3 different teslas dont charge at a 3rd Party station at work but a Porsche EV charges ok?

[3LE-TRK]

Hi all!
My office has two charging stations that are old GE Wattstations. That is only important because they were bought and supposedly managed by ChargePoint. Ok. Maybe not important. In any case there is no account to sign up for or anything, you just plug in and the car charges.

The unit on the right works perfectly. I have a 2019 M3P. Plug in. Charging.

The unit on the left we thought was broken. Two different M3’s and a brand new MY get “communications error@ and it will not charge. We even had the building reset the breaker for it but no luck. Here is the weird thing. Porsche EV charges fine. As do most all EV’s except ours.

Yesterday there was an old MX that was there charging just fine. Trying to unwind this issue! Is it feasible that the MX is under the unlimited supercharging plan and therefore the “Communications error” never happens because the car doesn’t communicate out? What else could this be???

Thanks!

 

[RayK]

I'm assuming that the GE Wattstations have a J1772 handle, one that requires a Tesla adapter in order for it to plug into Tesla's proprietary charge port. This would be a Level 2 (240VAC) charging station. As such, unlimited Supercharging plan (or any other, for that matter) should have nothing to do with it. My guess would be that there's an intermittent connection on that J1772 handle which in some (most) cases will not allow a Tesla adapter to connect successfully.

You said the Porsche charges okay. What does "as do most all EV's except ours" mean? That other Teslas are charging okay? Or that some other brand of cars are also having problems getting juice? What is the connection procedure you are using? Do you plug in the Tesla adapter onto the J1772 handle and then plug in? Or is the Tesla adapter getting plugged into the car and then the J1772 handle inserted into the adapter?

 

[3LE-TRK]

2019 M3, 2020 M3, 2022 MY do not charge. Other EV’s such as a Porsche, Volvo and an older MX charge fine. Same procedure as the working unit. Plug the adapter to the car then the wall to the adapter.

The reason I questioned the unlimited supercharging was only because it may be possible that cars with that “feature” have different communication profiles as our cars that do not work show a communications failure.

You are correct on the voltage. 208v 30amp.

 

[davewill]

Could be a faulty cable/handle. If the two cars that work cause the cable to hang at a different angle it could cause a wire to make a better connection. You might try flexing the cable gently to see if it suddenly starts working. If so, then you know what the problem is.

I had an EVSE at home fail in exactly that way. It was working fine with my LEAF, but when I brought my RAV4EV home, it would fail unless I took weight off the cord. Made sense as the Rav's charge inlet was higher off the floor, so more cord hung off it. I had to replace the handle and cord.

Might be time to retire those dinosaurs.

 

[3LE-TRK]

I will give it a try. I know they are putting in new charge points but unfortunately that means the days of free charging are over!

 

[GHammer]

I've had issues even with new GE wattstations. My daughters apt. building has several of these and they dont communicate the current draw to the car correctly. They are supposed to be 30 amp but they tell the car to charge at 31-32 amps and eventually they trip the breaker. I've personally seen it happen on my S and apparently it happens on other cars because ive shown up to visit and 3 of 4 have been tripped.