I purchased a 2017 new inventory MS100D in August 2017. This April-built vehicle came with the 48A internal charger, but I was told I could upgrade to the High-Amp 72A charger after delivery. Subsequently, I installed a full 100A circuit to a new HPWC in my garage at significant expense. However, today when I contacted the SC to schedule the charger upgrade for my car, I am now told the charger upgrade is not available for my particular vehicle. Does anyone know if this is potentially bad information ? I have heard that there is often bad info or misinformation between Sales, SC’s and the factory. What happened that the upgrade is no longer available ? Was it ever available ?
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stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
For some earlier models they came with the 72A charger and it was just a software limiter. Later ones have different parts and car had to be brought to the SC to swap. People have done this upgrade according to this thread:
Upgrading from 48 to 72a charging??
Upgrading from 48A to 72A charging
Cowbell, please push this issue up to Tesla HQ - because we also ordered our S 100D with the standard 48A charger, with the expectation that we could upgrade to 72A later.
When we placed our configuration (I took a snapshot of the configuration page), it clearly states that the 72A upgrade was $1500 if configured with the car or $1900 if configured after delivery. If that future upgrade option had not been available, we would likely have purchased the 72A charger with the car.
However...
We've had our S 100D since March and have almost 18,000 miles on it. We're using an HPWC on a 100A circuit that is limited to 48A charging due to the onboard charger.
And we've been able to get a full charge at home overnight since we've got the car - so, for at least home charging, we really don't need more than 48A.
Destination charging is a different matter. When on a road trip, we'll always try to stay at a hotel with a destination charger. Some destination chargers are on 100A circuits and can support up to 80A charging - though most we've encountered seem to provide less, probably 50A. For overnight charging, the 48A charger has been fast enough - and what most of the destination chargers currently support. For those few 80A chargers we've found, a 72A onboard charger would be nice, but unless you're trying to get a faster charge during the day, 48A should be enough for overnight destination charging.
The onboard charger isn't used for supercharging, so it doesn't matter if you have a 48A or 72A onboard charger, the supercharging circuit bypasses the onboard charger.
So that gets back to our original decision. If 48A is enough for overnight charging, and we would only need a 72A charger for during the day charging at a destination charger that supports 80A, would we use that enough to justify spending $1500 (with the original order) or $1900 (if Tesla provided the upgrade)?
At least for us, the answer still seems to be no. Unless you do a lot of charging during the day - for overnight charging 48A seems to be enough, at least with a 100 KWhr battery pack.
When we placed our configuration (I took a snapshot of the configuration page), it clearly states that the 72A upgrade was $1500 if configured with the car or $1900 if configured after delivery. If that future upgrade option had not been available, we would likely have purchased the 72A charger with the car.
However...
We've had our S 100D since March and have almost 18,000 miles on it. We're using an HPWC on a 100A circuit that is limited to 48A charging due to the onboard charger.
And we've been able to get a full charge at home overnight since we've got the car - so, for at least home charging, we really don't need more than 48A.
Destination charging is a different matter. When on a road trip, we'll always try to stay at a hotel with a destination charger. Some destination chargers are on 100A circuits and can support up to 80A charging - though most we've encountered seem to provide less, probably 50A. For overnight charging, the 48A charger has been fast enough - and what most of the destination chargers currently support. For those few 80A chargers we've found, a 72A onboard charger would be nice, but unless you're trying to get a faster charge during the day, 48A should be enough for overnight destination charging.
The onboard charger isn't used for supercharging, so it doesn't matter if you have a 48A or 72A onboard charger, the supercharging circuit bypasses the onboard charger.
So that gets back to our original decision. If 48A is enough for overnight charging, and we would only need a 72A charger for during the day charging at a destination charger that supports 80A, would we use that enough to justify spending $1500 (with the original order) or $1900 (if Tesla provided the upgrade)?
At least for us, the answer still seems to be no. Unless you do a lot of charging during the day - for overnight charging 48A seems to be enough, at least with a 100 KWhr battery pack.
Thanks bob_p. I will reach out to Hq and see if I can get an affirmative answer for the upgrade. My interest in the 72A charging capability is that I would be able to recharge a fully depleted battery at home or at a capable destination charger in less than six hours vs over 8 1/2 hours with the 48A onboard charger. That represents about a 33% time savings. And to me, the additional $1,900 is not so much compared to the total cost of my car.
Generally you'll keep the car between 10% and 90%, charging to 90% overnight. With an 100KWhr battery, that means you'll typically do a "full charge" on 80KWhr (not 100).
A 48A charger is providing roughly 10KWhr per hour - so a "full charge" going from 10% to 90% will take about 8 hours, and most of the time, you'll be charging much less than 80% of the battery overnight.
Many destination chargers are as low as 30-40A, which is slower, but still fast enough to get a full charge overnight.
So far, we haven't encountered any situation with our S P85 (80A charger) or S 100D (48A charger) when we've failed to get a full charge at home or at destination chargers.
And while I'm curious to see if Tesla has failed to delivered on their promised $1900 72A upgrade availability for our car, it's likely we'll keep our 48A charger and save the $$$.
A 48A charger is providing roughly 10KWhr per hour - so a "full charge" going from 10% to 90% will take about 8 hours, and most of the time, you'll be charging much less than 80% of the battery overnight.
Many destination chargers are as low as 30-40A, which is slower, but still fast enough to get a full charge overnight.
So far, we haven't encountered any situation with our S P85 (80A charger) or S 100D (48A charger) when we've failed to get a full charge at home or at destination chargers.
