CHADEMO adapter worth it for summer road trip through Canada, USA? (CCS not an option, older 3)

[isewell]

We are going on a roadtrip from California north to BC, across Canada (mostly on trans canada which is well served by SC, but side trips are possible for national parks). Might go all the way to the maritimes, or might stop in Montreal then head south back to US, Maine, VT, DE, RI, etc and then back home.

We are tight on space (family of 4) so the main concern is the Chademo cable is BIG. We have an older 3 so even with the upcoming CCS adapter we'd need a CCS retrofit, and our trip begins in June, so I'm not convinced the timing works.

We've done several road trips around the US without it, and mostly we were ok. We got stuck (as in, we should have rented an ICE) in Glacier NP off-season - and there's now a CHADEMO dc charger in Whitefish so that would have saved our butts. We also got stuck in Bryce NP and had to sit at a coffee shop for hours, but there's no ChaDEMO there either so it wouldn't have helped us.

I'm particularly concerned about Canada. It seems that Chademo coverage is 10-20x higher than SC off the "beaten path".

Thanks!

 

[Pricedm]

Chademo could be worth peace of mind, and then sell after the trip.
Tesla CCS Combo 1 Adapter & CHAdeMO Adapter

Plan on 10 days from order to delivery

 

[isewell]

THANK YOU!!! Ordered. You saved me a ton of money from buying it from a questionable seller on ebay.

 

[RayK]

I'm probably in the small minority when saying that a CHAdeMO adapter still can be useful. Given that I'm planning to install the CCS upgrade once I get my hands on the Gen4 charge port ECU, the CHAdeMO will probably see much less use.

I've used my CHAdeMO adapter several times on trips and even around town when some of the EVSE companies open up their stations for free charging. I'm also using it as my usual Level 2.5 day-to-day charging. I don't have home charging set up as it's still cheaper for me to spend an hour or so at a local ChargePoint DCFC station and use the CHAdeMO adapter. Last couple of months there has only seen 25kW or so charge rate but I don't think it's my adapter. I've gotten 45kW at an EA station a few weeks ago.

 

[ambudriver03]

It absolutely has value, I bought mine maybe 6 months after I bought my car because I was embarking on a 1200 mile trip from LA to Washington state, and where I was going (northwest WA was well served by EVgo and Blink chargers, many Chademo only) and the nearest supercharger was 30 miles away.

I only used it a few times during that trip, but I felt better about heading into nowhere land with it.

I made a separate trip across the heart of the USA and found the chademo useful in certain places where the cost parity was similar to tesla, but the tesla supercharger wasn't nearby where I wanted to eat, or stay for the night.

Case in point, the 6 stall Kingman, AZ supercharger (v2 ) was in a burger King parking lot, and being 110 degrees out, and having a full station. Each car was only pulling 8-10 kw.

I went to the electrify America station in the center of town, plugged into my chademo adapter, and ate dinner at cracker barrel.

43kw is a lot slower than the theoretical 120 at the v2 charger, but in this particular circumstance saved me at least an hour of charging, and I got to eat where I wanted to.

 

[Randy-12]

I’d say that you can never have too many options to charge. Maybe even bring an extension and connections to be able to use RV and trailer parks.

But that said for me if it was me I’d vote to get the CCS instead of CHADEMO connector. That is if your car is CCS enabled.

 

[ambudriver03]

I’d say that you can never have too many options to charge. Maybe even bring an extension and connections to be able to use RV and trailer parks.

But that said for me if it was me I’d vote to get the CCS instead of CHADEMO connector. That is if your car is CCS enabled.

I travel with the full suite of adapters (without the tt30 since I don't camp), and carry a 30' 14-50 rv extension cord. And a 14-30 to 14-50 dongle.

When staying at an airbnb/vrbo there's a better Than 0 chance that either the range, or dryer will be electric. Therein lies the rub. Can you reach it...

With a 30' extension plus the 20' on the mobile adapter, you've got a decent shot of reaching a parking space. (i have dropped the cable out the window before)

 

[Jdcleary]

THANK YOU!!! Ordered. You saved me a ton of money from buying it from a questionable seller on ebay.

What did you specifically order and has it arrived? I am needing something to connect to a Charge Point unit in Norway, MI on June 21st and I need to get more knowledgeable in a hurry.

 

[zecar]

What did you specifically order and has it arrived? I am needing something to connect to a Charge Point unit in Norway, MI on June 21st and I need to get more knowledgeable in a hurry.

You will want the CCS1 adapter instead of the CHADEMO if it works in your situation. My CCS1 took two weeks from Harumio but current times could be longer.

 

[ambudriver03]

I am needing something to connect to a Charge Point unit in Norway, MI on June 21st and I need to get more knowledgeable in a hurry.

Are you talking about the ChargePoint (company).

I looked up the ChargePoint ™ DCFC in Norway, MI and it appears to be a dual head 62kw CCS / CHAdeMO unit.

Peterson Electric Services- City of Norway owned | Norway, MI | EV Station

62.5 kW DC Chargepoint Express 200. Enabled by a grant from Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

www.plugshare.com

If you're using your 2022 model X, it should have CCS support.

You just need the CCS adapter you can purchase on harum.io it will take 2 weeks to receive. So it'll be cutting it quite close for your timeframe.

 

[ambudriver03]