CCS and Chademo charging at local walmart

[Rottenapplr]

So, as a future owner, is buying the CHAdeMO adapter worth the $600? There's one Walmart near me that has a few CHAdeMO ports but I only know of the one. Will I find it useful if I'm road tripping? Is there a third party one that is cheaper than the one on the Tesla store?

Haven’t heard of 3rd party ones. I road tripped and there were 2 occasions where it was stressful and inconvenient not having a chaedemo charger in the 1 1/2 years and 15 road trips I’ve taken. If would have gladly bought the $450 adapter if possible.

Why I think a chaedemo adapter would be useful is the fact there are more tesla now and there’s wait times on superchargers and having an alternative way to charge would be to my advantage. A few weeks ago there was a huge line at a supercharger off the grapevine. Tesla chargers had a 20-30 minute wait. But to the back of the Denny’s there were 2 chaedemo chargers with no one waiting.

There’s also 2-3 free Chaedemo charger on the 101 freeway here in California.

So I don’t think it’s vital to buy an adapter right now but road tripping on heavy holiday traffic will make this adapter invaluable.

 

[cwerdna]

So, as a future owner, is buying the CHAdeMO adapter worth the $600?

It's $450, not $600: CHAdeMO Adapter.

I can be worth it if you can get free or cheaper CHAdeMO charging than Superchargers or at home.

CHAdeMO Charging the Model 3 had his adapter pay for itself thanks to free CHAdeMO chargers (e.g. via Home Page - DRIVEtheARC that is only for a limited part of Nor Cal, so n/a for you).

CHAdeMO Charging the Model 3 charges at a 19 cents/kWh dual standard DC FC (CCS and CHAdeMO) which is cheaper than my marginal cost to charge at home (about 31.7 cents/kWh).

The two Supercharger sites near the above have also raised their prices: CHAdeMO Charging the Model 3. Even before the increase, the two SC sites were much more than 19 cents/kWh.

 

[zerb012345]

So I don’t think it’s vital to buy an adapter right now but road tripping on heavy holiday traffic will make this adapter invaluable.

I didn't even think about this!

It's $450, not $600

My bad on the price. Everything had gone up in price in the shop last week, I didn't realize it went back down again. (I swear I'm not crazy, the Desktop Supercharger went from $35 to $48, the roof rack from $450 to more than $600. Weird they all went back.)

Thank you both for the great information, maybe it's worth the purchase!

 

[cwerdna]

My bad on the price. Everything had gone up in price in the shop last week, I didn't realize it went back down again. (I swear I'm not crazy, the Desktop Supercharger went from $35 to $48, the roof rack from $450 to more than $600. Weird they all went back.)

I suspect you were looking at the Canadian version of the page.

At the bottom of The Official Tesla Shop | Tesla, click on the country to switch. For Electric Cars, Solar & Clean Energy | Tesla, switch via the hamburger menu on the right.

 

[Rottenapplr]

I didn't even think about this!

Yah in california its pretty annoying. I'm scouting out EVGO and charge point chargers when I'm going on road trips to just familiarize myself where other chargers are located. I'm just happy they are sprouting out more and more

 

[AdamMacDon]

So, as a future owner, is buying the CHAdeMO adapter worth the $600? There's one Walmart near me that has a few CHAdeMO ports but I only know of the one. Will I find it useful if I'm road tripping? Is there a third party one that is cheaper than the one on the Tesla store?

The answer to this depends almost entirely on your driving habits and location. Where I am in BC, there are tons of provincially owned level 3 chargers with CCS and CHADEMO, but no Tesla options. They are 50kW and completely free to use for now. Since I live in a condo and largely live off of level 3 charging, the adapter (which was $650 Canadian, not $600 US), has been very worth it. Especially on road trips across Canada where the Supercharger infrastructure is lacking.

 

[Rottenapplr]

Wow nice free Chademo. Wished Level three chargers should be everywhere at all business. It would make EV ownership viable for apartment and condo dwellers. Level 2 is too slow not practical. I'd love to run into the grocery, spend 20 mins and get 80% charge.

 

[cwerdna]

Yah in california its pretty annoying. I'm scouting out EVGO and charge point chargers when I'm going on road trips to just familiarize myself where other chargers are located. I'm just happy they are sprouting out more and more

You are using Plugshare, right? You may also want to download apps for other networks as well such as Electrify America (I wouldn't depend on them for CHAdeMO as they install 1 CHAdeMO + multiple CCS at each site and any or all stations could be down), Greenlots, etc. Don't bother w/Blink. They suck.

 

[AdamMacDon]

Wow nice free Chademo. Wished Level three chargers should be everywhere at all business. It would make EV ownership viable for apartment and condo dwellers. Level 2 is too slow not practical. I'd love to run into the grocery, spend 20 mins and get 80% charge.

That's exactly how I use them. Do my weekly shop at the grocery store in the parking lot with the free chargers and get a full "tank of gas" for free during the process. Sure beats having to go to a gas station and hand over $100 or so on top of grocery shopping. It makes EV ownership even easier than gas cars to be honest (not to mention cheaper).

 

[Rottenapplr]

You are using Plugshare, right? You may also want to download apps for other networks as well such as Electrify America (I wouldn't depend on them for CHAdeMO as they install 1 CHAdeMO + multiple CCS at each site and any or all stations could be down), Greenlots, etc. Don't bother w/Blink. They suck.

Ya of course. I have all the EV charging apps.

 

[cdswm3]

The local walmart in Florida just installed chargers with many plugs for ccs and one plug for chademo. I'm dumbfounded as I'm guessing 90 percent of EV's are Tesla. Where I live Tesla are very common so why would you install chargers that no one but a small percentage of users can use? From what I can tell there doesn't even seem to be CCS adapters available, but regardless there are pleny of J1772 chargers around that I do't have to buy an adapter.

