Well, my new CCS to Tesla DCFC adapter came in the mail this week, so I thought I would would go test it out today. This adapter allows me to charge my Tesla at any CCS charging station in the country. In general, I hope to never need it , but it is nice to have more option available when on a road trip. There are two reasons this could come in handy. If the Tesla Superchargers are full but there are open, nearby CCS chargers, or we are in a location that doesn't have any Tesla Superchargers but there are a few CCS in the area. With the influx of government money to the charging infrastructure, I predict this second situation will be more common. In Geneva NY last weekend for example, there was a CCS station in town with two chargers. The nearest Tesla Supercharger is 10 miles or so out of the way. McHenry, MD is another place we travel to that falls into this category.
In general, it worked without issue at an EA station that was still free (they have been changing their back end payment system and until functional, it is free fo all). It took me about 3 minutes to get electrons flowing, but I think I could get this down to 1-2 minutes with a little practice. By comparison, I also stopped at the nearby Tesla Spercharger, and was able to get charging in under 30 seconds. The Tesla Plug and Charge is just superior and it is what I hope every charging provider will move to eventually, but for now, there are extra steps for some charger/car combinations.
The CCS was also slower than I expected. At 75% SOC, I was expecting nearly 75kw, but it is a chilly day and there was no battery conditioning happening before. I was getting about half of what I was expecting. At the Tesla SC down the street, it was 15kw faster with only a couple minutes of battery conditioning. It really wasn't a fair speed test so I'll have to try this a few more times with a preconditioned battery and a lower SOC. I think it will support around 125-150kw of power. I have a few tests in mind.
The CCS cable and plug are huge and a little tough to work with. Tesla cables are generally thinner and more flexible. Tesla's plugs are just better. Even the Aptera company thinks so.
Final thought is about Tesla opening their charging network to other cars. As of right now, it is not open to everyone. I predict that Tesla wants to receive some of the government funds, but in order to do so, those funds have to be used for charging infrastructure for ALL. No one knows what this is going to mean yet as far as plug design at Tesla chargers. They could add a second CCS plug/cable to their chargers, or they could sell an adapter that goes from Tesla to CCS. We'll see. I believe this will happen quickly in 2023, particularly at any new Tesla charger installations or upgrades.
Tesla Charging Curve
