Whats up with these cheap NEW chademo adapters on ebay shipping from china?

[cookie99]

Anyone try to buy one from here? Is it authentic? They ship from China....

tesla chademo | eBay

1 sold for $250, then further down the same auction sold for $180... what??

Are these gonna be like iphone cables that stop working randomly.. or even worst...

 

[xyeahtony]

why anyone think its okay to go cheap on a device that is responsible for carrying an upwards of 100kwh of energy is beyond me.

 

[Kant.Ing]

Probably using it to charge their $10 Radio Flyer Tesla Model S for kids by Radio Flyer, white | eBay

Could be fake bidders/buyers.

 

[Evoforce]

Maybe the same company that makes them for Tesla?

 

[boonedocks]

Just posted in another thread but may be useful here:

My Tesla branded CHADeMO adapter firmware has been updated 3-4 times since I purchased it in May 2015. Doubt they’ll touch your Chinese replIca one if firmware changes to the BMS require a CHADeMO firmware update. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Ianf]

why anyone think its okay to go cheap on a device that is responsible for carrying an upwards of 100kwh of energy is beyond me.

And... if^h^hwhen it does blow up/melt/catch fire, who's paying for the damage? Us in the long run. ebay / CE manufacturer won't feel responsible for it. Hopefully there's a way to tell it's a fake and not start a charge thru it. Chademo is only 50kw, so only half the enormous amount of energy of a SuC.

 

[davewill]

I'm guessing they've been diverted from the actual manufacturer. I'd expect the supply to dry up shortly.

 

[cookie99]

ofcourse using an "off-brand" chademo adapter sounds disastrous, but i'm curious to know the origin of these. They could be genuine.. they could not be, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss these exact ones as replicas.

they could have just been taken off the assembly line of tesla's official manufacturer, just like davewill said. I'm just curious if anyone had any inside scoop or tried to purchase one to compare.

 

[jelloslug]

They could be "B" stock units, or older revisions that Tesla does not want to sell.

 

[allhands]

I might be willing to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? lol

But seriously, is there some kind of microcomputer in the adapter that could cause damage if it's not built correctly or is inauthentic? Or is it just an adapter of the CHADeMO pins to the Tesla pins? I was under the impression that all of the voltage regulation is handled internally within the Tesla.

 

[TexasEV]

The adapter has firmware that is updated at the service center. It’s certainly more than connecting CHAdeMO pins to Tesla pins. Remember this sold for >$1000 when it first came out.

 

[davewill]

I might be willing to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? lol

But seriously, is there some kind of microcomputer in the adapter that could cause damage if it's not built correctly or is inauthentic? Or is it just an adapter of the CHADeMO pins to the Tesla pins? I was under the impression that all of the voltage regulation is handled internally within the Tesla.

For DC charging, all the voltage and current regulation is done by the external charger. The car sends messages telling it what voltage/current to use. The adapter has to translate back and forth between CHAdeMO messages and Supercharger messages. Worst case, it does that wrong and the CHAdeMO charger uses too high or low a voltage or current. I'm sure the car would open it's contactors if things got really bad, but that's no guarantee that there couldn't be damage.

 

[allhands]

Remember this sold for >$1000 when it first came out.

I thought that was mostly because of the licensing the CHAdeMO tech.

 

[cbdream99]

I wouldn't trust those 'quick money' adapter (for the seller) made in China. If it causes any damage, I am sure you will have to see if Tesla covers it. The problem is someone see an opportunity, they will copy as knock off with no QC or testing, or buy some cheap out of spec parts put them together, sell some and then fold.

 

[KArnold]

I bought one - $205 I think including shipping. Seller has a 99.7% rating with 10k sales but sells just about everything. Maybe not the smartest move I've made, but we'll see - I didn't realize these were more complex than they appear. I asked specifically if these were both Tesla branded and Tesla manufactured - he said "yes" to both, and said it came in Tesla packaging. If not, it's likely going back.

 

[allhands]

I bought one - $205 I think including shipping. Seller has a 99.7% rating with 10k sales but sells just about everything. Maybe not the smartest move I've made, but we'll see - I didn't realize these were more complex than they appear. I asked specifically if these were both Tesla branded and Tesla manufactured - he said "yes" to both, and said it came in Tesla packaging. If not, it's likely going back.

Please report back regarding what you receive and how well it works!

 

[kingtj]

I'm also interested in following this one. I saw these adapters for sale on eBay too. Honestly, it only looks like there were a few auctions going on at a time for them, though. A couple were from an eBay account in China with 0 feedback, so I skipped right over those. I can't see how anyone would want to gamble on PayPal'ing over hundreds of dollars to a Chinese account with no previous transaction history?

I'm tempted to try to bid on one that's offered there by someone with a much better feedback score, though. In my situation, I only have one location in mind where I want to use the DC charging. (We have a free CHADeMO charger available to use in one of the shopping strip malls near where I live. I find myself shopping at one store or another there at least 4 times a week, and I go right by its highway exit every time I drive in to the office. They also offer a free ChargePoint charger there, but that one charges my Tesla so slowly, it really only winds up giving me about 20-25 miles of extra range if I spend 1-2 hours there.)

I'm in the unfortunate situation where I can only charge at home with the 120 volt outlet at 15 amps. I have a detached garage that was only wired up for that, and my 200 amp electrical service in the basement is pretty much maxxed out already since we have 2 heat pumps and an all electric home. The electrician who examined everything told me I'd be looking at $7-10,000 to do everything needed to get a better circuit out there under the circumstances. (Even the existing ground wire on my electrical box was put in back in the 1960's and won't meet code today, so that would need to be redone as part of the project too.) So I'm always looking for a strategy to charge my car as much as possible on free chargers around where I live and work, so at home overnight is just "topping it off".

I could justify spending $250 or so on a CHADeMO adapter just for use at that one charging station if the thing works properly with it. But I'd love to know if these things on eBay are turning out to be in OEM Tesla packaging first.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I'm in the unfortunate situation where I can only charge at home with the 120 volt outlet at 15 amps. I have a detached garage that was only wired up for that, and my 200 amp electrical service in the basement is pretty much maxxed out already since we have 2 heat pumps and an all electric home. The electrician who examined everything told me I'd be looking at $7-10,000 to do everything needed to get a better circuit out there under the circumstances. (Even the existing ground wire on my electrical box was put in back in the 1960's and won't meet code today, so that would need to be redone as part of the project too.) So I'm always looking for a strategy to charge my car as much as possible on free chargers around where I live and work, so at home overnight is just "topping it off".

I could justify spending $250 or so on a CHADeMO adapter just for use at that one charging station if the thing works properly with it. But I'd love to know if these things on eBay are turning out to be in OEM Tesla packaging first.

Are any of your outlets near your car connected to a 20A breaker instead of a 15A? If so, you could charge using the NEMA 5-20 adapter and get about 42% faster charge rate.

 

[gavine]

I might be willing to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? lol

But seriously, is there some kind of microcomputer in the adapter that could cause damage if it's not built correctly or is inauthentic? Or is it just an adapter of the CHADeMO pins to the Tesla pins? I was under the impression that all of the voltage regulation is handled internally within the Tesla.

CHAdeMO Adapter Tear Down

 

[allhands]

CHAdeMO Adapter Tear Down

Oh wow! Somebody want to do it with one of these eBay adapters to compare?