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Likelihood of a CHAdeMO adapter for the Model S

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Only Tesla can say whether they will build the adapter or not, so I am sending a message to corporate.

I got an answer...and as expected, it is still officially "we can neither confirm nor deny".

However, they did also go out of their way to indicate they were very aware of customer demand, and they suspect that will grow. And that they want to address impediments to sales. So while they didn't actually say so, I feel pretty comfortable that they will offer one in the US; I just don't know when.
 
I got an answer...and as expected, it is still officially "we can neither confirm nor deny".

However, they did also go out of their way to indicate they were very aware of customer demand, and they suspect that will grow. And that they want to address impediments to sales. So while they didn't actually say so, I feel pretty comfortable that they will offer one in the US; I just don't know when.
Chad, I believe you were at the Tech Talk in Seattle today. Lance was pretty definite that 1) they are working on an adapter, and 2) it will be available in the U.S., although he couldn't say when. I know that he may not be able to speak for the company officially on this, but as I say, he did sound pretty definite.
 
Yes, he did mention it and sounded fairly positive. Though what I recall (?) is that he said he saw an adapter (which may or may not have been for the US), and that he assumed it would come to the US. Which I assume too, but Tesla corporate has not confirmed that. I say "corporate" to distinguish the people at HQ in CA that make the decisions from the long-suffering people at stores like Lance that don't seem to get any more info than we do - so you are correct that he can't represent the company position on this. Lance's story (and several others that have been posted here) helps convince me it will happen despite the lack of official confirmation; but we can't really be sure so until there is an announcement I would hate to tell people "go ahead and buy a car, an adapter will come".

Incidentally, Lance said the same thing a year ago - he had seen an adapter. I am not complaining about Lance! Or even really, with what Tesla is doing. My frustration has been with the lack of official communications, because it means I don't know what to tell potential customers (or when I can make a trip without a very long 30a stop). Though even there I have to admit - if they had said a year ago that a CHAdeMO adapter was coming but not given any more details, we would have spent the last year arguing about pricing and complaining that it is not here yet, rather than complaining we don't know if it is coming. Some things just take a long time and early announcements raise more questions.

I know they have a lot of work to do and they have been doing great so far (not perfect, but great all things considered). I trust them to do the right thing here as soon as they can.
 
However, they did also go out of their way to indicate they were very aware of customer demand, and they suspect that will grow. And that they want to address impediments to sales. So while they didn't actually say so, I feel pretty comfortable that they will offer one in the US; I just don't know when.
Is there an official channel (where it's actually recorded somewhere) to make such demands?

I have no idea to what degree Tesla monitors these forums collects data and takes action upon it. As the former Prius Product Manager said about Priuschat at Prius Brake Recall – A Little More Information | Page 2 | PriusChat
Good points all. The issue really boils down to the fact that vehicle safety issues must be handled by manufacturers in a very controlled and accountable way. The only way to do this is to sanction a specific channel (in this case, the Toyota CEC and our dealers) as that channel, which has the capability to both help diagnose and write up the complaint into a database for this purpose.

Me and Erica? We're "just Marketing" people perusing the boards. Our ability to collect information from owners here is limited to qualitative data - quantitative is either impossible or very unreliable, and therefore not suitable for satisfying regulatory requirements. It's much better for things like "do I need a third cupholder in the front?" and much worse for things like "my car doesn't feel like it's braking right." So is this statement CYA? If that's the term you prefer, ok.

That said, social media is still relatively new for Toyota. We're learning how to better organize qualitative data from spaces like this to give our other non-Marketing colleagues better advanced information. It will come, it's just not there right now.
Demand for a CHAdeMO adapter is obviously unrelated to satisfying regulatory requirements, but perhaps if Tesla had some actual stats on the demand or how high up (or low) the issue is in priority for customers, they might put more/less effort into it.

Just because a few folks echo their wants/needs in a forum or are the loudest in a forum doesn't make it true that many or most people want it.

If everyone who wants such an adapter actually got their request formally registered w/Tesla somewhere, perhaps they'd be more receptive?
 
I would recommend that people that would like to see an adapter send email to [email protected] and ask when one will be available. They won't give a direct answer, but they do seem to keep track of such requests.

I could be wrong, but my feeling is that we don't have to do more than that. Well, that and be patient.
 
^^^
If that's the channel, it might be good to also state why (e.g. there are x CHAdeMO stations in ____ I could possibly use, there are x CHAdeMO stations in the US, there are no Superchargers near me, etc.)

People who are pushing for Frankenplug adapters won't be able to make such justifications... :tongue:
 
That was the total connect time. For any power source, you can simply multiply the rate of delivery over time to get the total kWh delivered.
I think what he means is the slow average power (14kW given 35kWh in 2.5 hours) and if it's a Model S it doesn't make sense for it to be that slow since even at the end of the tapering, the Model S goes down to 80A (~30kW).

It seems more likely this is a prototype of some other EV unless the times you are talking about have the car connected without being charged (as in charge cycle finished before 8:30pm).
 
The way people got movement on 3-phase support was to have a joint letter that they made sure corporate got. And they made it abundantly clear it was a deal breaker (as in they will cancel reservations) and also cited examples why. Might be a bit late for that now as it looks like Tesla won't really be able to move the time frame any quicker than the Japanese launch. I guess the current thing is to wait for the Japanese version to come out (which seems fairly certain) and if Tesla doesn't release a US version then more energy can be focused then to get one here.
For people who are interested in how this all worked out: Endorse my letter to Tesla for supporting 3-phase charging for the Model S

So if you really want CHAdeMO support, we should set up such a joint letter again. I'm not going to do it this time, but I'll happily sign a document since there are dozens of CHAdeMO chargers around here.
 
That was very nicely done work, widodh, and could be an excellent model if needed. My guess is that it is not needed in this case, but I could be wrong. Even though I'm pretty sure they will make one eventually, such a letter might raise its priority and get it here sooner.

Ironically, it is possible (this is pure speculation) that part of the reason the CHAdeMO adapter was delayed is that the charging engineers all switched to three-phase support when you bumped its priority. Not complaining even if that is true - 3-phase support is important! - just making an observation.