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Will US Tesla work in Europe?
- Thread starter CWT4th
- Start date
Leeclanual
Member
My guess (based on previous experience shipping 3 ICE cars to U.K. and GE) is that you’ll need two modifications done... first, lighting might need to be swapped... different reqt by country for parking, reverse, turn signal, etc. second, you’ll need the charging port changed to euro spec. Other than that think your good.
- No service from Tesla (US parts don't ship to the EU, they don't service out-of-region cars)
- No Supercharging (uses different plug)
- No 3-phase AC charging (US Tesla's have a single phase plug, mainland Europe uses 3-phase power. Charging will be mostly limited to ~ 4 kW).
- No navigation, as US maps are loaded onto the car.
- Autopilot will most likely be wonky, due to different road regulations. eg. speed limits will not be available.
- Stuff like Homelink won't work, as US uses a different frequency than the EU
- EU CHAdeMO chargers are hard to find and limited to ~ 43 kW with the Tesla adapter. CCS is rapidly becoming the standard here. So your DCFC options are very limited.
All in all, bad idea. Just sell the US car and buy a (used) EU car.
- No Supercharging (uses different plug)
- No 3-phase AC charging (US Tesla's have a single phase plug, mainland Europe uses 3-phase power. Charging will be mostly limited to ~ 4 kW).
- No navigation, as US maps are loaded onto the car.
- Autopilot will most likely be wonky, due to different road regulations. eg. speed limits will not be available.
- Stuff like Homelink won't work, as US uses a different frequency than the EU
- EU CHAdeMO chargers are hard to find and limited to ~ 43 kW with the Tesla adapter. CCS is rapidly becoming the standard here. So your DCFC options are very limited.
All in all, bad idea. Just sell the US car and buy a (used) EU car.
I have a very nice Supercharger adapter for US Teslas. There are specialists that can make US version work like EU version.
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Yes, these apparently do exists. I would be careful. My guess is Tesla will disable Supercharging by blocking out-of-region VIN's from using the Supercharger if these adapters become to mainstream. After all, 120 kW is not something to toy with.
NeverFollow
Active Member
I saw similar post where someone moving to Canada had to sale his Tesla.
The US Tesla are not approved in Canada, may be it the case for any cars?
Or it is just to avoid illegal import/export to skip paying border taxes?
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NeverFollow
Active Member
At least you could use your own European home charger to plug-in an US Tesla car by using one of those above mentioned adapters.
There are also on e-Bay in US, some plugs allowing a US Tesla home charger to be used with other non Tesla EVs.
J1772 UMC - 40 AMP (Tesla Tap)
Thank you! I'm assuming that all J1772 public chargers will be just fine. I also hope that the US Chademo adapter will have no problems in Europe.
I sent you a message about the adapter, I could really use one of these.
They will not work with European Model 3's, as the Model 3 in the EU uses CCS (Superchargers are being converted). It does not accept DC power over the AC pins (as the S and X do).
Tesla's CHAdeMO Adapter doesn't work for the Model 3 for the same reason.
Yes, charging a US-spec Tesla in the EU is relatively straight forward. You need an adapter that is pretty easy to assemble. You can probably just get the plugs and a piece of cable. However, that will still be single phase charging, which will in mainland Europe be mostly limited to ~ 4 kW (16 amps).
Mainland Europe uses 3-phase power, and most countries have grid connection fees depending on the size of your main breaker. In my case (Netherlands) I have 3-phase, 25 amps main circuit breaker which is the default. The regular breakers are limited to 16 amps.
So If I would have to charge a car using single phase power, it would be limited to ~240v * 16A = ~ 3.7kW.
While my EU-spec Tesla accepts 3-phase power, and would be charging at ~ 240V * 16A * 3 phases = ~ 11 kW.
I'm not sure why everyone is ignoring the 230 V x 32 Amp single phase charging option available in europe. that would yield 7.36 kW which is not too shabby.
For the simple reason it's not available in Europe as circuit breakers are limited to 16 amps. So in any one's home in Europe you can only charge with 16A = ~3.7 kW. In the UK you would be limited to 13A using a regular outlet.
Our electricity code requires that breakers have a ~1.6x step-down. So if your main braker is 25A, a circuit breaker can be: 25A/1.6 = ~16 amp max. If you would have a 25 amp circuit breaker on a 25 a main breaker you're installation is not up to code.
Look at:
Plug & socket types - World Standards
No sockets there that go beyond 16 amps.
In Europe we don't have all the different kind of NEMA-type plugs either. We have the regular household type socket (mentioned in the link above) and we have the CEE plug for industrial use. Those are _very_ rare in domestic locations. I would say non-existent. If you do find one it would be a 16-amp limited version (due to the step-down requirement)
Only place where you will find 32-Amp CEE plugs is at business locations.
Public Type-2 chargers are often limited to 25 amps (again due to the grid fees that depends on the main breaker)
AFAIK only the UK is single phased (like the USA), and 32 amp is common there.
So, in my opinion 32 amp single phase charging in mainland Europe simply doesn't exists. Even most Tesla Destination chargers (located at business locations!) are almost always limited to 11 kW (16A triple phase)
jelloslug
Active Member
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