Because soon the majority of EV's on the road will use CCS. That is the standard everyone else uses other than Tesla. I hope Tesla changes to CCS soon in North America and provides an adaptor for older models.

 

[robl45]

They should retrofit all the cars if they are going to do that. It's probably popping the panel or and putting new one in.

Because soon the majority of EV's on the road will use CCS. That is the standard everyone else uses other than Tesla. I hope Tesla changes to CCS soon in North America and provides an adaptor for older models.

 

[e of pi]

They should retrofit all the cars if they are going to do that. It's probably popping the panel or and putting new one in.

Theres some discussion of it here: CCS Adapter for North America

Apparently, the European board which can speak CCS2 is a little different than the one they install in the US, so they're still shipping cars which will need retrofit to support CCS1 in the US--which I think just means more cars they'll end up having to retrofit in the end.

 

[robl45]

I'm saying they should retrofit if they decide to do that versus some huge adapter that is a hassle to lug around especially if they change all the superchargers to CCS as well.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

I dont see Tesla moving to Ccs in the US anytime soon, advantage is still to the Supercharger network. Chademo footprint is still expanding, so its enough of a bridge for any small coverage gaps.

 

[robl45]

Chademo is a waste IMHO. 500 plus dollars for an adapter that doesn't charge that fast anyway. However, even with the superchargers, I had to get a bit creative when I was taking my kids to camp in August in Florida especially when a hurricane was coming and I was planning alternate routes. I learned real quick in Florida you can travel one route or one route or make a 3 hour trip 5 hours trying to get to superchargers.

 

[drdumont]

There is a route I want to take but won't as the 2020 announced Superchargers there haven't even broken ground. So I'd have to trust a couple of NIssan dealerships, or buy a CHAdeMo adapter, or find a campground.
What is the technical reason a CCS adapter isn't feasible? If there's something on this site, help an old man out, won't you?

 

[e of pi]

I dont see Tesla moving to Ccs in the US anytime soon, advantage is still to the Supercharger network. Chademo footprint is still expanding, so its enough of a bridge for any small coverage gaps.

The gap between supercharger and everyone else will probably close within the next year or two. CCS already has about 40% of the DCFC locations in the US with 70 kW charging, and about 30% of the total >70 kW charging stalls. The growth rates are also in favor of CCS--more places are installing CCS than Superchargers because you can just buy L3 DCFC gear for CCS from three or four different vendors, where only Tesla sells and installs Superchargers and only has a limited install capacity per year, so host sites have to get their nod instead of driving the process themselves. As for the growth of the Chademo network, it may still be growing but a lot of the current Chademo growth is at the margins of the much broader, faster CCS networks, and the 50 Kw limit of the adaptor is still a problem that needs to be solved even with EA and others pivoting to per-kWh pricing instead of per-minute pricing.

There is a route I want to take but won't as the 2020 announced Superchargers there haven't even broken ground. So I'd have to trust a couple of NIssan dealerships, or buy a CHAdeMo adapter, or find a campground.
What is the technical reason a CCS adapter isn't feasible? If there's something on this site, help an old man out, won't you?

CCS Adapter for North America

There's some discussion there of how the US boards are different from the European CCS-enabled boards. There's also some slight differences in how CCS1 and CCS2 handle locking that make an adaptor a bit trickier to implement. However, I think it's worth solving, as it'd open up >750 new charging sites to fast charging >50 kW literally overnight. If you're going to sell a $500 adaptor, why not sell one which goes to more stalls and offers a faster charge rate?

 

[drdumont]

If indeed I could charge at a WalMart or somewhere similar on the route, I would just have a sip and go. Just fill up enough to make up the 50-75 miles to the next Supercharger. Even if it took an hour.

I'm trying to avoid a certain S/C in the middle of the night. It is in a sketchy area, totally dark except for S/C area, and my gun permit is invalid there.

Plus it's one of the most boring Interstate routes I have experienced...

 

[AdamMacDon]

The gap between supercharger and everyone else will probably close within the next year or two. CCS already has about 40% of the DCFC locations in the US with 70 kW charging, and about 30% of the total >70 kW charging stalls. The growth rates are also in favor of CCS--more places are installing CCS than Superchargers because you can just buy L3 DCFC gear for CCS from three or four different vendors, where only Tesla sells and installs Superchargers and only has a limited install capacity per year, so host sites have to get their nod instead of driving the process themselves. As for the growth of the Chademo network, it may still be growing but a lot of the current Chademo growth is at the margins of the much broader, faster CCS networks, and the 50 Kw limit of the adaptor is still a problem that needs to be solved even with EA and others pivoting to per-kWh pricing instead of per-minute pricing.

CCS Adapter for North America

There's some discussion there of how the US boards are different from the European CCS-enabled boards. There's also some slight differences in how CCS1 and CCS2 handle locking that make an adaptor a bit trickier to implement. However, I think it's worth solving, as it'd open up >750 new charging sites to fast charging >50 kW literally overnight. If you're going to sell a $500 adaptor, why not sell one which goes to more stalls and offers a faster charge rate?

This sounds a bit tinfoil hat, but my hypothesis is that Tesla doesn't want to release a NA CCS adapter because doing so would be competition for their proprietary Tesla supercharging network. The CHADEMO adapter is okay (I have one), but really limited to a MAX of 46kW, and not many EA stations have more than 1 or 2 CHAD plugs. Right now CHADEMO is not really competition for Superchargers, but more of a backup L3 solution for bridging the few gaps left. In the EU they were FORCED to switch to CCS, it was not an option, but such legislation is unlikely to show up here anytime soon, and I cannot imagine Tesla making the switch willingly.