CCS Adapter for North America

[tps5352]

Disclosure: I have a (Korean) Tesla CCS1 adapter. You can definitely find cheaper ones (for example, see here), but my general cautious advice is to always buy Tesla-made charging equipment, just to be on the safe side.

That said, with the Tesla proprietary plugs and ports ostensibly becoming the North American Charging Standard in the near future, is there a real need for the majority of drivers (who do not travel extensively, and/or to out-of-the-way locales) to get a CCS1 adapter if they haven't needed to so far?

As was and is still true of the CHAdeMO adapter, some North American (and Hawaiian) drivers truly need an adapter to make it through long stretches of highway (or perhaps have access to free charging equipment), and therefore can truly benefit from one or both adapters. And as far as I know, the jury is still out on the issue of Tesla vs. (Asian) third-party CCS1 adapter durability/reliability. (If only 3rd-party CCS1 charging stations were as dependable as aftermarket CCS1 adapters, right?)

So if a driver can afford the price, by all means get one from any source that meets your budget and needs. Smart buyers may try to pick up deals on Craig's List (or wherever). But I suspect that in a few short years we may look back at these adapters as EV accessory anachronisms.*
_____
* And the whole early 2022 Korean CCS1 adapter "land rush" as lessons in global marketing and international entrepreneurism.

 

[cwerdna]

Not that it matters much.... but.... I bought a Bolt in 2017 and drove it from Columbia SC to Atlanta and back in one day. charged three times and had to call the provider every time. Sold the Bolt and got a Tesla M3. Decided I wanted to have a chademo adapter for redundancy so I met a fellow in Charlotte to buy it. Wanted to make sure it worked with my M3, so we had to go to two different DCFC stations to make find one that worked. The one that worked was on blue screen of death and we got the provider to remotely reboot it. Two years later, I was at Target @ Rivers and Ashley phosphate in Charleston SC and had to call EA to activate the charger for chademo. When I had the Bolt, I had assumed the problem was the CCS plug, but it turns out its the charger dispenser after all. Doesn't matter if you use chademo or CCS, you are likely to have problems. Kinda fun now with NACS... they can add a NACS plug to a dispenser but it will still have the same problems they've always had.

Strange but at the same time, I don't know what you did and how you planned your trip. Did you check Plugshare first? Did you avoid credit card readers? Don't use them. I've never used one. Electrify America Talks Charging Network Problems, Has Solutions under "about those credit card readers" and Interview: Electrify America expects you to raise hell if chargers don’t work (search for financial) suggest avoiding them.

Since you mention Bolt (I owned one for 3 years and used CCS on/off), did you prop up the handle until the car's charging lock engaged (EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable )? EA uses heavy cables and handles. The top portion of the connector is for communications. No comms? It may not charge. It's absolutely silly one might need to do this but it is what it is. Most other DC FC providers don't use those heavy cables and handles thus don't have that problem.

When I bumped into rhuber, on that trip, I DC FCed 3 times: once on EA. 2nd time was on Industrial St Parking Lot | McFarland, CA | EV Station when it was free. 3rd was on Madera Maintenance Station | Madera, CA | EV Station which is part of New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans. If any of those Caltrans free DC FCs are down, tough. The phone number on Caltrans DC FCs is wrong and doesn't work. I was able to get a hold of Caltrans people to report broken units before (elsewhere like Tejon Pass Rest Area - Southbound | Lebec, CA | EV Station for a long time had 3 of 4 units down) but it took them many months, maybe a year+ to fix them all. I'd always skipped District 06 Office | Fresno, CA | EV Station because the times I was doing a road trip, it was down. It was down for over a year due to copper thieves having cut the cables.

On the trip I pointed to at Thoughts on CCS DC Fast Charging?, I also charged or attempted to charge elsewhere but I usually had a good idea if the site would work ahead of time. For EA on that trip I recall these (and again, no calls to them to have them start a session): Culver City (two or three times for complimentary sessions), Goleta (at least twice over separate days w/o problem), Solvang (worked but I ended up not being billed, there was some weird glitch that I could see in their app), Pismo Beach (complimentary), Walmart 2458 - Salinas, CA | Salinas, CA | EV Station (complimentary).

 

[pvdoug]

(shrug) It's very rare I've ever had a problem w/EA where I had to call them to get a session to start. Sure, I've called them while already charging to report problems I've spotted (e.g. broken tangs on CCS handles)

I've used EA every now and then over the years w/native CCS cars. On my last road trip where I used EA (and wrote about it at Thoughts on CCS DC Fast Charging?), I didn't have to call EA to get any session started. They either were complimentary (just plug right in and it starts by itself) or paid and worked. My previous road trip in the same car where I bumped into rhuber (CCS Adapter for North America) but not at the site he posted a pic of, both of us charged on EA just fine.

