Super Charger Adapter for US cars in Europe

[randvegeta]

So apparently an adapter has been made to allow a US Tesla to charge from an EU super charger.

Does anyone know how to make one? Pin out diagrams? Or if they are commercially available, how much and where to buy?

Interestingly, it is apparently also possible to do a full conversion from US to EU spec, giving the car full 3-phase charging capability. There are a few such Teslas already driving around Lithuania with this mod. But it cost a few K, and I'm somewhat hoping this adapter could be a better idea .

 

[davewill]

I don't like the size of the cable in the adapter, it seems too small. Makes me wonder if someone made this for regular AC charging and found it "worked" on the supercharger...or maybe it doesn't work and they are just playing with people by leaving the car plugged in.

 

[miimura]

There was a report of Tesla employees driving a Model 3 around Europe recently using such an adapter.

 

[Galve2000]

OMG this is a dream come true!!

 

[Lasttoy]

I didn't know the Europe plugs were different? Why? This is a shocker, I was planning on shipping mine to Europe for summer.

 

[MP3Mike]

I didn't know the Europe plugs were different? Why? This is a shocker, I was planning on shipping mine to Europe for summer.

Because Europe uses a Mennekes Type 2 plug as the standard, while the US uses a J1772. (Part of this is because Europe uses 3-phase AC and the US Tesla plug doesn't support 3-phase, so they had to use a different plug to get reasonable AC charging speeds.) The Mennekes Type 2 can support Supercharging like the custom Tesla plug in the US. So Tesla put the Mennekes Type 2 on all of the Eurpoean cars. That means you don't need an adapter to plug in to a standard Level 2 EVSE in Europe like you do in the US. As such the Superchargers and UMC have plugs that match the cars.

So in general you can't take a US car to Europe. (You could bring your UMC and make adapters, but you would charge really slowly since you would only be able to use one phase and wouldn't be able to charge at as high an amperage.)

Of course, some people have custom made adapters, but I haven't seen where you can buy them.

 

[cwerdna]

Because Europe uses a Mennekes Type 2 plug as the standard, while the US uses a J1772. (Part of this is because Europe uses 3-phase AC and the US Tesla plug doesn't support 3-phase, so they had to use a different plug to get reasonable AC charging speeds.) The Mennekes Type 2 can support Supercharging like the custom Tesla plug in the US. So Tesla put the Mennekes Type 2 on all of the Eurpoean cars. That means you don't need an adapter to plug in to a standard Level 2 EVSE in Europe like you do in the US. As such the Superchargers and UMC have plugs that match the cars.

US Tesla Model S/X/3 do not have J1772 inlets. They have Tesla's proprietary inlet for North America. You'd find this connector on their mobile connectors, wall connectors, CHAdeMO adapter (Tesla | Model X) and US Superchargers.

US Model S/X/3 include a free adapter to enable such cars to use J1772 EVSEs (Model S/X/3 SAE J1772 Charging Adapter). Yes, for the purposes of L1 and L2 AC charging, it's the J1772 protocol behind the scenes but the inlet on the car isn't J1772-2009.

And yes, European Teslas have Mennekes Type 2 inlets. Mennekes Type 2 isn't used in the US, at least not on any mass-market consumer EVs nor PHEVs in the US.

 

[Galve2000]

(You could bring your UMC and make adapters, but you would charge really slowly since you would only be able to use one phase and wouldn't be able to charge at as high an amperage.)

This is a really terrible attitude.

My 2015 Model S has only one single onboard charger capable of 10 kW. With a Mennekes Type 1 to Type 2 cable (and a J1772 to Tesla Adapter) you can get 230 V x 32 Amps or 7.36 kW, which is roughly 3/4 of the power I can get from my onboard charger in the US (240 V x 40 A or 9.6 kW) -- calling this "really slowly" is disingenuous.

Once my 8 year warranty expires I hope to ship my car to Greece where I spend a few months a year. I never thought I would have access to superchargers (there are currently none in Greece, but I hope that will change in the next 5-6 years) but I was comforted that I could use a US-Spec ChAdeMo adapter to at least get 25-45 kW -- (there are currently very few of those in Greece as well.)

now I have hope that I might do a proper southern european road trip with my Tesla. This is exciting news!

Call me super frugal if you must but I think shipping an 8 year old electric Tesla Model S into semi-retirement makes more economic sense than spending another $100.000 (or worse, Euro which was trading at $1.18/Euro when I last checked yesterday) -- I have shipped a Lexus rx400h from NY to Athens for under $2000, so I know what the math looks like and what the process entails.

 

[CUBldr97]

US Tesla to Type 2 Charging cable adapter - evChargeking

for standard L2 charging

 

[MP3Mike]

This is a really terrible attitude.

My 2015 Model S has only one single onboard charger capable of 10 kW. With a Mennekes Type 1 to Type 2 cable (and a J1772 to Tesla Adapter) you can get 230 V x 32 Amps or 7.36 kW, which is roughly 3/4 of the power I can get from my onboard charger in the US (240 V x 40 A or 9.6 kW) -- calling this "really slowly" is disingenuous.

I thought most of the EVSEs in Europe delivered 3 x 16 amps (11kW), so you could only get 3.68 kW at most locations when charging a US Tesla.

