Supercharger "pirate adapters"?

[Valore]

Today I pulled into the Supercharger in Tucson and was shocked to see a Porsche Panamera Plugin Hybrid pull in. The guy said he bought a converter for $500, then plugged it in, and it seemed to work fine. He said he uses Tesla Superchargers all the time, and doesn’t have to pay anything for the ‘juice’. Good for him, bad for Tesla and Tesla owners. The software can identify specific vehicles e.g., our Model 3, which I get charged for, and our Model S, which I don’t. How can Tesla let this happen?

 

[Ludalicious]

That's technically stealing.

 

[MikeATL]

That's technically stealing.

That’s actually stealing.

Don’t you have to authenticate with the Tesla App and isn’t everyone “billed” for service (even if the charge is free)? How does the “gas pump” dispense gas without a credit card?

 

[EVSteve]

Are you certain this was a supercharger and not a destination charger? There are unfortunately adapters available for HPWC to J1772 but it he paid $500 then he got ripped off.

 

[AnarchyEOD]

I hope his battery explodes and his insurance doesn’t cover it for using an unauthorized charging station.

 

[CCIE]

As someone said, there are Tesla->J1772 adapters available (I have one) for $200-250. But, a Supercharger->CCS adapter seems unlikely. They don’t even use the same communication protocol (CAN vs PLC).

 

[Saghost]

Today I pulled into the Supercharger in Tucson and was shocked to see a Porsche Panamera Plugin Hybrid pull in. The guy said he bought a converter for $500, then plugged it in, and it seemed to work fine. He said he uses Tesla Superchargers all the time, and doesn’t have to pay anything for the ‘juice’. Good for him, bad for Tesla and Tesla owners. The software can identify specific vehicles e.g., our Model 3, which I get charged for, and our Model S, which I don’t. How can Tesla let this happen?

The owner is confused - and if you did meet him at a supercharger, he's in for a disappointment when he gets back to the car.

The Panamera doesn't have the ability to bypass the onboard charger, so no assortment of adapters will allow it to accept power from a Supercharger (very few PHEVs have any sort of DCFC capability, and with only 14 kWh on board, there's really no point.)

What he undoubtedly has is one of the J1772 to Tesla dumb adapters - the physical opposite of the one Tesla ships with every car, which will allow him to use Tesla AC chargers (Destination chargers, UMC, HPWCs owners offer on Plugshare.)

From what I've read, Tesla can freeze folks out of those, too - there's apparently a firmware setting on newer HPWCs to force digital communication like on a Supercharger even though it is still AC charging that a few locations have active according to the forums. That might be hackable, though I doubt anyone will spend the time and money to do it.

 

[Chuq]

Today I pulled into the Supercharger in Tucson and was shocked to see a Porsche Panamera Plugin Hybrid pull in. The guy said he bought a converter for $500, then plugged it in, and it seemed to work fine. He said he uses Tesla Superchargers all the time, and doesn’t have to pay anything for the ‘juice’. Good for him, bad for Tesla and Tesla owners. The software can identify specific vehicles e.g., our Model 3, which I get charged for, and our Model S, which I don’t. How can Tesla let this happen?

He's lying. Unless he's taken out the battery management and charging hardware from a Model S/X and put it into the Panamera, which I doubt has happened. Was it at a location where the SC parking is in a prime spot? He was probably just plugging in the cable so it looked like it was working so that he would be "allowed" to park there.

 

[xyeahtony]

What you are describing is impossible. The tesla superchargers all use authentication tokens to verify the VIN of the car being charged. And as others have said, this particular vehicle does not have the direct DC charging capability.

What is likely is this guy was just full of S

 

[bro1999]

From what I've read, Tesla can freeze folks out of those, too - there's apparently a firmware setting on newer HPWCs to force digital communication like on a Supercharger even though it is still AC charging that a few locations have active according to the forums. That might be hackable, though I doubt anyone will spend the time and money to do it.