However, this has all been within California, so it's possible it's a regional and/or time thing.

ARob's Spring 2022 Cross Country Bolt Trip Thread to both coasts in his Bolt. I didn't follow the thread carefully as to how many calls to EA CS he had to call but he does mentioned a few instances on that page. Another Road Trip Report - And an EA Nightmare! was worse though...

You have been very fortunate. I'm in Southern California and the two EA stations I go to have been marginal at best.

 

[cwerdna]

For sure there are EA dodgy stations and/or sites. Some of the sites I've used locally sometimes have a downed station or handle.

Westfield Culver City - North | Culver City, CA | EV Station that I got free juice from several times usually had at least one or two down stations. Out of the whole bunch there, only a small subset at the time were to complimentary session. Multiple other cars were charging there each time I arrived and some showed up too and were able to charge.

Pismo Beach Premium Outlets - Nike Factory Store | Pismo Beach, CA | EV Station when I used it when it still had the old ABB chargers (not the next gen units now) had probably one problem station. A Ford Lightning driver tried to use it and had some problem. I directed him to the one near me that was set to complimentary like the one I was already on. There was a 3rd station always in use and I'm not sure if it was complimentary or not.

When I was at Los Padres National Forest Headquarters | Solvang, CA | EV Station, two stations, maybe three worked but one more may have been problematic. An i3 driver showed and had trouble. I tried to help (including supporting the handle, which may be needed on i3 too, like Bolt) but we couldn't get charging started on it. So, he moved to another station and it worked. I saw a Bolt come and charge on one of the working stations w/o issue.

 

[aerodyne]

Sounds like, in more than one case, EA still stands for...Endless Anxiety!

 

[israndy]

I directed him to the one near me that was set to complimentary like the one I was already on

When was this? I thought that long string of complimentary charges was long gone. Sure paid for my CCS adapter with all the free charging I did during those couple of months though.

Kinda fun now with NACS... they can add a NACS plug to a dispenser but it will still have the same problems they've always had.

Ha ha! Yip, well, except the most common problem with CCS is the clip being broken off and not connecting to the car or adapter.

 

[ai4px]

Strange but at the same time, I don't know what you did and how you planned your trip. Did you check Plugshare first? Did you avoid credit card readers? Don't use them. I've never used one. Electrify America Talks Charging Network Problems, Has Solutions under "about those credit card readers" and Interview: Electrify America expects you to raise hell if chargers don’t work (search for financial) suggest avoiding them.

Since you mention Bolt (I owned one for 3 years and used CCS on/off), did you prop up the handle until the car's charging lock engaged (EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable )? EA uses heavy cables and handles. The top portion of the connector is for communications. No comms? It may not charge. It's absolutely silly one might need to do this but it is what it is. Most other DC FC providers don't use those heavy cables and handles thus don't have that problem.

When I bumped into rhuber, on that trip, I DC FCed 3 times: once on EA. 2nd time was on Industrial St Parking Lot | McFarland, CA | EV Station when it was free. 3rd was on Madera Maintenance Station | Madera, CA | EV Station which is part of New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans. If any of those Caltrans free DC FCs are down, tough. The phone number on Caltrans DC FCs is wrong and doesn't work. I was able to get a hold of Caltrans people to report broken units before (elsewhere like Tejon Pass Rest Area - Southbound | Lebec, CA | EV Station for a long time had 3 of 4 units down) but it took them many months, maybe a year+ to fix them all. I'd always skipped District 06 Office | Fresno, CA | EV Station because the times I was doing a road trip, it was down. It was down for over a year due to copper thieves having cut the cables.

On the trip I pointed to at Thoughts on CCS DC Fast Charging?, I also charged or attempted to charge elsewhere but I usually had a good idea if the site would work ahead of time. For EA on that trip I recall these (and again, no calls to them to have them start a session): Culver City (two or three times for complimentary sessions), Goleta (at least twice over separate days w/o problem), Solvang (worked but I ended up not being billed, there was some weird glitch that I could see in their app), Pismo Beach (complimentary), Walmart 2458 - Salinas, CA | Salinas, CA | EV Station (complimentary).

A person traveling should not have to use plugshare to find a working dcfc. Now for finding a hotel with a Evse, sure. If someone suggests that a person should plan to use or not use credit cards or should use plugshare to find a working charger I’d say that’s a statement about how unreliable the network is.

