CHAdeMO locations on the built-in navigation app?

[TaoJones]

Yep - using the browser has become a last resort - and that's after the LTE retrofit. On its best day it still can't get through a Design Studio session. It won't display PDFs. It's embarrassing to demo to prospective buyers unless one sticks to simple sites (Google News instead of CNN, for example). Other than that, it's fabulous.

Ideally the M3 will have a newer chipset.

 

[RiverBrick]

I question the claim that the Tesla navigation shows all chargers you have used. I have visited and used level 2 chargers (both ChargePoint and NRG) that have never appeared on my map.

Except for Tesla Supercharger and destination charger locations, are no visited stations at all appearing on your map? If this is the case, it may be because a lightning bolt icon is not selected on the top right corner of the maps. When I went from 7.0 to 7.1, the update deselected this option and I didn't see visited stations until I realized what had happened and fixed it.

 

[David29]

Except for Tesla Supercharger and destination charger locations, are no visited stations at all appearing on your map? If this is the case, it may be because a lightning bolt icon is not selected on the top right corner of the maps. When I went from 7.0 to 7.1, the update deselected this option and I didn't see visited stations until I realized what had happened and fixed it.

I do have the lightning bolt turned on, and the map does show one of the public Level 2 charging stations I use, but not one or two others. It is not a big issue in a practical sense because I do not often travel far, but it is a curiosity. I vaguely recall reading another thread in which a Model S owner complained that the nav map failed to show a Tesla Supercharger site he had used, as well. I'd have to dig around to find that, but I recall it was in CT.

 

[evp]

I'm locked out of my driveway for a week while the city replaces sidewalks along my block. I can charge at 2mph with a long extension cord, but that gave me incentive to go check out the two "nrg evGo" CHAdeMO chargers recently installed near my house. I was zero for two -- one had a non-functioning touch screen, the other refused to connect to the car thru the adapter, even after 15 minutes debugging over the phone. The units are built by chargepro. Anyone had any success with this brand of charger? They seem to be big on the East Coast.

 

[Beryl]

I'm locked out of my driveway for a week while the city replaces sidewalks along my block. I can charge at 2mph with a long extension cord, but that gave me incentive to go check out the two "nrg evGo" CHAdeMO chargers recently installed near my house. I was zero for two -- one had a non-functioning touch screen, the other refused to connect to the car thru the adapter, even after 15 minutes debugging over the phone. The units are built by chargepro. Anyone had any success with this brand of charger? They seem to be big on the East Coast.

So sorry to read this as I'm going to northern Colorado and planned to use evGo. I'd better check Plugshare comments beforehand.

 

[RiverBrick]

Chargepro is the model name of 240V station manufactured by Semaconnect. The eVgo CHAdeMO I've used have had either units made by ABB, or unfortunately Nissan (since this last one is capped at 110A and frequently overheats after ~15 minutes).

 

[CSFTN]

Yes it is rather disappointing that Tesla will not show any charging stations other than their own and the chargers you have already visited and used. While every other EV manufacturer has public charging stations in their system, Tesla keeps it exclusive to their own. And even though they designed the car to enable third party apps, they have not allowed it up until today. It's just stupid that the Model S/X has a massive screen and great UI and then you still have to use your phone to find charging stations.

I personally don't see it as "Tesla keeps it exclusive to their own." Rather, I think Tesla is being polite. In the USA (or at least sections of he USA I have visited) The Chademo's are 99% at Nissan dealerships or corporate offices. As such, it remains an open question if Tesla drivers really should be using these stations, built and paid for by a competitor brand, intended for use by that brand. I consider allowing us to use their Chademo chargers a kindness for which I am grateful, not one that I am entitled.

Also, we have the issue of reliability. Superchargers are essentially always in large groups, and it almost unheard for all of them to go down simultaneously (yes its happened a few times). Chademos usually are single and frequently go down for days/weeks at a time. As such, Tesla may assume some vicarious liability if our Nav directs us to a non-working Chademo, and then we get stranded.

That being said, my preference would be that all publicly available charging stations be listed in their Nav, with symbols unique to their status, charging capacity, availability, etc. We can learn that an orange lighting bolt symbol means a Chademo or a CCS - no guarantee as to its availability etc - , while a blue lighting bolt symbol means Supercharger - with multiple stations, and a notification if they are down.

