Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

OEM CCS adapter now available to order in North America, Retrofit for older cars coming in 2023

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
hoping they can update the trip map to include CCS1 fast chargers
I wouldn’t hold my breath for this, but it could happen. Certainly if / when Tesla makes SC open to non tesla vehicles, Tesla is going to want to have the SC‘s in THEIR map data, so it might end up being the trade off for Tesla to allow EA or other CCS1 LVL 2 chargers to be listed in the Tesla “charging” map data set.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: cdswm3
  • Like
Reactions: Originalando
Has anyone who has done the DIY retrofit outlined in a different thread on this forum here tested this new OEM adapter at a 250kW capable CCS station? I'm curious to know if there is a difference in max charging rate between DIY retrofits and cars which come compatible from the factory.

i used a supposed 350kw EVgo station in downtown SF last week, and got about 130 kW max. went from 24% to about 70% in just under 20 mins.

i've seen youtube videos though with the DIY retrofit where people have gotten 200 kW, or close to it. it depends on the station, but the car should be capable of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: theeskimo
UPS should be delivering my CCS adaptor today! I only fast charge on road trips but there have a been a few times where I've been at a full supercharger with an empty EA down the street.

mine was great on our road trip to SF this past weekend - was able to stop at an EVgo station nearby where we had dinner in downtown SF rather than have to go out of the way to a supercharger, and there was also another station at a mall we stopped at on the way home which cut out some supercharging time down further along the trip. it's definitely worth having, IMO.
 
UPS dropped off my CCS adapter today. I had previously set up an account with Electrify America, but have never stopped there. Figured I ought to test it.

Unlike Tesla's Supercharger network, which knows instantly who you are when you plug in and just automatically bills the card you've got associated with the account... the Electrify America mobile app has you explicitly load a predetermined amount into your account. This despite your having a credit card associated with the account. Kinda like pulling into a gas station in an ICE car, wanting to pay with cash, and having to calculate how much energy you want to buy and how much it's gonna cost, so you can pre-pay for it.

So before I left I dutifully loaded $40 into the account.

Ambient temps were in the mid-60's (Fahrenheit), my pack temp was 80.6, and I was only a a couple miles from the Walmart where the EA chargers were located. I didn't want to DC Fast Charge at that low a temp. Not because I wanted a hotter pack so I would see greater throughput - I could care less about that - but because of battery health.

Fortunately, there was a Tesla Supercharger a couple hundred feet from the EA location, so I just set the Nav for that. Preconditioning started immediately and the pack began coming up to temp fairly quickly. When I plugged into the EA charger a few minutes later, my pack was about 100F.

Interestingly, the EA charger never prompted me to ID myself or pay for anything. It just started charging once I plugged in, just as a Tesla Supercharger would. I assume that has something to do with the free promotion EA is reportedly running. My guess is you'd normally have to go through several steps in the mobile app before it'd start sending electrons.

It all worked perfectly fine. I stopped the charge after receiving 5 kWh.

The adapter seems very well built. Heavier than you'd expect. And it's pretty painless to use.

I'd venture that its biggest weakness is the inability to directly manage pack temps. You don't want to DC Fast Charge into a pack that's not pretty well heated. And since most of us who buy this adapter do so as a backup if a Tesla Supercharger isn't around... navigating to a nearby Supercharger like I did isn't going to be an option. You can, of course, nav to a more distant Supercharger. But that may not help your pack temp all that much (I'll note that when the "preconditioning battery" alert comes on your screen that doesn't mean your battery is being actively heated. Oftentimes that heating doesn't trigger until you're much closer to the Supercharger location.)


CCS1.jpeg


CCS2.jpeg


CCS3.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: phishphan
UPS dropped off my CCS adapter today. I had previously set up an account with Electrify America, but have never stopped there. Figured I ought to test it.

Unlike Tesla's Supercharger network, which knows instantly who you are when you plug in and just automatically bills the card you've got associated with the account... the Electrify America mobile app has you explicitly load a predetermined amount into your account. This despite your having a credit card associated with the account. Kinda like pulling into a gas station in an ICE car, wanting to pay with cash, and having to calculate how much energy you want to buy and how much it's gonna cost, so you can pre-pay for it.

So before I left I dutifully loaded $40 into the account.

