What did I do wrong on my road trip?

[vsguru]

Ahhhhh. I'm finally getting it. Thank you @RickMachE and thank you @Snakebitten who I think was originally trying to explain that to me.

No thanks to @AliRafiee. You weren't gentle as I so kindly asked.

First of all, welcome to the forum @Jimbro. You asked for "What did I do wrong". @AliRafiee told you what you did wrong. I re-read his reply and it did not seem to me to be unkind at all. It was just a fact, like it or not. You seemed to appreciate it in your response, so why the negative now? We're all here to help each other. You asked, he answered. I really do hope we can help you in your future questions, which nearly all new members have!

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[Jimbro]

Keep the Lectron you have, it might come in handy at a hotel with only Tesla destination chargers. Some hotels have only J1772 (bottom flap closed), some have both, and some only Tesla. These are the L2 (overnight) like you have at home.

The confusing thing about the Tesla plug is that you really can’t easily tell the difference between Supercharger and L2 by looking at only the plug. Big cabinet, fast charging with the caveats mentioned above. Small box on top of pole, overnight charging. Tesla uses software to tell the car what type of power is being delivered. Whereas the MME has a CCS (fast—flap down), combined with a J1772 (overnight—flap closed).

You’re doing fine. There is a learning curve. Agree it can be a little nerve wracking, but you’ll get used to it. I’ve driven from western North Carolina to Chicago and Minneapolis several times by myself. Will be headed to NJ later in the fall.

Welcome to EV Land!

Thank you very much @CarsIMBwife! Very kind and helpful of you!

 

[Jimbro]

First of all, welcome to the forum @Jimbro. You asked for "What did I do wrong". @AliRafiee told you what you did wrong. I re-read his reply and it did not seem to me to be unkind at all. It was just a fact, like it or not. You seemed to appreciate it in your response, so why the negative now? We're all here to help each other. You asked, he answered. I really do hope we can help you in your future questions, which nearly all new members have!

I hear ya @vsguru. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[RickMachE]

I have that same adapter. If you go to PlugShare and set the Filters / Network to only show "Tesla Destination" (NOT Supercharger), you'll see where it works. This will be overnight charging, typically at a hotel.

I've only used it once or twice. It's nice as a back up since these chargers are not well maintained. There's usually a combination of those and J1722, but you never know which ones will be working and available.

The terminology is very technical; I'm sure many people have made that same mistake.

One of the big advantages of Tesla Destination chargers over J1772 chargers is often SPEED. Very often the Tesla charger will be 25% or more faster than the J1772 charger. Whether that matters to you depends on the amount of kWh you need. I always do the math, and if I need it, I use it. Really makes a difference with the Lightning.

I've also come across where the J1772 chargers are shared, but the Tesla Destination chargers aren't. That's a real advantage.

 

[AliRafiee]

First of all, welcome to the forum @Jimbro. You asked for "What did I do wrong". @AliRafiee told you what you did wrong. I re-read his reply and it did not seem to me to be unkind at all. It was just a fact, like it or not. You seemed to appreciate it in your response, so why the negative now? We're all here to help each other. You asked, he answered. I really do hope we can help you in your future questions, which nearly all new members have!

I’m pretty sure @Jimbro was joking.

 

[4sallypat]

My solution to road trips:

A2Z + Ford DCFC Tesla Supercharger adapters (3)

A2Z Tesla Destination 48A L2 adapter (1)

 

[Jiji]

What did I do wrong? Why can't we have nice things?

I didn’t see anyone suggest it or I missed it, but have you ordered your free Ford NACS adapter? You have until the end of the month to request a free one.

How do I reserve my complimentary Fast Charging Adapter from Ford?

 

[Jimbro]

My solution to road trips:

A2Z + Ford DCFC Tesla Supercharger adapters (3)

A2Z Tesla Destination 48A L2 adapter (1)

Holy moly. That's alotta adapters!

 

[Jimbro]

I didn’t see anyone suggest it or I missed it, but have you ordered your free Ford NACS adapter? You have until the end of the month to request a free one.

How do I reserve my complimentary Fast Charging Adapter from Ford?

