My experience charging at a Tesla Magic Dock Supercharger

Just a brief post, for those who may be curious about the Tesla Magic Dock experience in a MME:

I live in Western Connecticut and make frequent trips to Manhattan. There is a Tesla Magic Dock (CCS) SC on the way to the city. (At a Dunkin store in Brewster, NY) I don't actually need to charge up between my home and NYC, but I decided to try it out anyway.

First, the cost: I paid .52/kWh, which approaches the cost of gasoline per mile.

Second: It IS possible to get the MME close enough to the SC cable to reach the port, but you have to be REALLY careful that you do not hit the A) SC column, or B) the curb.

Third: There are 8 SC at this station, and when I arrived, there were 3 available. And I could not use any of the three open charging stations. Why is this, you ask? They were all fully functional. But the orientation of the MME port and the short cable require that you pull in to the stall that is located to the RIGHT of the charger you want to use so that the short cable can reach the driver-side charge port. For those who may be unfamiliar with Tesla stations: They are designed for a Tesla to back in to the stall, where the driver-side rear corner of the car is right up next to the charging column, and where the cable is. In other words, it is exactly the opposite of where an MME needs to have the cable. (I wish I had taken pictures of all this, it would be much easier to show rather than tell.)

So, what all this means is: a Ford MME takes up TWO Tesla SC stalls to charge ONE vehicle. There were 3 available stalls, but none of them were next to each other. SO -- I waited. After a couple of minutes, a SIXTH Tesla pulled up, and the very nice driver noticed that I was waiting. He rolled down his window and asked me if I was going to pull in, and I said to him, no, you go ahead. Fortunately for me, right after he pulled in, one of the families who had a vehicle next to an empty stall arrived, and they left.

Finally, I was able to pull into the righthand open stall and plug in (barely) with the SC on the left.

Last point: I charged at about 105kw, and in 5 minutes I had added about 28 miles of range for $3.64 cents -- which is pretty much ICE mileage.

Bottom line: It is expensive and a royal PITA to charge at a Magic Dock.

UNLESS ... unless you can find an open 'end unit' SC that is oriented 90 degrees to the line of other stalls, in which case you can pull in right alongside it to plug in, without blocking another stall. This station actually has one of those types of stalls, but it was occupied when I got there. And it would have been just as expensive. YMMV.

2023 MME Premium AWD
Standard Range
Vapor Blue

The stall next to you is only blocked from another Tesla being able to use it. Another MachE could arrive and wait in that spot for the cable to free up. Then, two non teslas are charging, but still only a single blocked stall. Not likely, but if more non teslas arrived, the blocking problem is reduced.

And for most efficient utilization, you should take the furthest spot to the right, and Teslas should try to take the furthest spot to the left. If everyone adhered to that, there's only be one unusable space.

StarMachE said:

Just a brief post, for those who may be curious about the Tesla Magic Dock experience in a MME:

I live in Western Connecticut and make frequent trips to Manhattan. There is a Tesla Magic Dock (CCS) SC on the way to the city. (At a Dunkin store in Brewster, NY) I don't actually need to charge up between my home and NYC, but I decided to try it out anyway.

First, the cost: I paid .52/kWh, which approaches the cost of gasoline per mile.

Second: It IS possible to get the MME close enough to the SC cable to reach the port, but you have to be REALLY careful that you do not hit the A) SC column, or B) the curb.

Third: There are 8 SC at this station, and when I arrived, there were 3 available. And I could not use any of the three open charging stations. Why is this, you ask? They were all fully functional. But the orientation of the MME port and the short cable require that you pull in to the stall that is located to the RIGHT of the charger you want to use so that the short cable can reach the driver-side charge port. For those who may be unfamiliar with Tesla stations: They are designed for a Tesla to back in to the stall, where the driver-side rear corner of the car is right up next to the charging column, and where the cable is. In other words, it is exactly the opposite of where an MME needs to have the cable. (I wish I had taken pictures of all this, it would be much easier to show rather than tell.)
So, what all this means is: a Ford MME takes up TWO Tesla SC stalls to charge ONE vehicle. There were 3 available stalls, but none of them were next to each other. SO -- I waited. After a couple of minutes, a SIXTH Tesla pulled up, and the very nice driver noticed that I was waiting. He rolled down his window and asked me if I was going to pull in, and I said to him, no, you go ahead. Fortunately for me, right after he pulled in, one of the families who had a vehicle next to an empty stall arrived, and they left.
Finally, I was able to pull into the righthand open stall and plug in (barely) with the SC on the left.

Last point: I charged at about 105kw, and in 5 minutes I had added about 28 miles of range for $3.64 cents -- which is pretty much ICE mileage.