This part is not true. I've used these supposedly "adapter proof" newer Tesla destination charging units with the dip switch, and all it does is delay activation of charging by 30 seconds or so. Someone with a TeslaTap/JDapter can still charge just fine.

 

[rollo.martins]

The question goes the other way round: Tesla once offered their Superchargers to other brands. Nobody was interested.

But: What about building an adapter that officially supports Tesla supercharging for other brands? Ask Tesla for access, pay an access fee, have the customer pay the access fee plus a markup. Might be an interesting offer where HPCs are not yet widespread.

 

[Saghost]

This part is not true. I've used these supposedly "adapter proof" newer Tesla destination charging units with the dip switch, and all it does is delay activation of charging by 30 seconds or so. Someone with a TeslaTap/JDapter can still charge just fine.

How do you know they are "adapter proof" sites?

 

[ai4px]

This part is not true. I've used these supposedly "adapter proof" newer Tesla destination charging units with the dip switch, and all it does is delay activation of charging by 30 seconds or so. Someone with a TeslaTap/JDapter can still charge just fine.

Which dip switch? switch 1 is less or more than 250v, switch 2 says always be up. Then there's the max current setting dial.... have I missed something?

 

[Big Earl]

Which dip switch? switch 1 is less or more than 250v, switch 2 says always be up. Then there's the max current setting dial.... have I missed something?

It's switch 2.

I believe, but I haven't tested, that up is Tesla-only operation and down allows it to fall back to J-1772 protocol if a non-Tesla plugs in.

The image here shows up is normal communication and down is legacy communication.

Thread discussing this in more detail: Destination charger settings

 

[adaptabl]

The question goes the other way round: Tesla once offered their Superchargers to other brands. Nobody was interested.

But: What about building an adapter that officially supports Tesla supercharging for other brands? Ask Tesla for access, pay an access fee, have the customer pay the access fee plus a markup. Might be an interesting offer where HPCs are not yet widespread.

Tesla chose a non-standard adaptor. Looks like no one went with them. I suspect to see Tesla switch to CCS soon in North America also.

 

[Saghost]

Tesla chose a non-standard adaptor. Looks like no one went with them. I suspect to see Tesla switch to CCS soon in North America also.

Switching gains Tesla nothing and will cost them a fortune, so I can't see any reason that they'd do it. They switched in Europe because EU law forced them to.

With some fast CCS charger stations starting to show up and all the technical work done already for Europe, I do expect Tesla to start selling a US version of the CCS adapter they've promised for the EU shortly after the EU one gets to mass prediction.

 

[Webeevdrivers]

This part is not true. I've used these supposedly "adapter proof" newer Tesla destination charging units with the dip switch, and all it does is delay activation of charging by 30 seconds or so. Someone with a TeslaTap/JDapter can still charge just fine.

Yep. Thirty seconds for the gen Two HPWC. We have occasionally charged our leaf with our adapter at a local winery with a gen 2 unit.

 

[lolder]

Tesla chose a non-standard adaptor. Looks like no one went with them. I suspect to see Tesla switch to CCS soon in North America also.

Tesla offered the Tesla plug to the SAE and were snubbed. The SAE is dominated by the legacy car makers who did not want to give any legitimacy to Tesla. The Tesla plug is by far the best design. The CCS plugs are cumbersome.

 

[adaptabl]

Tesla offered the Tesla plug to the SAE and were snubbed. The SAE is dominated by the legacy car makers who did not want to give any legitimacy to Tesla. The Tesla plug is by far the best design. The CCS plugs are cumbersome.

Still Tesla charge port is not a standard and will not continue. Betamax was better than VHS back in the day but VHS became dominate and BETA died no matter what Sony did.

 

[Saghost]

Still Tesla charge port is not a standard and will not continue. Betamax was better than VHS back in the day but VHS became dominate and BETA died no matter what Sony did.

Except that the "Betamax" from your example is outselling the VHS version by about four to one lately.

There's a pretty good chance Tesla will become the standard connector despite the standards body by virtue of the fact that they are selling all the cars and installing all the chargers.