HPWC Problem, Gen 1 not working on Late 2019-2021 S & X

[islandbayy]

We were one of the FIRST Tesla Destination charging locations in Wisconsin(Before it was even a program!), and THE First Hotel/Motel/Resort in Wisconsin to have dedicated EV Charging (Early 2000's!).

As such, we have/had some of the oldest (Early Production) HPWC's Tesla produced. They have been rock solid for all these years and one still is (The second was stolen around 2017, cut right off the wall). The one we still have works flawless for me, all the way up to 80 amps on my 2016 MS90D.

The problem, which others have noted. BRAND NEW Tesla's, produced late 2019-2021, not all, but majority of them, will NOT charge on our HPWC. Everything older than that works no problem every time. But the newer cars will not charge.

I've attempted contacting Destination charging, no response.
Phone support went nowhere.

Further dilemma, We are busy enough with our HPWC, where we need to take RESERVATIONS for it here in the Dells. With the influx of new owners stopping by to charge up and completely clueless (Sorry, but it's true) about charging their cars, many are showing up with Sub-10 miles range left, and no way to get to Mauston supercharger. We've had 4 tow-trucks Drop OFF cars in the last 3 weeks. We've had 5 tow trucks need to pickup cars and tow them to Mauston Supercharger as the HPWC would not charge their cars, and they didn't have enough range to make it safely.

I'm trying to find a fix for this without buying a new station if possible. If I DO need to buy a new station, I'd like to keep the older one as well for the cars that can charge faster at greater than 48 amp (Dual Charger Cars) as the newer stations only support 48 amp I believe. What a waste going backwards in charge rages....

Any ideas? Has anyone seen a fix for this? Station software update maybe? Problem with the cars itself? Technical Bulletin that needs to be applied to the vehicles?
Cheers!

 

[jjrandorin]

I am by no means at all an expert on this, but my gut feeling is that the issue is probably with power delivery from the HPWC (voltage / amps) and newer vehicles being less tolerant of power fluxuations.

Maybe try turning the amps of the HPWC down so that it wont charge any faster than 48amps which is what most modern teslas charge at?

 

[Rocky_H]

I am by no means at all an expert on this, but my gut feeling is that the issue is probably with power delivery from the HPWC (voltage / amps) and newer vehicles being less tolerant of power fluxuations.

Maybe try turning the amps of the HPWC down so that it wont charge any faster than 48amps which is what most modern teslas charge at?

No, it's nothing to do with any of that. This is a known incompatibility of the Gen1 wall connectors with the cars with MCU 2 or later.

@islandbayy I'm really surprised you are just now finding out about this. This was first found in the summer of 2018. Here are some threads on this:

Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?

Charging equipment fault on the Tesla destination charger

I'm trying to find a fix for this without buying a new station if possible. If I DO need to buy a new station, I'd like to keep the older one as well for the cars that can charge faster at greater than 48 amp (Dual Charger Cars) as the newer stations only support 48 amp I believe. What a waste going backwards in charge rages....

Any ideas? Has anyone seen a fix for this? Station software update maybe? Problem with the cars itself? Technical Bulletin that needs to be applied to the vehicles?

No, Tesla never bothered to fix anything to resolve this incompatibility. Throughout 2018 and 2019, as mentioned in those threads, when people were calling to complain about it, Tesla would just send them a Gen2 wall connector to replace the Gen1, so it would work with all cars again.

So keep trying to get hold of Tesla somehow.

 

[islandbayy]

No, it's nothing to do with any of that. This is a known incompatibility of the Gen1 wall connectors with the cars with MCU 2 or later.

@islandbayy I'm really surprised you are just now finding out about this. This was first found in the summer of 2018. Here are some threads on this:

Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?

Charging equipment fault on the Tesla destination charger


No, Tesla never bothered to fix anything to resolve this incompatibility. Throughout 2018 and 2019, as mentioned in those threads, when people were calling to complain about it, Tesla would just send them a Gen2 wall connector to replace the Gen1, so it would work with all cars again.

So keep trying to get hold of Tesla somehow.

I knew about it, though thought it was on a more limited number of vehicles. I have had new vehicles that have charged, so it seemed like a limited set. Now that new vehicles are starting to populate the world more, it's becoming more frequent.

I actually got a message from a Wisconsinite here, just so happens to be the man with the Tesla Solar Roof that has been all over the news He is going to sponsor a Gen 3 station for us with some signage for his business (Insurance Agent). Awesome man! More to come on that! But it's a start. Im going to keep the 80 amp gen 1 station for now, as myself and a number of drivers still have the old dual chargers and 72 amp chargers. Still think its dumb, especially with larger batteries coming out now, that Tesla is going with SLOWER charging instead of faster. The Gen 3 will take the place of the one that was stolen a while back.

 

[Rocky_H]

Still think its dumb, especially with larger batteries coming out now, that Tesla is going with SLOWER charging instead of faster.

Well, that actually makes more sense, though, "from a certain point of view" (Kenobi). Consider the old Model S 60. Range was just barely 200 miles. You would be running that low really often, and you would have quite a need for fast AC charging, maybe even once or twice in the same day, depending on your use.

But the newer Model S, with 400+ miles of range? You're going to have tons of leftover range every day and almost never run it down low. The only time you will come close to running that down is when you're on a highway trip anyway and hopping from Supercharger to Supercharger. So there is hardly any need for fast AC charging. As batteries continue to get up to 500 and 600 miles of range, the need for high power onboard chargers just becomes less and less, versus using Superchargers as needed.