With superchargers i don’t even think any more. They just always work. In 5 years I may have seen a dozen plugs that didn’t work but there was always one right next to it that did work. Never been stranded by Tesla.

 

[Daekwan]

(shrug) It's very rare I've ever had a problem w/EA where I had to call them to get a session to start. Sure, I've called them while already charging to report problems I've spotted (e.g. broken tangs on CCS handles)

I've used EA every now and then over the years w/native CCS cars. On my last road trip where I used EA (and wrote about it at Thoughts on CCS DC Fast Charging?), I didn't have to call EA to get any session started. They either were complimentary (just plug right in and it starts by itself) or paid and worked. My previous road trip in the same car where I bumped into rhuber (CCS Adapter for North America) but not at the site he posted a pic of, both of us charged on EA just fine.

However, this has all been within California, so it's possible it's a regional and/or time thing.

ARob's Spring 2022 Cross Country Bolt Trip Thread to both coasts in his Bolt. I didn't follow the thread carefully as to how many calls to EA CS he had to call but he does mentioned a few instances on that page. Another Road Trip Report - And an EA Nightmare! was worse though...

Same experience here. EA works better than expected.. I've used them from VA all the way to Long Island, NY. I probably use them once a week and they work 'fine'. By 'fine' I mean you are certainly going to run into a broken charger here and there.. but I've never arrived at an EA station and been unable to charge my Tesla due to issues. Either the line was too long, or it just wasn't worth waiting for another EV to finish.. keep on driving and find a Supercharger.

I've found 90% of EA's issues can be solved by simply opening the EA app BEFORE you get to the charger. It will show you how many stations there are.. but more importantly how many are available? If it says a charger is "unavailable" = broken. If it says a charger is "in use" = occupied. If it says a charger is available.. then its probably going to work. The only time I've seen one listed as available and it didn't work.. was because the touchscreen software had crashed.. literally a black screen full of errors equal to the BSOD you'd get on older Windows computers. Common sense should tell you don't even bother trying that charger if its has a black screen of death.

Outside of that. Pull into a station that says available and the screen appears to work fine. Use the app FIRST to initiate your charging session. Then plug in. I've probably used EA chargers twice a month for the past 18 months to charge my Model Y since I first got the Tesla CCS1 adapter last spring from South Korea. My wife has a 2021 ID.4 that came with 3 years of free charging on EA's network.. so tend to use her login/promo code to charge my Model Y free on longer trips. As you can imagine.. actively seek EA chargers instead of Superchargers. This month alone I've already used 2 different EA stations (VA & MD) and both charged just fine. My wife also went to NYC last weekend and charged at 3 different EA stations without any issues whatsoever. I know exactly when she plugs in.. because we both use the same login on the EA app.. so I get a notification on my iPhone that a charger session has been started.

FYI.. I have noticed EA fixing a lot of chargers. I've also noticed them upgrading a lot of chargers.. both software & hardware. I'd say about 1 out of 5 visits.. I've seen a technician actively working on chargers. Its also easy for me to notice when chargers have been upgraded.. as my Tesla now only charges free on the older stations that have dual CCS connectors on the front of the charger. Newer stations have CCS connectors on the sides. The NEWEST stations have a single CCS connector on the side. As you can imagine I've even paid quite a few times as I don't know if the session will be free or not.. until the juice starts flowing. The app simply tells me that its using the VW ID4 charging plan.. but the newer stations certainly are able to communicate with my vehicle and recognize its not a VW ID4. At that point, I get charged the normal rate. Either way, my Tesla charges fine. Another reason I prefer EA CCS over Superchargers when possible.. is that they are usually located in a Walmart, Target or shopping parking lot.. whereas many Superchargers off highway exits are at gas stations. If I'm plugging in for 30-40mins.. I'd much rather go in Walmart or Target and knock out some shopping lists I already had.. that sit in the parking lot of WaWa playing with my phone or eating sugary snacks & sodas.

The CCS1 adapter is probably the best accessory I've gotten for my Tesla Model Y. I'd rank wide-angle side-view mirrors as #2. And a dash-mounted MagSafe 15W iPhone charger as #3.

 

[cwerdna]

When was this? I thought that long string of complimentary charges was long gone. Sure paid for my CCS adapter with all the free charging I did during those couple of months though.

All of the above were between Dec 26, 2022 and Jan 1, 2023.

