DC charging at a Tesla station

[Davesen]

So in three plus years I've only dc supercharged twice between the two mach es I've owned and it was strictly to make sure I knew what I was doing. I got the tesla adapter a couple months ago, but haven't even looked at it.

Now I've watched the vids of using the adapter so I'm comfortable with the mechanics, but I have questions about positioning. I went to our local tesla station which has two chargers per parking slot (this site is like the pic in that one space in front and one space behind chargers)>

To me it looks like if I pull into a space I should use the one on the left of the space? Do I pull as far forward and far to the left as I can? The station I went to was full so I couldn't really experiment. This pic is the type of charger setup of our local station.

I was at a Tesla charging location that was set up like the one pictured. There were two spaces per station, but on this one each station had a sign on top that either said "250 kW" or "please use other side". On this set up you should be able to park to the right of the station without blocking any Teslas from charging. See photos.

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[StromSpeed]

Please clarify. I believe you have the Lectron adapter. If so, why would you say that the A2Z adapter was not tested for hot environments? I haven't seen a single report of it ending a session due to heat.

I have both Lectron & A2Z and correct BOTH have overheated. I start with one, then when it usually gets to around 70% I receive the famous “charging session fault”, the Tesla app notices it first then the car. Once it faults you can NOT use the same charging station, need to move the car to a new station, use the other adapter, and then complete the charge. (And pray there is another station with 2 parking spots.)

Real pain and absolutely unacceptable for western customers. I hope the official Tesla/Ford version does NOT overheat and shutdown like this. I also have a heat gun to check the exterior temp of both adapter casings and it’s usually around 144F at the large leads when it faults. This is lower than the 185F termal protection the companies claim. However if you look at the case labeling it states up to 122F only; that’s the more realistic temp. This is NOT rated for southwest summer heat. Period. Sucks.

Reasoning makes sense as it’s the portion that is not cooled by the cabling and a bottleneck to the inbound current. Also direct sunlight on the black adapter doesn’t help.

 

[StromSpeed]

Buc-ee's, in Luling Texas, has the perfect spacing between pedestals. Note that these were recently re-located from a different area on the same property.
Perhaps they are spaced like this because of the agreements between Tesla and other manufacturers?

Excellent for pulling forward and getting close to the station. However still taking up 2 charging stalls. ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

This is the best parking setup, try to match the LF corner of your Mach-E to the corner of the Supercharger post as close as you can without touching. When you pull in to a Supercharger, completely ignore the lines on the ground and instead just focus on the Supercharger post as your visual reference. Your nose will stick out past the post on the right side. In the back-to-back arrangement shown, you may come very close to hitting the Supercharger post for the opposite side because you have to pull up pretty far.

Here’s mine:

 

[CalGal]

Yeah that's what I've thought about, if I drive up to a tesla station and take up two spots at a busy terminal, people are going to get obscenely mad. Now I know tesla sent out a letter saying it was ok for fords to use two spots because of the cable /length positioning, but thinking the average tesla isn't going to think or care and will just assume it's poor manners.

When and to whom did Tesla send out such a ‘letter’??? Still waiting for our Ford adapter.

 

[Snakebitten]

Excellent for pulling forward and getting close to the station. However still taking up 2 charging stalls. ?

Not necessarily. A Ford Lightning pulled up next to me on the right and used the adjacent pedestal. ?

 

[zvez]

When and to whom did Tesla send out such a ‘letter’??? Still waiting for our Ford adapter.

It's apparently in the tesla faq https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradte...t-superchargers-using-up-two-or-three-spaces/

 

[AZBill]

Please clarify. I believe you have the Lectron adapter. If so, why would you say that the A2Z adapter was not tested for hot environments? I haven't seen a single report of it ending a session due to heat.

Even the Tesla supplied adapter throttles the rates for vehicles that pull 500A. I have charged my Rivian and Hummer with the Tesla adapter in the heat, the rate starts out at 180-200kw, then in a few minutes drops to 110-120kw. Mach E owners will generally not notice that, since it pulls such low current after 2 minutes.

GM has leaked some specifications, stating the adapter can handle 500A for 10 minutes, but only 300A continuously. Once the pins hit 85C, the rate has to be throttled by the charger.

 

[AZBill]

When and to whom did Tesla send out such a ‘letter’??? Still waiting for our Ford adapter.

It is documented in the Tesla app.

 

[shadowsjc]

I used dc fast charging with the Ford tesla adapter for the first time today. As others have posted, you're forced to park to the right of where the painted parking lines are - otherwise the cord is too short and won't reach. So in practice you'll be taking up two spots

The supercharger I used is labeled "supercharger open to nacs" on the tesla site, so there was already a pre-installed adapter on the charging cord. But since I wanted to test out the Ford adapter, I was able to redock and remove the pre-installed adapter, and instead use my own Ford adapter.

Charging was fine and averaged around 110kw. I stopped it early because the price per kw was about to shoot up 25%! I'd go back in the future as long as most of the stalls were empty (you can check before you go on the Ford pass app). The last thing I want is ugly stares or harassment from the tesla crew

 

[rreddy3]

Interesting discussion. A2Z shows in “Upcoming Products” a NACS DC extension cord as “coming soon”.​

I wonder how useable it will be as a work around to avoid cord length and parking space issues given temperature, and perhaps other issues?​

Their website states a price of $301, not sure if that’s CDN or US $. Even if it is a realistic option if/when it comes to market, it’s not cheap and you have to ask yourself is it worth lugging around.​

The website also has a couple of images showing a tesla plugged into a SC with an extension cord. Looking carefully you can see the car has a Quebec plate. Presuming the image is not photoshopped, it suggests a charging test at night in A2Z’s hometown of Montreal.​

The website has various bits of information stated about the extension cord.​

https://a2zevshop.com/collections/u...ucts/dc-nacs-extension-cord-6-9-ft-2-3-meters​

 

[RickMachE]

They are currently testing it.

 

[kindofblue]

We did a road trip in July, 1200 mi mostly in the central valley of CA where the temps were toasty (100-120F) and had zero issues using the A2Z adapter until we hit Kettleman City and it was 120. At that point the A2Z adapter wouldn't work on the new SCs there. I called A2Z about this yesterday and they're sending out a replacement under warranty today. That's what I call good customer service!

 

[Tim_C]

A2Z shows in “Upcoming Products” a NACS DC extension cord as “coming soon”.

A2Z on Twitter recently posted about the DCFC extension cord.

 

[Dear_OP]

Gotta admit those Tesla folks are constantly improving the SC configurations!

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