Change to UMC design

[johnr]

The UMC (portable charging cord) that Tesla used to supply for European customers is pictured at the left, and their new design which is shipping with the Model 3 now is pictured to the right. Meanwhile, the UMC that Tesla used to supply for their US customers had its own different style of connector. This new design of UMC is the same as they're using in the US now too.

I'm not a fan of this new design, as I think the small one-piece adapters were more elegant and took less space to carry, but I do like the fact that they've finally standardized on a single design to share between the US and Europe.

I just found out about this change only a few weeks ago. In the US, they began shipping this newly designed UMC on the 15th of December 2017, coinciding with the launch of the Model 3. Does anyone know exactly when they made this change for European deliveries? And are the Model S and X shipping with this new UMC, or just the Model 3?

 

[miimura]

I believe you left out the most important aspect of the change to the new UMC design - it no longer supports 3-phase. You notice the picture only shows Schuko and 32A Blue Commando plugs. The Red adapter shown with the Old UMC is no longer available with the New UMC since the New UMC doesn't have the extra pins necessary to support the other two phases. Since the North American New UMC can support L-N-G and L-L-G connections, I suppose it's possible that they could make a Red adapter that was actually drawing 2x 16A, but I don't know if using 2 of 3 phases allowed.

 

[johnr]

You're right! The new connector only has two wires for power, one ground, and two signal wires for communication. So I don't see how it would be possible for it to support three phase. Considering how prevalent three phase power is in Europe, this seems like a disastrous oversight. Interestingly there are two holes on the sides of the connector which look like they could accommodate terminals - so maybe Tesla has left room for themselves to make that change at some point.

 

[Murbs]

I'm not sure that the new UMC is limited to single phase. You can see in the following photo that there is the provision for two other smaller but still substantial pins that could be used for L2 and L3.

 

[thanar]

I had a guest yesterday that came to charge his EU model X on my 3phase IEC plug; He came from UK. Prior to leaving, he visited a Tesla store in London and asked for the 3ph adaptor. He was charged like €120 for it.
What we realized was that the adaptor was actually the one for the OLD UMC, although his model X came with the NEW UMC; that is, he was unable to use my 3phase IEC plug. This kind of sucks.
I -too- suspect that it would be possible that the new UMC could utilize two out of three phases, since the vehicle still has the 3phase charger onboard, and has been proven quite clever. Will have to build a proper adaptor and try it out.