Once I got home, there was a complimentary juice at an EA site near home since starting from Jan 1, 2023 or earlier for several weeks. I had an email chain going w/a few people who live on my street about it with one of us confirming/reporting thru Jan 21, 2023.

A person traveling should not have to use plugshare to find a working dcfc. Now for finding a hotel with a Evse, sure. If someone suggests that a person should plan to use or not use credit cards or should use plugshare to find a working charger I’d say that’s a statement about how unreliable the network is.

With superchargers i don’t even think any more. They just always work. In 5 years I may have seen a dozen plugs that didn’t work but there was always one right next to it that did work. Never been stranded by Tesla.

I don't disagree at all w/the first part. It is what it is.

FWIW, I've never been stranded by the CCS network either but I'm in California and I take routes that have at least some redundancy to a LOT (highway 99). On the end of Dec 2022 trip, I did encounter two non-EA city/county of Santa Barbara DC FC sites were totally broken. Their Plugshare scores were bad and recent check-ins too. I only tried them because they were super cheap but I knew going there to set my expectations super low. The were Powerflex sites and IIRC, their support might've been closed. I was calling to report and I doubt they'd have been able to remotely fix either of them anyway.

Both of Delano Maintenance Station | Delano, CA | EV Station (Caltrans free) were also broken but I also suspected they would be before going due to bad scores and recent check-ins, but it's free and I'd used it successfully before on a different road trip. I ended up backtracking and using Denny's Delano | Delano, CA | EV Station (EV Connect) which at the time was super cheap. They were only charging $2/hr for DC FCing and I stuck around after my car began tapering. PIcked up 39.713 kWh for only $2.25. That's a fraction of Pacific Gouge & Extort pricing to charge at home.

Sometime after my trip, the prices at Denny's Delano skyrocketed. Oh well.

 

[chinney]

... they can add a NACS plug to a dispenser but it will still have the same problems they've always had.

I had not given this a lot of thought, but good point. Adding NACS chargers to 3rd-party charge provider stations will not necessarily improve matters much for drivers with Teslas (nor for drivers of other brand cars with native NACS ports, as will soon be the case) who try to charge at those providers' sites. It will just lead to a whole new way for those non-Tesla charging stations to fail.

 

[aerodyne]

That's a fraction of Pacific Gouge & Extort pricing to charge at home.

You gave me a good chuckle there. Never say PG&E again!

 

[cwerdna]

FWIW, Pacific Grift & Extort's EV plan for those w/o separate meter for their EVSE is EV2-A. Per page 2 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf, cheapest rates are 27.8 cents per kWh. Rest of day is 44.7 to 59 cents per kWh.

Since I don't charge my EV at home, I'm on https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-TOU-C.pdf. If I were to charge at home, I'd be pushed beyond tier 1 so no baseline credit for each of those kWh beyond tier 1. So, the marginal cost to charge an EV at home would be 40.8 or 45.6 cents per kWh.

To top it off, "They just keep going up": PG&E wants to raise rates enough to boost its revenue to reduce wildfire risk
"PG&E is asking state regulators to raise rates yet again. The utility is looking for rates to be raised enough to boost its revenue by 26%, but the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is proposing half of that, 13%, or even less, 9%.

While neither is confirming numbers, experts said the proposals would have customers paying about $28 more every month, $336 every year. "

I had not given this a lot of thought, but good point. Adding NACS chargers to 3rd-party charge provider stations will not necessarily improve matters much for drivers with Teslas (nor for drivers of other brand cars with native NACS ports, as will soon be the case) who try to charge at those providers' sites. It will just lead to a whole new way for those non-Tesla charging stations to fail.

Indeed. It will however give NACS inlet and compatible w/adapters the ability to use Tesla Superchargers. Frankly, I think the warts on Tesla's SC network will become more apparent as there might be more lines and SCs being broken might be surfaced more.

There might also be anywhere from annoyance to charge rage from slower charging CCS vehicles using Tesla's formerly walled-garden. There are already issues of Bolts (55 kW max) tying up "350 kW" EA chargers for no reason. It's sparked plenty of discussion on chevybolt.org including from some folks who are clueless or basically don't care and will just use whatever (and won't move over either), not thinking about those who show up w/cars that can take advantage ("800 volt" system).

It will eliminate the prob of broken locking tangs on CCS1 connectors and should eliminate EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable on some cars.

 

[MP3Mike]

There are already issues of Bolts (55 kW max) tying up "350 kW" EA chargers for no reason. It's sparked plenty of discussion on chevybolt.org including from some folks who are clueless or basically don't care and will just use whatever (and won't move over either), not thinking about those who show up w/cars that take advantage ("800 volt" system) cars.

