mike]

Entries have been updated on Plug Share that there are two public NACS charging sites open:

Sites:

• One Bethany at Watters Creek | Allen, TX | EV Station
• ChargePoint Corporate Headquarters | Campbell, CA | EV Station

 

[afty]

Does anyone know if these third-party NACS fast chargers will work with older Teslas that don’t support CCS?

 

[MP3Mike]

Does anyone know if these third-party NACS fast chargers will work with older Teslas that don’t support CCS?

To the best of our knowledge, no. Though a OOS video with Chargepoint said that they were still trying to figure out if they could support the non-CCS capable Tesla vehicles.

 

[miimura]

To the best of our knowledge, no. Though a OOS video with Chargepoint said that they were still trying to figure out if they could support the non-CCS capable Tesla vehicles.

I doubt any third party chargers will ever support non-CCS Tesla vehicles through a NACS connector at >125A DC. Tesla will probably finally deliver the CCS upgrades to 3 & Y vehicles that need it before there are a significant number of NACS ports available to the public. Just to be clear, the timeline I have in mind is 2Q 2024, notwithstanding the Tesla shop page that currently says "Note: For Model 3 and Model Y vehicles requiring a retrofit, please check back in late 2023 for availability."

 

[Earl]

Just to be clear, the timeline I have in mind is 2Q 2024, notwithstanding the Tesla shop page that currently says "Note: For Model 3 and Model Y vehicles requiring a retrofit, please check back in late 2023 for availability."

Good reminder. Its time to put in another service request to add the CCS retrofit to our 3. I do so periodically, just to remind them that I want it.

 

[ATPMSD]

This reminds me of when the cell phone companies were advertising 4G phones that were not true 4G. Sticking a Tesla plug on the front of CCS is, to me, false advertising. All this does is add confusion.

 

[afty]

This reminds me of when the cell phone companies were advertising 4G phones that were not true 4G. Sticking a Tesla plug on the front of CCS is, to me, false advertising. All this does is add confusion.

Yeah. I think it’s going to be super confusing for people with older Teslas when they discover that they can’t charge using something that looks like the same plug.

 

[davewill]

Yeah. I think it’s going to be super confusing for people with older Teslas when they discover that they can’t charge using something that looks like the same plug.

I think that's the main reason Tesla is even offering CCS upgrades for older cars. Since the NACS spec doesn't include the older Tesla Supercharger protocol, unless the third party installations go out of their way, and it's not clear they even can, older cars that don't have CCS capability won't work on them, ever.

 

[ATPMSD]

I think that's the main reason Tesla is even offering CCS upgrades for older cars. Since the NACS spec doesn't include the older Tesla Supercharger protocol, unless the third party installations go out of their way, and it's not clear they even can, older cars that don't have CCS capability won't work on them, ever.

I don’t get what is going on here, so please help.

I ”thought” the NACS spec was both a Tesla plug and the communications protocol, which should mean any Tesla should be able to use any NACS charging station. But in the original post it sounds like what was implemented is a Tesla plug using the CCS protocol, which of course means the car must support CCS.

So then, which is it? Or are there two implementation paths?

 

[MP3Mike]

But in the original post it sounds like what was implemented is a Tesla plug using the CCS protocol

Yep, that is the NACS, J3400, spec. It doesn't include the Tesla protocol.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I don’t get what is going on here, so please help.

I ”thought” the NACS spec was both a Tesla plug and the communications protocol, which should mean any Tesla should be able to use any NACS charging station. But in the original post it sounds like what was implemented is a Tesla plug using the CCS protocol, which of course means the car must support CCS.

So then, which is it? Or are there two implementation paths?

NACS is the plug and port.

Opening the North American Charging Standard | Tesla

www.tesla.com

...
In pursuit of our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, today we are opening our EV connector design to the world. We invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port, now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS), on their equipment and vehicles. NACS is the most common charging standard in North America: NACS vehicles outnumber CCS two-to-one, and Tesla's Supercharging network has 60% more NACS posts than all the CCS-equipped networks combined.
...

As a purely electrical and mechanical interface agnostic to use case and communication protocol, NACS is straightforward to adopt. The design and specification files are available for download, and we are actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard. Enjoy.

 

[MP3Mike]

NACS is the plug and port.

It also specifies the protocol used to talk to the charger. Which is CCS.

It appears that maybe it is both DIN 70121 and ISO-15118 (CCS). The battle between ISO 15118 and DIN SPEC 70121

Hopefully as NACS in formalized into J3400 that will be clarified.

 

[MP3Mike]

Does anyone know if these third-party NACS fast chargers will work with older Teslas that don’t support CCS?

I think we have 100% confirmation now, the information screen about if CCS is enabled or not has changed in newer software versions:

It now says "CCS and 3rd-party NACS DC charging" and then if it is enabled or not.