"New" Sources of Tesla 'OEM,' Tesla-like, and/or Third-Party CCS1 Adapters

tps5352 · Aug 19, 2022

vincentkerazzi said:
I don't know. The thought of plugging in some untested and unknown adapter into a 100k car is terrifying.

Agreed. Some of the TMC/online comments about (hastily copied and rushed to market) Alibaba products are not reassuring. If its knock-off clothing, that's one thing. But a high-voltage DC charging adapter? That's something different.

johnr · Aug 19, 2022

Limited said:
I realize this is commonplace in these adapters but can someone remind me why the crossover design of the DC pins?

The CCS plug standard has DC- on the right pin and DC+ on the left pin. Tesla happens to be the reverse. So the pins have to cross over to maintain the correct polarity.

srs5694 · Aug 19, 2022

tps5352 said:
I am not an electrical expert, but a "monster under the bed" warning from a TMCer in New Zealand about "suicide adapters" really stuck in my mind. I read that adapters that lack a safety lock of some kind can cause electrical "arcing" in some instances which could damage the car's charge port. Not commonplace, but scary to consider.

I haven't read the entire thread to which you're referring, but to elaborate a bit, I believe the safety lock to which you and the thread refer is something that's required by the CCS1 standard. Specifically, there's a latch on the CCS1 (or J1772) plug; when you plug one of these into a car, the latch lifts up as you insert it and then springs down to hold the plug in place. On CCS1 (but not on J1772), the car is supposed to have a way to prevent the latch from lifting up again while the car is charging, thus locking the plug to the car until the car is done charging.

When using a CCS1-to-Tesla adapter, it's not the car that must do this, it's the adapter. Tesla's adapter does this via a push-pin type mechanism. If you look at a photo of that adapter, you see that there's a pin that sticks out from the main body of the adapter, facing the car:

When the adapter is plugged into the car, this pin is pushed in, and it moves to just above the CCS1 latch area, preventing the latch of the (already-attached) CCS1 plug from unhooking from the adapter. This means that the adapter must be attached to the CCS1 plug before inserting the adapter into the car; doing it in the opposite order means that the pin will interfere with attachment of the CCS1 plug to the adapter.

The EVHUB and A2Z adapters lack this locking pin, or anything equivalent, so it's possible to unplug the CCS1 plug from the adapter while the car is charging. This could cause the sort of arcing that @tps5352, and the thread to which he's linked, describe.

OTOH, this isn't the only anti-arcing safety feature in CCS1. There are at least two others that I know about. One is that the charger should shut off the power once the release button on the CCS1 plug is depressed. Thus, to unplug from an EVHUB- or AZ2-style adapter, the charger should stop charging before you could pull the plug. The other is that the signal pins are shorter than the pins that carry current. Thus, the signal pins should disconnect before the current-carrying pins, and when the signal pins are disconnected, the charger should stop charging. Of course, there are (at least) three safety features so that if one fails, the other two should still prevent injury or damage; but throwing one away in a poor CCS1 adapter design means that you're left with only two safety features.

DoubleDD · Aug 20, 2022

The pin is only there to block the CCS cable from being removed from the adapter attached to your car. The J1772 adapter doesn't have a locking pin and the cable can be removed from the adapter when plugged in. This is why most purchase a locking ring for the J1772. It only prevents the cable from being removed. The J1772 is locked into place when your car is locked. Same is true for the Authentic Tesla CCS adapter. The pin only stops removing the cable. The adapter is locked to your car with it's locked. When unlocked both adapters can be removed with the cable attached. I will have to see if the non-tesla CCS adapters have the slot to allow them to be locked to your car when the car is locked. These adapters should be able to incorporate a locking pin too unless it's patented and forces them to not put the pin in place. I hope to have one of these adapters soon for testing.

bradtem · Aug 20, 2022

DoubleDD said:
The pin is only there to block the CCS cable from being removed from the adapter attached to your car. The J1772 adapter doesn't have a locking pin and the cable can be removed from the adapter when plugged in. This is why most purchase a locking ring for the J1772. It only prevents the cable from being removed. The J1772 is locked into place when your car is locked. Same is true for the Authentic Tesla CCS adapter. The pin only stops removing the cable. The adapter is locked to your car with it's locked. When unlocked both adapters can be removed with the cable attached. I will have to see if the non-tesla CCS adapters have the slot to allow them to be locked to your car when the car is locked. These adapters should be able to incorporate a locking pin too unless it's patented and forces them to not put the pin in place. I hope to have one of these adapters soon for testing.