 

[David99]

I personally don't see it as "Tesla keeps it exclusive to their own." Rather, I think Tesla is being polite.

Not listing Nissan deals would be understandable, but Tesla doesn't list any public chargers whatsoever. Not even those put in by cities or in public parking structures. It really isn't about being polite. What Tesla is doing is 'selling' their customers to hotels and restaurants and other businesses. Tesla tells the businesses, 'if you let us build our charging stations on your property, you are becoming part of our exclusive list. We send you the top 5% income level clients. We don't show them any other options.'

 

[newtman]

I personally don't see it as "Tesla keeps it exclusive to their own." Rather, I think Tesla is being polite. In the USA (or at least sections of he USA I have visited) The Chademo's are 99% at Nissan dealerships or corporate offices. As such, it remains an open question if Tesla drivers really should be using these stations, built and paid for by a competitor brand, intended for use by that brand. I consider allowing us to use their Chademo chargers a kindness for which I am grateful, not one that I am entitled.

Also, we have the issue of reliability. Superchargers are essentially always in large groups, and it almost unheard for all of them to go down simultaneously (yes its happened a few times). Chademos usually are single and frequently go down for days/weeks at a time. As such, Tesla may assume some vicarious liability if our Nav directs us to a non-working Chademo, and then we get stranded.

That being said, my preference would be that all publicly available charging stations be listed in their Nav, with symbols unique to their status, charging capacity, availability, etc. We can learn that an orange lighting bolt symbol means a Chademo or a CCS - no guarantee as to its availability etc - , while a blue lighting bolt symbol means Supercharger - with multiple stations, and a notification if they are down.

The vast majority of chademo chargers I've come across are *not* free ones run by Nissan, they're pay ones.

 

[jerry33]

Not listing Nissan deals would be understandable, but Tesla doesn't list any public chargers whatsoever. Not even those put in by cities or in public parking structures. It really isn't about being polite. What Tesla is doing is 'selling' their customers to hotels and restaurants and other businesses. Tesla tells the businesses, 'if you let us build our charging stations on your property, you are becoming part of our exclusive list. We send you the top 5% income level clients. We don't show them any other options.'

I'd suggest it's more about "We don't have the resources to track every possible EVSE out there". PlugShare gets away with it because people know that they need to check availability before counting on the entries. The Nav system is supposed to show verified charging locations. Blink and ChargePoint only show their own EVSEs, so it's not a "Tesla only" thing.

 

[Blu Zap]

I have a NRG EVgo CHAdeMo station 2 miles from my house. But they only allow you to charge in 30 minute increments, and at a price. I do have a Tesla SuperCharger 20 miles away, but not always practical due to traffic. I moved to an apartment, so no longer have home charging. Seeing how it works out. Not happy with the $450 price of a CHAdeMo adaptor and the charging time limit.
Anyone else use NRG EVgo charging stations?

 

[TexasEV]

I have a NRG EVgo CHAdeMo station 2 miles from my house. But they only allow you to charge in 30 minute increments, and at a price. I do have a Tesla SuperCharger 20 miles away, but not always practical due to traffic. I moved to an apartment, so no longer have home charging. Seeing how it works out. Not happy with the $450 price of a CHAdeMo adaptor and the charging time limit.
Anyone else use NRG EVgo charging stations?

All the 30 minute increment means is you have to tap "start" again. I don't understand complaining about the price. The company that installs and operates them has to make a profit, or they won't be there. It's not like Tesla superchargers which are installed for marketing cars. Regarding the cost of the CHAdeMO adapter, it's not Tesla's fault the Japanese made such a complicated system to connect to. It would probably cost you more to have your apartment wired for charging, or to travel to the supercharger every few days. Life is tough sometimes owing a six figure car, isn't it?

