Tesla open up the SuC network [in UK]

[debrooker]

Interesting seeing Americans now getting open SuperChargers with this new Magicdock solution. Nice bit of engineering for the adapter. I wonder how well the sharing/blocking stalls will go in gun country.

Pretty cool engineering and was wondering how uncle sam would get this to work

 

[JIBYC]

I assume they will start with the quiet ones like they did here. High likelihood someone will get shot sooner or later though.

Wouldn't a Taser be more likely if we're all driving treehugging EVs?

 

[Sean.]

Pretty cool engineering and was wondering how uncle sam would get this to work

I wonder how much abuse those adapters can take?

Us older S & X owners use pretty much the reverse adapter - but as it’s CCS2->Mennekes here rather than NACS->CCS1 both sides of our adapter are more substantial and it’s extremely solid when mounted on the gun.

That adapter looked quite flimsy by comparison.

 

[qwickshot]

To be honest, it seems very over engineered compared to 2 (longer!) cables.

 

[Sean.]

To be honest, it seems very over engineered compared to 2 (longer!) cables.

I reckon it came down to cost.

CCS cables aren’t cheap. Over here you’re looking at the thick end of £600-£800 for a CCS2 cable, depending on length. That adapter will be less than half.

 

[qwickshot]

That may well be the case when looking at it from a pure design perspective but I’ll be very interest in see how that holds up in the real world. E.g. once customers start tanking on them, dropping them or even purposely trying to break them…

 

[GRiLLA]

Mentioned at Investor Day, SuperCharger v4 are starting to be installed in Europe and have a longer cable to better support other makes of car.

 

[stopcrazypp]

That may well be the case when looking at it from a pure design perspective but I’ll be very interest in see how that holds up in the real world. E.g. once customers start tanking on them, dropping them or even purposely trying to break them…

People would abuse the cables too. With two cables you also need a contactor that disables the other one, which is another additional cost on top. You would also need a separate holder and probably have to redesign the stall. Retrofitting that is probably much tougher too. People said this retrofit only takes two hours. From the photos of it being installed, it seems they just pop open the cover and install it.

 

[MrBadger]

People would abuse the cables too. With two cables you also need a contactor that disables the other one, which is another additional cost on top. You would also need a separate holder and probably have to redesign the stall. Retrofitting that is probably much tougher too. People said this retrofit only takes two hours. From the photos of it being installed, it seems they just pop open the cover and install it.

Dual cables is standard on all European v2 superchargers. V3 they didn’t fit the Tesla specific cable so older non CCS cars, ie many Model S/X couldn’t use v3 without their own CCS adaptor and software flag to indicate v3 availability on nav.

So all your points are already covered in Europe and have been for 3 or so years hence the original suggestion as being a suitable way to do it. And yes, they will do a whole 8/12 supercharger lot in less than a day. Dual connector was a very rapid rollout.

 

[Sean.]

Mentioned at Investor Day, SuperCharger v4 are starting to be installed in Europe and have a longer cable to better support other makes of car.

Any idea where? All I can find is some stuff in the states.

 

[GRiLLA]

People would abuse the cables too. With two cables you also need a contactor that disables the other one, which is another additional cost on top. You would also need a separate holder and probably have to redesign the stall. Retrofitting that is probably much tougher too. People said this retrofit only takes two hours. From the photos of it being installed, it seems they just pop open the cover and install it.

It's what we have in Europe when they retrofitted the v2 SuperChargers with CCS2 as a second cable, so it does work. I imagine the scenario is a little different as Tesla were moving to the CCS2 connector so it is now the connector that's getting by far the most usage.

Yes it'll be interesting to see from a far how well the Magicdock stands up to lots of connects and disconnects, but to me Tesla haven't yet put a foot wrong in their charging solutions compared to so many other awful experiences, I wouldn't bet against them.

 

[cezdoc]

So it seems the expansion since the announcement last May amounts to another 5 sites; Carmarthen, Harrogate, Newport, Romford and Sidcup.

Harrogate and Romford were already open in May last year, so opened up after the fact, but the others are newly opened sites.

The Tesla website is currently showing superchargers open to non-Tesla as separate markers so I thought it would be useful to grab a screenshot to track the opening up of the network in the UK (I don't always see an option to filter on Non-Tesla SuCs):

(The orange circles highlight the changes since the original 15 opened on 18th May 2022, which are shown in a similar screenshot here).

I checked at the start of January at which point the original 15 sites plus Newport were open to non-Tesla cars. So to build on @Sean. 's post I think the timeline so far is:

18-May-22 (15 total): Aberystwyth, Adderstone, Aviemore, Banbury, Birmingham - St Andrews, Cardiff, Dundee, Flint Mountain, Folkestone - France Bound Only, Grays, London - Uxbridge, Manchester - Trafford Centre, Thetford, Trumpington, Wokingham
09-Dec-22 Newport (available to non-Tesla as soon as it opened)
??-Feb-23 (3 total, all legacy sites): Harrogate, London - Romford, London - Sidcup
21-Feb-23 Carmarthen (available to non-Tesla as soon as it opened)

I'm not sure exactly when Harrogate, Romford and Sidcup were opened up to non-Teslas but it was some time between early January and the end of February.

 

[spooksman]

Kinda interesting that the US are now having the fun (thx Marques Brownlee)!

 

[Jason71]

Kinda interesting that the US are now having the fun (thx Marques Brownlee)!

That F150 is annoying. Barely reaches even on the wrong side. I can se people trying to park them sideways like they do with Taycans

 

[Durzel]

Now that it's happening in America maybe Tesla will give a f*** - I note MKBHD posted about it on Twitter (he of the above video) and Elon replied saying "Interesting", which could be an auto-responder nowadays, but it's something.

 

[Sean.]

That F150 is annoying. Barely reaches even on the wrong side. I can se people trying to park them sideways like they do with Taycans

Seems like most new SuC sites have now adopted side-by-side - so I think less of an issue as they open up more.

 

[JupiterMan]

That F150 is annoying. Barely reaches even on the wrong side. I can se people trying to park them sideways like they do with Taycans

yeah pretty bad design. The charger will almost always be in front of the vehicle, so at the very least the flap should open the other way around on the F150.

 

[JupiterMan]

Now that it's happening in America maybe Tesla will give a f*** -

I guess the news that V4 chargers will have longer cables means they do give a f***, will just mean that the V2/V3 sites will always have this issue unless upgraded.

 

[stopcrazypp]

yeah pretty bad design. The charger will almost always be in front of the vehicle, so at the very least the flap should open the other way around on the F150.

That's what I noticed too. At public chargers you are almost always going to plug in from the front and the stupid flap makes it so you need least a couple inches if not a foot or more length to reach.

 

[stopcrazypp]

It's what we have in Europe when they retrofitted the v2 SuperChargers with CCS2 as a second cable, so it does work. I imagine the scenario is a little different as Tesla were moving to the CCS2 connector so it is now the connector that's getting by far the most usage.

Yes it'll be interesting to see from a far how well the Magicdock stands up to lots of connects and disconnects, but to me Tesla haven't yet put a foot wrong in their charging solutions compared to so many other awful experiences, I wouldn't bet against them.

Here they are retrofitting the V3 (which have liquid cooled cables), so that may play a part also. The Magic Dock solution will just be less expensive and more universal.

I agree if they were to switch to CCS1 here in the USA, it would make more sense to have two cables, as it's a nonstarter to require older Tesla owners to use the app to start a session. But with the announcement of the NACS standard, I think it's pretty clear Tesla has no plans to do so.