This is a bad design. The ideal design -- not easily possible -- is that at most locations once you are done charger it should be possible for somebody else to unplug your car and move the cord to their car. This is the only non-antisocial thing to do.

However you would want it to be not possible to remove the adapter while charging. Not for the risk of arcing (which is presented by the system that stops current if the unlocking clip is pressed) but because you don't want people taking the cable before you are done.

The cables were designed to not handle this very well. Tesla could handle it for other Teslas, but does not. This may be because TMCs can be stolen if disconnected by another, though TWCs do not have this problem. An ideal design would know if you have an unlocked device, such as the adapter, the TMC and a few others connected, and keep the lock if need be, but to unlock it when done for any device for which that makes sense. This could be learned by geolocation, or by data protocol to the power source. Alas was not done but could be.

J1772 can't fix this easily. There, the best approach is for EVSEs to refuse to charge a different car if a plug was unplugged early, but to allow it if charging is done. This is not easy today, but could be done with plug and charge or on paid stations that require auth. Done properly, once charging was done a person parked in the next parking spot that the cable can reach could unplug you and plug in and start charging on their account, but it would not accept a new user shortly after a live connection is unplugged. (Problem is some people end the charge by just unplugging.)

With CCS you are not allowed to unplug a live session, I believe. So it could implement and good and fair protocol and perhaps will in time. And as noted, some adapters do not provide an interlock to prevent disconnection, and perhaps some cars don't as well?

DoubleDD · Aug 20, 2022

bradtem said:
This is a bad design. The ideal design -- not easily possible -- is that at most locations once you are done charger it should be possible for somebody else to unplug your car and move the cord to their car. This is the only non-antisocial thing to do.

However you would want it to be not possible to remove the adapter while charging. Not for the risk of arcing (which is presented by the system that stops current if the unlocking clip is pressed) but because you don't want people taking the cable before you are done.

The cables were designed to not handle this very well. Tesla could handle it for other Teslas, but does not. This may be because TMCs can be stolen if disconnected by another, though TWCs do not have this problem. An ideal design would know if you have an unlocked device, such as the adapter, the TMC and a few others connected, and keep the lock if need be, but to unlock it when done for any device for which that makes sense. This could be learned by geolocation, or by data protocol to the power source. Alas was not done but could be.

J1772 can't fix this easily. There, the best approach is for EVSEs to refuse to charge a different car if a plug was unplugged early, but to allow it if charging is done. This is not easy today, but could be done with plug and charge or on paid stations that require auth. Done properly, once charging was done a person parked in the next parking spot that the cable can reach could unplug you and plug in and start charging on their account, but it would not accept a new user shortly after a live connection is unplugged. (Problem is some people end the charge by just unplugging.)

With CCS you are not allowed to unplug a live session, I believe. So it could implement and good and fair protocol and perhaps will in time. And as noted, some adapters do not provide an interlock to prevent disconnection, and perhaps some cars don't as well?

I'm not sure I understand. The pin on the authentic CCS adapter is not there to stop arcing, but to stop someone from unplugging the cable. These adapters are simply a way to convert a CCS cable to Tesla plug. There is not software or anything in the adapter. It's just an interface for DC to DC charging.

bradtem · Aug 20, 2022

DoubleDD said:
I'm not sure I understand. The pin on the authentic CCS adapter is not there to stop arcing, but to stop someone from unplugging the cable. These adapters are simply a way to convert a CCS cable to Tesla plug. There is not software or anything in the adapter. It's just an interface for DC to DC charging.

While I have not read the spec, others have reported the CCS1 spec requires that you not be able to just unplug while charging, without consent of the car, and this pin does this.