Have I understood that wrong, and most European EVSEs have 3 x 32 amps (22 kW) available?

 

[msvoyager]

I didn't know the Europe plugs were different? Why? This is a shocker, I was planning on shipping mine to Europe for summer.

Yes, agreed. This is exactly why I brought up that topic here: Using my Tesla worldwide

 

[GTR2010]

OMG this is a dream come true!!

Where did you found that picture????

Did your made the picture? Did you Talked to the owner of that car?

Best Regards!

 

[The Duke]

In the US a 1,000 mile trip is very common. For me it's a trip to LA from SF and back. We head to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm or Universal Studios about every 3 months. The SuperCharger network works perfectly. Our over 3K mile trip back east it was also easy to find chargers. Europe wants their way even though an established supported network that has proven durability is in place.

Tesla has made a standard and offered to share it. Unfortunately due to "future needs" and "what if's" Europe went their own way. IMHO they do not want to admit a California upstart beat them to a solution.

 

[davewill]

I thought most of the EVSEs in Europe delivered 3 x 16 amps (11kW), so you could only get 3.68 kW at most locations when charging a US Tesla.

Have I understood that wrong, and most European EVSEs have 3 x 32 amps (22 kW) available?

Actually a significant number even have 3x64a (44kW) available. I always thought this would make a great charging standard, easy and cheap to install anywhere there's 3 phase power. The Zoe supported that rate, having the inverter for the electric motor do double duty as the charger, but it never really caught on.

 

[EESP]

Tesla has made a standard and offered to share it. Unfortunately due to "future needs" and "what if's" Europe went their own way. IMHO they do not want to admit a California upstart beat them to a solution.

The US Tesla proprietary plug would have been a really, really bad idea to use in Europe. Due to that plug not supporting 3-phase (it just doesn't have enough pins!), charging would be restricted to 1-phase, which would give the same AC charging speeds as a Nissan Leaf - either 3,6 (16A) or 7,2 kW (32A), as higher amperage single phase circuits are extremely uncommon in Europe. 3-phase charging power is simply 1-phase times 3: 16A is 11kW, 32A is 22kW.

 

[AEdennis]

The US Tesla proprietary plug would have been a really, really bad idea to use in Europe. Due to that plug not supporting 3-phase (it just doesn't have enough pins!), charging would be restricted to 1-phase, which would give the same AC charging speeds as a Nissan Leaf - either 3,6 (16A) or 7,2 kW (32A), as higher amperage single phase circuits are extremely uncommon in Europe. 3-phase charging power is simply 1-phase times 3: 16A is 11kW, 32A is 22kW.

Actually, the Tesla proprietary plug goes up to 80a and can recharge as fast as 58-60 miles per hour.

 

[EESP]

Actually, the Tesla proprietary plug goes up to 80a and can recharge as fast as 58-60 miles per hour.

I know that, but it doesn't help as long as the current available is either 16A or 32A and the plug won't support 3-phase. That leaves you with 230V 16A and 32A single-phase, which again gives 3,6 or 7,2 kW charging power. 80A single phase circuits are not found at all here, for that exact load (19kW), you would in Europe have used 28A 3-phase instead. European spec Teslas with the old twin chargers support up to 22kW in the form of 3x32A 230V, which would equal slightly over 90A 240V single phase.

 

[AEdennis]

I know that, but it doesn't help as long as the current available is either 16A or 32A and the plug won't support 3-phase. That leaves you with 230V 16A and 32A single-phase, which again gives 3,6 or 7,2 kW charging power. 80A single phase circuits are not found at all here, for that exact load (19kW), you would in Europe have used 28A 3-phase instead. European spec Teslas with the old twin chargers support up to 22kW in the form of 3x32A 230V, which would equal slightly over 90A 240V single phase.

Yup. Just commenting that the Tesla proprietary is capable for the market that it was built for. And it was good hat Tesla adapted for other parts of the world. Of course this makes it more difficult to import between markets for those that want to do that.

 

[EESP]

Yup. Just commenting that the Tesla proprietary is capable for the market that it was built for. And it was good hat Tesla adapted for other parts of the world. Of course this makes it more difficult to import between markets for those that want to do that.

Yes, but I don't know which parts of the world outside North America that gets the proprietary connector and which parts get the Mennekes connector.

At least this I know:
Europe including all of Russia: Mennekes
US: Proprietary
Canada: Proprietary
Australia/NZ: Mennekes
Middle East: Mennekes
Japan: Appears to be proprietary, not 100% sure
China/HK: Mennekes

I don't know the details about the power distribution in South America, but I know Africa mostly uses the same system as Europe.

 

[AEdennis]

Yes, but I don't know which parts of the world outside North America that gets the proprietary connector and which parts get the Mennekes connector.

At least this I know:
Europe including all of Russia: Mennekes
US: Proprietary
Canada: Proprietary
Australia/NZ: Mennekes
Middle East: Mennekes
Japan: Appears to be proprietary, not 100% sure
China/HK: Mennekes

I don't know the details about the power distribution in South America, but I know Africa mostly uses the same system as Europe.

Exactly... Japan and Canada are proprietary. I suspect that Mexico is as well...