Bottom line: It is expensive and a royal PITA to charge at a Magic Dock.

UNLESS ... unless you can find an open 'end unit' SC that is oriented 90 degrees to the line of other stalls, in which case you can pull in right alongside it to plug in, without blocking another stall. This station actually has one of those types of stalls, but it was occupied when I got there. And it would have been just as expensive. YMMV.

2023 MME Premium AWD
Standard Range
Vapor Blue

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Let's hope the new NACS adapters take this geometry issue into account with an extended cable.

I was visiting a friend in CT and knew the Brewster location wasn't far from her so I couldn't resist. Mine stared out at 108kw (according to the car) and about 105 according to the Tesla App. I was luck enough to get the first stall and connect up easily. It was pricy but not a whole lot more than EA is where they are Per Kwh. Where I live in MA they can not resell power so they have to charger Per Min and that can be a great deal for a vehicle that charges quick. Anyway I am looking forward to additional locations opening up. It will at least give us other options which are needed for sure. I hope that the V4 Chargers have the longer cords as promised.

Mach-Lee said:

And for most efficient utilization, you should take the furthest spot to the right, and Teslas should try to take the furthest spot to the left. If everyone adhered to that, there's only be one unusable space.

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having watched supercharger use i think reality will be more like guys at urinals: random but never adjacent until absolutely necessary.

kodiakng said:

having watched supercharger use i think reality will be more like guys at urinals: random but never adjacent until absolutely necessary.

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Urinal placement is never random and always played by set rules!

kodiakng said:

having watched supercharger use i think reality will be more like guys at urinals: random but never adjacent until absolutely necessary.

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At older superchargers this was optimal... they were installed in power sharing pairs so for best charging speeds you'd want to use different pairs... at most installations this would mean skipping a stall between vehicles.

I went to this location last weekend, and 2 chargers wouldn't charge for me I gave up and left. Kept getting errors.

You do have to come in at an angle, but I didn't have to totally block multiple spots -but it wasn't great either

Where did you guys get your NACS adapter from?

Mach-Lee said:

And for most efficient utilization, you should take the furthest spot to the right, and Teslas should try to take the furthest spot to the left. If everyone adhered to that, there's only be one unusable space.

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Never ever the middle stall. Unless there are no other options. lol (urinal etiquette is universal really)

BostonPete said:

I was visiting a friend in CT and knew the Brewster location wasn't far from her so I couldn't resist. Mine stared out at 108kw (according to the car) and about 105 according to the Tesla App. I was luck enough to get the first stall and connect up easily. It was pricy but not a whole lot more than EA is where they are Per Kwh. Where I live in MA they can not resell power so they have to charger Per Min and that can be a great deal for a vehicle that charges quick. Anyway I am looking forward to additional locations opening up. It will at least give us other options which are needed for sure. I hope that the V4 Chargers have the longer cords as promised.

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There’s a guy from MA on the Lightning forum who posted yesterday that the EA station near him just switched to per KW pricing. He had been using it because per-minute cost him less than charging at home. No longer.

Mauser said:

Where did you guys get your NACS adapter from?

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There is no NACS adapter available (yet) for purchase that will allow you connect to a Tesla Supercharger.
There is a small number of Supercharger stations that have a CCS dongle installed and will be made available if you initiate a charge for a non-Tesla EV. This attachment dongle is called "Magic Dock".

Sometime next year, it has been promised that Ford owners will be offered to buy their own "Magic Dock" and carry it around to any NACS Supercharger. Will be a great day when that finally comes to reality.

Note: You *can* get an NACS to J-1772 adapter for destination (L2) chargers today, there are a few threads discussing the options.

Mauser said:

Where did you guys get your NACS adapter from?

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Tesla Magic Docks have integral adapters. The adapter sits locked in an enclosure until you tell the Tesla app that you're charging a non-Tesla. Then it allows you to plug the Super Charger's NACS plug into the Magic Dock and withdraw it from its enclosure, then plug the whole thing into your car's CCS port.

This is different from how it will work with the thousands of Super Chargers being made available to CCS cars next year. In that case, you will have to buy a Tesla-designed adapter from Ford and carry it around with you.

corradoborg said:

Tesla Magic Docks have integral adapters. The adapter sits locked in an enclosure until you tell the Tesla app that you're charging a non-Tesla. Then it allows you to plug the Super Charger's NACS plug into the Magic Dock and withdraw it from its enclosure, then plug the whole thing into your car's CCS port.

This is different from how it will work with the thousands of Super Chargers being made available to CCS cars next year. In that case, you will have to buy a Tesla-designed adapter from Ford and carry it around with you.

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That clears things up, thank you.

I was unaware there was a CCS plug on any of the SuperCharger stations. I've never had any need to use them.

Cheers!