With an adapter, the problem is that it uses the car's lock on the adapter, which is the only control the car has. Ideally people should be able to freely unplug once charging is done at any CCS charge, because that way you can make chargers with a long cord, and one person can arrive and move the cord from your car to theirs once the charging is done. Otherwise you have to do it. You can't with the Tesla, as that releases the adapter which could be stolen, though this is not super likely it could happen.

The regular Tesla situation is ideal -- the car controls release of the plug, and thus could (it does not currently) allow people to unplug you after your charge is finished so that you aren't hogging the cord.

Genie · Aug 20, 2022

bradtem said:
This is a bad design. The ideal design -- not easily possible -- is that at most locations once you are done charger it should be possible for somebody else to unplug your car and move the cord to their car. This is the only non-antisocial thing to do.

However you would want it to be not possible to remove the adapter while charging. Not for the risk of arcing (which is presented by the system that stops current if the unlocking clip is pressed) but because you don't want people taking the cable before you are done.

The cables were designed to not handle this very well. Tesla could handle it for other Teslas, but does not. This may be because TMCs can be stolen if disconnected by another, though TWCs do not have this problem. An ideal design would know if you have an unlocked device, such as the adapter, the TMC and a few others connected, and keep the lock if need be, but to unlock it when done for any device for which that makes sense. This could be learned by geolocation, or by data protocol to the power source. Alas was not done but could be.

J1772 can't fix this easily. There, the best approach is for EVSEs to refuse to charge a different car if a plug was unplugged early, but to allow it if charging is done. This is not easy today, but could be done with plug and charge or on paid stations that require auth. Done properly, once charging was done a person parked in the next parking spot that the cable can reach could unplug you and plug in and start charging on their account, but it would not accept a new user shortly after a live connection is unplugged. (Problem is some people end the charge by just unplugging.)

With CCS you are not allowed to unplug a live session, I believe. So it could implement and good and fair protocol and perhaps will in time. And as noted, some adapters do not provide an interlock to prevent disconnection, and perhaps some cars don't as well?

I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of touching someone else’s setup or vice versa. Imagine all the altercations and bs that will spring up, ”you scratched my car/ you did arc damage/ whatever”. In the case of dcfc the car with the full charge needs to Leave! not just be unplugged, that does no good with a short cable. Level 2 is a little more feasible, I think Europe is on the right track with the Mennekes cables and curbside charging bollards though I’ve only seen those and never done it myself.

bradtem · Aug 20, 2022

Genie said:
I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of touching someone else’s setup or vice versa. Imagine all the altercations and bs that will spring up, ”you scratched my car/ you did arc damage/ whatever”. In the case of dcfc the car with the full charge needs to Leave! not just be unplugged, that does no good with a short cable. Level 2 is a little more feasible, I think Europe is on the right track with the Mennekes cables and curbside charging bollards though I’ve only seen those and never done it myself.

Perhaps, but I don't like the idea of coming to a charging station with a car at it which is finished charging but hogging the station, even though the cord can easily be swapped out and reach my car, and I don't like the idea that I would effectively ICE the station for this other guy.

You could have a "ICE" option where your car will not release the plug, and block others from using it. What would be good would be if somebody wanted to set that option that they would also not be allowed to ever move a plug to their car. Of course, if you set the option to keep control of the cord, you would expect to pay idle fees. If you don't, and there's a spare space, you need not pay idle fees.

If you have a Tesla with sentry, it will record all the activity if you are really worried about scratches.

I think all charging stations should be at the intersection of 4 spaces with a cord that can reach all 4 spaces. Of course even better is to have 4 cords, but that's costly. I personally hate having to rush back to my car to move it and would be very happy if the next guy could just park next to me and move the cord.

Jeff N · Aug 20, 2022

The discussion here about locking the plug to the car during charging with J1772 and CCS versus Tesla’s proprietary plug is a bit confused, I think. All of these plug designs implement the same locking capability.