And while I'm curious to see if Tesla has failed to delivered on their promised $1900 72A upgrade availability for our car, it's likely we'll keep our 48A charger and save the $$$.
I have a March 2017 S100D.
I did have a quote at one time to replace the charger with a higher capacity one. I decided I didn’t need it and saved the money.
I’m surprised it isn’t still available.
I don’t think any pricing info on the web page is guaranteed. It’s just info current as of that time.
I did have a quote at one time to replace the charger with a higher capacity one. I decided I didn’t need it and saved the money.
I’m surprised it isn’t still available.
I don’t think any pricing info on the web page is guaranteed. It’s just info current as of that time.
I've checked periodically, and the 48A-to-72A upgrade has never shown up on the Tesla Store page. It's possible some of the cars shipped with a 48A charger may actually have software limited 72A chargers, and if that's the case, the upgrade would only be a software setting change (costing $1900).
While we aren't planning to upgrade to 72A, would still like to have a definitive answer on the availability of the upgrade - since Tesla had that on the page when we placed our 100D order...
While we aren't planning to upgrade to 72A, would still like to have a definitive answer on the availability of the upgrade - since Tesla had that on the page when we placed our 100D order...
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
Maybe due to the tremendous increase in the number of Superchargers, Tesla felt that the demand would be to low to continue to support the larger on board chargers.
Not worth it to just sell a few per year.
Not worth it to just sell a few per year.
Tesla has to stock the 72A chargers for repairs. They also have to stock any other hardware needed to connect the chargers to the car. So if an owner wanted to replace the 48A charger with a 72A, Tesla should have the parts to do that.
Unless they screwed up - and they did something in the design that makes it difficult to retrofit this change (which really seems unlikely).
Unless they screwed up - and they did something in the design that makes it difficult to retrofit this change (which really seems unlikely).
I quote from my reply from Tesla on June 2017. But, there is no guarantee that these type of things will be available forever. My S100D is a Feb/Mar build.
Hello XXX,
Thank you for contacting Tesla Vehicle Support.
You are able to upgrade to the High Amperage Charging, which will give up to 72A and the cost for that is $1900. This upgrade will require that you have the TeslaHigh powered Wall Connector.
Hello XXX,
Thank you for contacting Tesla Vehicle Support.
You are able to upgrade to the High Amperage Charging, which will give up to 72A and the cost for that is $1900. This upgrade will require that you have the TeslaHigh powered Wall Connector.
Well, they never said a 100 pack upgrade would be available. I’ve read it may need different suspension and airbags. But who knows.
I was never successful having the dealer upgrade my BMW from a 328 to a 330 either.
They damn well did. Stop this revisionist bullshit. THIS is why people are confused. Half the posts on this board are basically reverse FUD - about all the owner reports of issues with Tesla.
Did what? There was not a darn thing on the ordering page when I purchased my car that I could later change it to a different battery.
I do think a 72a charger upgrade should be available.
The 48A-to-72A charger upgrade is different than doing an upgrade to a newer, larger, battery pack.
In the case of the charger upgrade, this was listed on the configuration page when the cars were configured - a specific decision the customer made when configuring the car - and for those who selected the 48A charger, they believed they would have the option to upgrade to 72A later.
The battery pack upgrades/replacements have never been listed on the configuration page or ever put in writing in Tesla's marketing or their website. Comments about future battery pack upgrades typically come from Musk's comments - which are not official Tesla policy, just his predictions on what Tesla will (eventually) do. His comments/predictions are sometimes right (often taking longer than expected) and sometimes wrong (where is the promised App Store, screen mirroring, improved browser, ...?).
I took a screen shot of the configuration page when we placed the order for our 100D - it shows the charger upgrade option would be available after delivery. If Tesla is not going to support what they claimed when the order was placed - owners who made the decision to go with the 48A chargers should know about the policy change.
In the case of the charger upgrade, this was listed on the configuration page when the cars were configured - a specific decision the customer made when configuring the car - and for those who selected the 48A charger, they believed they would have the option to upgrade to 72A later.
The battery pack upgrades/replacements have never been listed on the configuration page or ever put in writing in Tesla's marketing or their website. Comments about future battery pack upgrades typically come from Musk's comments - which are not official Tesla policy, just his predictions on what Tesla will (eventually) do. His comments/predictions are sometimes right (often taking longer than expected) and sometimes wrong (where is the promised App Store, screen mirroring, improved browser, ...?).
I took a screen shot of the configuration page when we placed the order for our 100D - it shows the charger upgrade option would be available after delivery. If Tesla is not going to support what they claimed when the order was placed - owners who made the decision to go with the 48A chargers should know about the policy change.
Cirrus MS100D
Member
Just also want to mention that while you invested in the 100 amp line already, you’re now also set to daisy chain a second HPWC off of it if you ever get a second Tesla.
Nope. Adding another HPWC requires rewiring to have a new subpanel, or just whole a new circuit from the main panel. The power doesn't daisy chain.
MikeBur
ManualPilot
With older HWPC you needed to do this, yes.
For the newer HWPC, you run one power feed which you split via junction box (not a panel). And feed same capacity power cable to each HWPC (1 set as master, other(s) set as slave. You then daisy chain the communication line from master to each slave.
Here’s one example detailed on YT:
Depending on your local regulations and electrical inspector. Still not exactly zero cost! You've saved maybe tens of dollars on avoiding the panel vs using those polaris connectors. They are very expensive, especially in large gauge. Actually last time I priced it out, subpanel stocked at homedepot was cheaper.
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