 

[kort677]

I'm locked out of my driveway for a week while the city replaces sidewalks along my block. I can charge at 2mph with a long extension cord, but that gave me incentive to go check out the two "nrg evGo" CHAdeMO chargers recently installed near my house. I was zero for two -- one had a non-functioning touch screen, the other refused to connect to the car thru the adapter, even after 15 minutes debugging over the phone. The units are built by chargepro. Anyone had any success with this brand of charger? They seem to be big on the East Coast.

your experience with these chadamo chargers is sadly not unusual. they just cannot be part

All the 30 minute increment means is you have to tap "start" again. I don't understand complaining about the price. The company that installs and operates them has to make a profit, or they won't be there. It's not like Tesla superchargers which are installed for marketing cars. Regarding the cost of the CHAdeMO adapter, it's not Tesla's fault the Japanese made such a complicated system to connect to. It would probably cost you more to have your apartment wired for charging, or to travel to the supercharger every few days. Life is tough sometimes owing a six figure car, isn't it?

you are correct, it is unreasonable to expect free charging for your car from any place, excepting the SpCs.
that said, in 3+ years of owning a tesla and many thousands of road trip miles I have never had the need to use a chademo.
like I noted earlier the low reliability, the high costs and the sometime unfriendly chademo owners relegate the chademo options to the bottom of my list when planning my routes.

 

[Boatguy]

The newest iteration of CCS has eventual capacity to support much higher charge rates than anything today and also will support multiple billing options, so will allow several manufacturers, for example, to offer free CCS to their cars, while non-free categories will have many options, such as ChargePoint or EVgo (both members).

As a BMW i3 owner I got free CCS charging (first a year, then 18 months) through ChargePoint/ChargeNow and EVgo. I just used my ChargeNOW card (RFID) and got my free 30 minutes (more than sufficient for an i3). I've used them a couple of times, more just to test them out than from necessity, the i3 just isn't a great car for a long drive.

In any case CCS or CHAdeMO connectors and cables are super bulky, like moving a firehose full of water. And typically you drag this heavy cable across a very dirty parking lot, and then back, trying "coil" it up enough to get it out from under your car before you drive away, at which point your hands are dirty. It's not a consumer friendly product and it makes pumping gas look very simple and clean.

The SCs are much simpler to use and the cables don't drag across the parking lot.

 

[jbcarioca]

As a BMW i3 owner I got free CCS charging (first a year, then 18 months) through ChargePoint/ChargeNow and EVgo. I just used my ChargeNOW card (RFID) and got my free 30 minutes (more than sufficient for an i3). I've used them a couple of times, more just to test them out than from necessity, the i3 just isn't a great car for a long drive.

In any case CCS or CHAdeMO connectors and cables are super bulky, like moving a firehose full of water. And typically you drag this heavy cable across a very dirty parking lot, and then back, trying "coil" it up enough to get it out from under your car before you drive away, at which point your hands are dirty. It's not a consumer friendly product and it makes pumping gas look very simple and clean.

The SCs are much simpler to use and the cables don't drag across the parking lot.

Yes, the CCS gear is strange, with J1772 plus a huge device for all the vehicle, use tracking and BMS interface capabilities. It has all the functionality one could desire, potentially anyway, but no engineer who'd ever charged a car could have been a part of the standards group for this idiocy. I am hoping that the expanded membership group, now including tesla, will redesign the entire interface process before too many cars and chargers are set up to handle the existing monstrosity. That said, it DOES work, and is designed for very fast charging.

My personal guess is that with VW group, MB and BMW joined by Ford, GM and above all Tesla the standard will change well before the flood of German BEV's come in 2020. Since Germany also is probably passing a very large set of EV incentives that will be another motivation for fixing the CCS physical problem.

Why the could not accept CHAdeMO standard, convenient on a native basis, not even a big problem for adapters seems to have been driven by three factors.
1) providing for an endless variety of payment options from:
1. pay per use (Chargepoint and others are members);
2. manufacturers free (BMW, VW, MB and Tesla all fit that model, at least for planning);
3. pay owner of charger (ChargePoint, et al, as well as Destination Charger-style;
4. pay by subscription;
5. multiple permutations of subsidy, surcharge, time of day, location, etc, etc.
2) a strong but irrational desire to avoid changing the already installed base, especially since the equipment manufacturers and vehicle builders don't like to think about retrofit.
3. The presence of ABB, Mennekes, JAE do not argue for user-friendliness, rather to the contrary.

These points represent my views, so please don't confuse them with facts. I devoutly hope I am wrong, except about the very, very fast changing potential.