They all implement locking on the vehicle side. While the CCS specification requires the car to lock the plug during active DC charging to prevent arcing risk caused by sudden unplugging, cars are free to lock the charging plugs at other times as well.

For example, the Nissan LEAF has an owner-selectable option which locks the J1772 plug to the car during AC charging. I *think* it can also be configured to lock the J1772 plug when the vehicle is locked even when not actively AC charging. Or you can set it to never lock the J1772 AC plug.

Other cars, like the Chevy Bolt EV, do not implement locking of the J1772 plug but do lock the CCS plug during DC charging.

This difference in plug locking policy is not an issue of TPC vs J1772/CCS. It’s an issue of vehicle-side policy.

terranx · Aug 21, 2022

Limited said:
I realize this is commonplace in these adapters but can someone remind me why the crossover design of the DC pins?

Well DC pins are polarized and Tesla’s pin layout is opposite to the CCS layout. So you end up needing the crossover.

jsight · Aug 21, 2022

DoubleDD said:
I'm not sure I understand. The pin on the authentic CCS adapter is not there to stop arcing

Its both. With CCS, both the handle and the car are supposed to release their latches in order to allow the cable to disconnect. Its a safety feature, as neither should allow that while charging is in progress.

Otherwise, if you were to pull the handle quickly while charging was still in progress, it could create a dangerous arc. Having said that, other safety features would likely prevent it, but the standard has some redundant safety features.

rstrauss · Aug 21, 2022

Harum.io is now offering a 3rd party adapter. Doesn't appear to have the pin. Also only $230 as an introductory price I guess. I already have the Tesla one Harum.io was selling earlier in the year. Have used it a dozen times with no issues at EA stations. Is the pin required and will there be issues if it doesn't have one?

Denny Hsu · Aug 21, 2022

Thank you for your information sharing. In addition to the allowable current that can be seen in the specification, only A2Z(Harumio same?) has Excess-Temperature Auto-Stop Charging Switch. Other third-party and Korean Tesla's official adapters do not seem to have this safety mechanism.

tps5352 · Aug 21, 2022

rstrauss said:
Harum.io is now offering a 3rd party adapter. Doesn't appear to have the pin. Also only $230 as an introductory price I guess. I already have the Tesla one Harum.io was selling earlier in the year. Have used it a dozen times with no issues at EA stations. Is the pin required and will there be issues if it doesn't have one?

Yes, I concur. The Harumio website claims that the $230 price is a "limited-time only" offer, and that the (normal) price is $300. Will the price eventually be raised to $300, or is this just clever marketing?

Please see previous posts (e.g., here) in this Thread (and in other threads on TMC Forum) for discussions about the CCS1 adapter 'pin' (allegedly to prevent cable removal) and about adapters "locked" into cars (to help prevent electrical arcing).

tps5352 · Aug 21, 2022

Denny Hsu said:
Thank you for your information sharing. In addition to the allowable current that can be seen in the specification, only A2Z(Harumio same?) has Excess-Temperature Auto-Stop Charging Switch. Other third-party and Korean Tesla's official adapters do not seem to have this safety mechanism.

Thanks for your comment. Without getting into the technical details (I'm not an electrician or an engineer), from a quick review it appears that TesPlus, A2Z EV, Lectron, Harumio, Hansshow, and EVSE mention some kind of built-in thermal protection. Honestly, I assumed that all legitimate adapters would come with some form of thermal safeguard. Is it a regulatory requirement for sales in North America?

Undisclosed · Aug 21, 2022

Soom Lab didn't work for me, also got a cancellation.

tps5352 · Aug 21, 2022

Undisclosed said:
Soom Lab didn't work for me, also got a cancellation.

Disappointing. Sorry.

Julia Connor · Aug 22, 2022

tps5352 said:
Disappointing. Sorry.

Since Soomlab is cancelling some orders I guess we can now confirm they are selling the official adapter from Tesla

tps5352 · Aug 22, 2022

Julia Connor said:
Since Soomlab is cancelling some orders I guess we can now confirm they are selling the official adapter from Tesla

That makes sense.