Ambient temps were in the mid-60's (Fahrenheit), my pack temp was 80.6, and I was only a a couple miles from the Walmart where the EA chargers were located. I didn't want to DC Fast Charge at that low a temp. Not because I wanted a hotter pack so I would see greater throughput - I could care less about that - but because of battery health.

Fortunately, there was a Tesla Supercharger a couple hundred feet from the EA location, so I just set the Nav for that. Preconditioning started immediately and the pack began coming up to temp fairly quickly. When I plugged into the EA charger a few minutes later, my pack was about 100F.

Interestingly, the EA charger never prompted me to ID myself or pay for anything. It just started charging once I plugged in, just as a Tesla Supercharger would. I assume that has something to do with the free promotion EA is reportedly running. My guess is you'd normally have to go through several steps in the mobile app before it'd start sending electrons.

It all worked perfectly fine. I stopped the charge after receiving 5 kWh.

The adapter seems very well built. Heavier than you'd expect. And it's pretty painless to use.

I'd venture that its biggest weakness is the inability to directly manage pack temps. You don't want to DC Fast Charge into a pack that's not pretty well heated. And since most of us who buy this adapter do so as a backup if a Tesla Supercharger isn't around... navigating to a nearby Supercharger like I did isn't going to be an option. You can, of course, nav to a more distant Supercharger. But that may not help your pack temp all that much (I'll note that when the "preconditioning battery" alert comes on your screen that doesn't mean your battery is being actively heated. Oftentimes that heating doesn't trigger until you're much closer to the Supercharger location.)


View attachment 858277

View attachment 858278

View attachment 858279
Thank your this post. I did not know about DC charging on a cold battery would deteriorate the battery! And yes, the adapter is super heavy, not what I was expecting at all. I also couldn’t believe the size of it! Holy cow!
 
  • Funny
Reactions: outdoors
It should not deteriorate your battery, many of the cars on the road today were there before Tesla started preconditioning the battery to Supercharge. The reason that process was added was not to stop battery deterioration, the battery that is being charged will heat up, the reason was to save time. If you arrive at the charger with a car that is fully warmed it can accept full speed of the v3 chargers, so you get that big bump of charge level at the near bottom of the battery allowing you to get back on the road in a few short minutes.
 
Thank your this post. I did not know about DC charging on a cold battery would deteriorate the battery! And yes, the adapter is super heavy, not what I was expecting at all. I also couldn’t believe the size of it! Holy cow!
It won't deteriorate your battery, it will just charge slower until it heats up. Might be better for the battery actually.
 
There's no doubt that a major reason for Tesla's pre-heating of your battery while en-route to a Supercharger is to promote faster charge sessions, improving the user experience and getting you out of the stall as quickly as possible so it's free for the next person.

But it's also true that the temp of your pack - and whether it is heated or not - has longer term health and longevity implications.

Lithium plating is the biggest worry when DC Fast Charging. Fortunately, that is only a concern at lower temps.

However, DC Fast Charging also brings other challenges, including irreversible Li-ion consumption and increased cell resistance that occur at more moderate temps. Elevated C-rates, the thing that DC Fast Charging is all about... is a major factor.

By and large, Tesla's BMS does a good job of managing all this. That's what "pre-conditioning" is all about.

The context of this thread, however, is in using Tesla's new CCS adapter. In most cases, battery "pre-conditioning" is going to be off the table when routing towards an Electrify America station.

Just like SOC lives on a continuum - it's not like there's a "good" SOC and then it suddenly turns bad at a certain point... so do temperature effects when considering DC Fast Charging.

Is plugging into a DC Fast charger at 80F (26C) an awful thing?

No, it's certainly not the worst thing you can do to your pack. But neither is it the nicest thing you can do.

Here are three quick charts that illustrate the notable change in "safe" C-rates (defined as the threshold above which Li deposition on the anode happens). C-rate, for any who don't know, is the rate at which your pack is charged or discharged. When you pull into a Supercharger with 5% SOC and plug in your car your C-rate will be very high (relatively) as it sucks great gulps of those electrons. As your charge session continues and your SOC increases, that C-rate will taper down.

The thing to note here is that 45C (113F) C-rates were higher in every instance than the comparable C-rates at 30C (86)F. Temperature matters.

The entire research report can be found at ShieldSquare Captcha


Cell Voltage...
Temp_C-Rate1.png



Anode Polarization...
Temp_C-Rate2.png



Electrode Reference Potential...
Temp_C-Rate3.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: tiburci and DrGriz