Thanks for the tip!!!

 

[vsguru]

I’m pretty sure @Jimbro was joking.

Yeah, could be. Hard to tell when someone's new!

 

[Jimbro]

Yeah, could be. Hard to tell when someone's new!

Sorry for the confusion. I'm definitely new to any forum. Thank you all for your advice!

 

[Varman]

Helpful thread! I recently purchased a Lectron Vortex... after a trip from CT to Washington DC where I found that most EA/EVGo stations were fairly crowded (waiting 15-30' just to start charging). We had a trip to ME coming up and the free charger from Ford has still to appear. Lectron seemed to ship much faster (got in ~ 5 days) than the A2Z, so I ordered that. It feels solid but I wish it came with a case like A2Z charger. It worked great at the Tesla station nearest to my house using the Ford App to start (plug and charge didn't work for some odd reasons; also wasn't able to get it started through the Public Charging app on the car). However, the adapter did get stuck on first use ? (see below).

As @RickMachE explained, not all Tesla Superchargers are compatible. Found this out when I tried to charge at a station at an I-90 rest stop in MA. I also found out that at least some of the compatible stations (like Saco, ME or Sturbridge MA) don't appear in the Ford app. ABRP and Plugshare do seem to list these stations correctly. .. but then I was forced to download the Tesla app to start the charging session at these stations. And.. both stations were fairly close to the highway (~ 2 miles from exit).

Despite the clunky implementation, I was happy to have the added access to the Tesla stations. Both were fairly empty (only 1-2 cars charging at any time) and both charged the car fairly quickly (peak speeds of ~ 115-130 kW).

Will need to hunt for some compatible Tesla Superchargers that are actually at rest stops along the i95 corridor.. that would be the easiest. But, suspect as was said earlier, many of these may be too old to be compatible.

BTW.. if anyone has the Lectron Vortex charger and finds that it's challenging to disconnect from the Tesla NACS cable, this video saved me () the first time I tested the Lectron adapter ? . On subsequent uses on our trip to ME, it seemed a little easier to remove. Hopefully the actual Ford adapter will eventually arrive.

As always, really appreciate the collective advice in this forum. Truly, an added perk of owning a MachE.

 

[Mach1E]

You did nothing wrong.

Ford caused this problem.

You tried to put a VHS in a Betamax. Or a Blu-ray in an HD-DVD player.

It’s Ford’s fault for choosing a different connector type than the standard.

 

[dbsb3233]

You did nothing wrong.

Ford caused this problem.

You tried to put a VHS in a Betamax. Or a Blu-ray in an HD-DVD player.

It’s Ford’s fault for choosing a different connector type than the standard.

By making a deal to allow us to use Tesla's network with their non-standard connector, you mean?

CCS was the industry standard up until then, that all automakers (except Tesla) agreed to use. Tesla's connector and network were proprietary up until recently. It was the non-standard, and they didn't allow anyone else to use it.

It just turned out that none of the CCS networks were very dependable, making it a frustrating experience for many owners. So Ford decided to negotiate with Tesla to get us access to their network (which of course required an adapter to work on CCS cars because Tesla uses a different connector).

I give Ford credit for that, not fault.

 

[Mach1E]

By making a deal to allow us to use Tesla's network with their non-standard connector, you mean?

CCS was the industry standard up until then, that all automakers (except Tesla) agreed to use. Tesla's connector and network were proprietary up until recently. It was the non-standard, and they didn't allow anyone else to use it.

It just turned out that none of the CCS networks were very dependable, making it a frustrating experience for many owners. So Ford decided to negotiate with Tesla to get us access to their network (which of course required an adapter to work on CCS cars because Tesla uses a different connector).

I give Ford credit for that, not fault.

Seems kinda backwards to me.

Tesla was the first to mass market and owns the EV market. Ford came into the EV market over a decade later and chose to use a different connector than the #1 EV manufacturer.

These manufacturers and their inability to use standardized stuff is THEIR fault, definitely not the consumers fault.

Only recently did Ford do something to help rectify the situation.

What am I missing?

Seems like the same crap that Apple pulls so that only their chargers and connectors work on their phones.

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