Source	Price	Specific Notes	Availability (in NA)

		Genuine Tesla Adapter

Tesla (North America)	~~$250(US)~~ ~~$175(US)~~ $250 $325(CAN) $340(CAN) ~~$240(CAN)~~ $345(CAN)	Available on the Canada and U.S. Tesla websites. Owner's manual here. For Models S, X, 3, and Y. Car must be CCS-enabled. As of February 2023 factory-approved hardware retrofits (including parts and labor) for non-CCS-enabled cars were available for Models S and X. As of March 2024 CCS hardware upgrades for North American Models 3 and Y (that need them) are available for order on the Tesla website.. While waiting for Tesla to release hardware retrofits, some drivers of non-CCS cars tried successful DIY (do-it-yourself) procedures to enable CCS charging in certain 2021 cars and in older vehicles (particularly Models 3 & Y). See numerous postings, starting with this Thread. I assume that with Tesla factory retrofits now available, DIY efforts will diminish in popularity.	AVAILABLE.

		Tesla-Adapter Copies

Hansshow (China)	$325 $294 $319 $250 $235 $246 $251 $239 $216 $230 $203 $175 $161 $132 ~~$116.50~~ $119*	Hansshow/Hautopart adapter may also be found on TesPlus website (for ~~$200~~ $140). See website for technical specifications. Stated to be for Models S, X, 3, & Y (car must be CCS-enabled).	AVAILABLE.
Lectron (Hong Kong)	$250 $200 $170 $185 $180 $165 $155 $140	See website for technical specifications. Claimed to be compatible with "all Tesla models." Car must be CCS-enabled. Graphic imagery suggests that this may be a different product than the Hansshow/Hautopart adapter.	AVAILABLE.

		Independently-designed Aftermarket Adapters

A2Z Shop (Canada)	$293 $270 $227 $195 $175 ~~$150~~ $121*	Brand name: "Thunderstorm Plug." Combined CCS1 and J1772 adapter in one. Sold by registered TMC vendor (information available via @A2ZEVSHOP) See website for technical specifications. Design and engineering input originated from this North American company with business ties to: Manufacturer Huizhou Olink Technology Co., Ltd. (China) Works with applicable Models S, Ǝ, X, and Y, but: Car must be CCS-enabled. Note #1: Website CCS1 price may vary slightly, probably due to fluctuating Canada-to-U.S.-dollar rates. Note #2: Other CCS1-related accessories (e.g., lock, case, ECU) are also available from A2Z Shop.	AVAILABLE.

		In Development

Electway (China)	-na-	See website for more information. In size and general shape, reminiscent of the original SETEC CCS1 adapter (see below). Possible release in, when?--2024?	Currently Unavailable.

Source	Price	Specific Notes	Adapter Type	Availability (in NA)

EVHub (Ukraine)	$525	Car must be "CCS-enabled." Availability curtailed by Russia's war against Ukraine. First available for sale in 2020.	"Aftermarket" Straight "pass- through" circuitry.	Currently unavailable.
SETEC/Lectron (China)	~~$640~~ $300	Unlike other adapters here, charges at a 50kW maximum rate. Requires onboard battery. Runs off firmware that may require frequent updates. Not always compatible with Tesla vehicle updates. Can be used in any model; car need not be CCS-enabled. First available (in North America) in late 2020.	"Aftermarket" Hardware/software used to mimic CHAdeMO technology.	AVAILABLE.
Tesla (Korea)	~$227 (US)	See website (and use Google translate if necessary) for technical specifications. Translation of owner's manual here. Car must be "CCS enabled." Ostensibly for Models 3/Y only (in actuality works with all CCS-enabled models). Includes locking pin to help discourage unintended CCS1 cable-plug detachment. Made for Tesla-Korea by Pegatron of Taiwan. First available (in Korea) in 2021. For a few months in 2022 was available to North American customers through selected Korean shopping/shipping businesses (e.g., Harumio).	"Tesla OEM" Straight "pass- through" circuitry.	AVAILABLE (in Korea).

"New" Sources of Tesla 'OEM,' Tesla-like, and/or Third-Party CCS1 Adapters

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