That is one of big advantages of V3 Superchargers, and other chargers like Kempower, where every stall supports the maximum charge rate and power is shared across all of the stalls.

 

[stopcrazypp]

There might also be anywhere from annoyance to charge rage from slower charging CCS vehicles using Tesla's formerly walled-garden. There are already issues of Bolts (55 kW max) tying up "350 kW" EA chargers for no reason. It's sparked plenty of discussion on chevybolt.org including from some folks who are clueless or basically don't care and will just use whatever (and won't move over either), not thinking about those who show up w/cars that can take advantage ("800 volt" system).

It will eliminate the prob of broken locking tangs on CCS1 connectors and should eliminate EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable on some cars.

Jalopnik had a whole article on this:
Bizarre, Passive Aggressive Notes For Drivers Of EVs Without Fast Charging Are Appearing On Chargers At The Dallas Airport (Update)

A lot of people seem to be clueless that they aren't any faster plugging into 350kW stalls, and then when someone comes along that can utilize it, it's occupied, while all the 150kW stalls are empty, which can be infuriating. Posting a notice as per that article doesn't escalate things much, but there may be other cases where much worse things happen.

 

[MikeGracz]

It really depends on where you live and what is available. I got the Tesla S. Korea CCS adapter through Harumio and it works just fine before it was available then in the US. It's the same adapter, so just get it through Tesla in the US, unless you live in S Korea...
I agree that the off-network DCFCs "suck ass" but sometimes they don't and where I live sometimes it's the ONLY option to get you where you want to go. I needed one yesterday to get home, and in the time it took me to find and use the bathroom in the adjacent mall I had enough charge to make it to the nearest SC (141 miles away) and then home (87 more miles).

 

[Cosmacelf]

Jalopnik had a whole article on this:
Bizarre, Passive Aggressive Notes For Drivers Of EVs Without Fast Charging Are Appearing On Chargers At The Dallas Airport (Update)

A lot of people seem to be clueless that they aren't any faster plugging into 350kW stalls, and then when someone comes along that can utilize it, it's occupied, while all the 150kW stalls are empty, which can be infuriating. Posting a notice as per that article doesn't escalate things much, but there may be other cases where much worse things happen.

The stupidity of building DC fast charging stalls that don’t share power among stalls is mind boggling. Tesla did it correctly from the get go in 2012. And then enhanced the power sharing four years ago with their V3 superchargers. Tesla never had a situation where you’d have 50, 150 and 250 kW stations side by side resulting in the situations you see now with CCS. Why didn’t the industry just copy Tesla? Sigh.

 

[DelPhonic1]

I've considered getting a CCS adapter but every time I've been to a station to use the Chademo I had the usual difficulties with CCS....like having to call EA. So why bother?

the one useful time I've used it in the past year was in Big Bear where there are no Tesla Superchargers. I didn't need to, but wanted to see if it worked. I happened to had been in the area going for a walk, and plugged into the Chargepoint fast(75kw) charger, and was full when I came back from my lake walk.

This has been the only useful time.

 

[terranx]

The stupidity of building DC fast charging stalls that don’t share power among stalls is mind boggling. Tesla did it correctly from the get go in 2012. And then enhanced the power sharing four years ago with their V3 superchargers. Tesla never had a situation where you’d have 50, 150 and 250 kW stations side by side resulting in the situations you see now with CCS. Why didn’t the industry just copy Tesla? Sigh.

V2 still had the annoyance of your rate being cut in half if someone parked in the shared stall. There’s really from guidance on Tesla’s part on which stall to use first.

V3 mostly solves that

 

[Allx]

…Kinda fun now with NACS... they can add a NACS plug to a dispenser but it will still have the same problems they've always had.

To add to the mix, older Teslas that don’t have CCS charging built-in will have another reason to be calling providers. Hopefully, opening of the supercharger network will motivate other networks to put in some effort.

 

[khorton]

Jalopnik had a whole article on this:
Bizarre, Passive Aggressive Notes For Drivers Of EVs Without Fast Charging Are Appearing On Chargers At The Dallas Airport (Update)

A lot of people seem to be clueless that they aren't any faster plugging into 350kW stalls, and then when someone comes along that can utilize it, it's occupied, while all the 150kW stalls are empty, which can be infuriating. Posting a notice as per that article doesn't escalate things much, but there may be other cases where much worse things happen.

EA could solve this quickly by charging a slightly higher rate for the 350kW chargers than the 150kW ones.