Tesla chargers

[Gilbo]

Can we use the tesla chargers at service stations and are they free to use?

 

[Fecn]

No - We can't use them I'm afraid. They don't have the right connector and they don't use the same charging protocol, and I think they recognise the Tesla owner when they get plugged in and check to see if they're enabled for supercharging. No way, no how I'm afraid.

 

[Gilbo]

Thanks for that.. I have only had my car a couple of days and have been browsing various apps/ sites etc. to try to find free of charge charging points and seem to be struggling a little! Does anyone have a "fast track" answer to this who has already done the research? All i seem to find are points that charge you £ to use them? Pretty pointless given the small range we are able to achieve?

Thanks

Lee

 

[jaapv]

Exactly. Best to use charging at home or at work, the cost is considerably lower. I don't know about the UK, but over here large stores, airports, garden centers, hotels, etc. sometimes offer free charging. The most exotic free charging point I found was on the ferry to Hoek van Holland.
On the Dutch Forum we have a list updated by members. If a UK member starts one here I'll stick it.
I agree that paid charging is often not worth the bother economically, unless it gains you a parking spot.

 

[JSC]

Picking up on Jaapv's pint, I have a Polar card. These cost £7.50 a month (after the first 6 months free0 but sometimes give you free parking. I use one in Coventry a lot, and it saves me £1 an hour pay and display, so I get the monthly fee back in 8 hours of parking (usually 2 days). Polar is part of the Chargemaster group and covers a lot of the country. The free parking only applies if you're able to find a charging point on the street. If the charging point is in a car park then you usually have to cough up the standard parking charge

 

[greendwarf]

No - We can't use them I'm afraid. They don't have the right connector and they don't use the same charging protocol, and I think they recognise the Tesla owner when they get plugged in and check to see if they're enabled for supercharging. No way, no how I'm afraid.

Is this still true? I was at Luton Airport last night and all the EV charge points were unused but branded Tesla and had a connector not matching the PHEV. The operators told me that the Mitsu is the only EV car that CAN'T use them without a "Uniblock" adaptor which can be bought from Mitsu itself.

Anybody heard of this before? BTW the chargers would be free to use - although you are paying for the parking.

 

[maby]

No - We can't use them I'm afraid. They don't have the right connector and they don't use the same charging protocol, and I think they recognise the Tesla owner when they get plugged in and check to see if they're enabled for supercharging. No way, no how I'm afraid.

Is this still true? I was at Luton Airport last night and all the EV charge points were unused but branded Tesla and had a connector not matching the PHEV. The operators told me that the Mitsu is the only EV car that CAN'T use them without a "Uniblock" adaptor which can be bought from Mitsu itself.

Anybody heard of this before? BTW the chargers would be free to use - although you are paying for the parking.

I think it depends on what kind of Tesla charger you are talking about. The chargers in motorway service areas are rapid (as in 30 minutes) type chargers and I don't think the PHEV can use them. There are also Tesla fast chargers (as in a few hours) dotted around - the marina where we used to keep our boat had one - they are 16/32A AC chargers but use a different type of connector to that fitted on the PHEV. I am led to believe that you can buy or make up a connector that will allow you to plug the PHEV up to them, but I have never bothered to investigate further - I am rarely in one place away from home long enough to make it worthwhile plugging up.

 

[greendwarf]

Pretty sure they are fast chargers as the signage had an 8 hour maximum warning. A converter sounds promising as airport waits can be lengthy, the bays are nearest the footbridge to the terminus and the leccy is free - so even the odd hour now and then would be useful, plus you can annoy non-EV drivers :lol:

 

[STS134]

Superchargers: cannot use with non Tesla vehicles unless you hack the authentication protocol. In principle you could create a Tesla Supercharger to CHAdeMO connector if you could do it, which is basically the reverse of Tesla's CHAdeMO to Tesla adapter, but is a bit more difficult, because CHAdeMO has no authentication.

Tesla Destination Chargers: These can be used quite easily. There is no authentication and the only thing required is a pin adapter which is basically the reverse of Tesla's J1772 to Tesla adapter (which is literally just a pin adapter - there are no electronic chips in there whatsoever). Here is the product that performs the function, it's called the TeslaTap (but it's for the North American J1772 connector, and couldn't be used in Europe if your car has a non North America connector): http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

 

[Craigy]

Ive been led to believe that cute new superchargers will be fitted with CCS and in future Tesla will change over to ccs. This means that Tesla will have a huge charging network which they can charge others to use.
What we would need is a ccs to chademo adaptor, this would be a very expensive device really.

 

[greendwarf]

Superchargers: cannot use with non Tesla vehicles unless you hack the authentication protocol. In principle you could create a Tesla Supercharger to CHAdeMO connector if you could do it, which is basically the reverse of Tesla's CHAdeMO to Tesla adapter, but is a bit more difficult, because CHAdeMO has no authentication.

Tesla Destination Chargers: These can be used quite easily. There is no authentication and the only thing required is a pin adapter which is basically the reverse of Tesla's J1772 to Tesla adapter (which is literally just a pin adapter - there are no electronic chips in there whatsoever). Here is the product that performs the function, it's called the TeslaTap (but it's for the North American J1772 connector, and couldn't be used in Europe if your car has a non North America connector): http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

The guys at Luton Airport who look after the Tesla chargers (presumably Destination Chargers) told me I could use them for free IF I had the "converter". So they seemed to think there is an EU version but I haven't found it yet.

 

[wws]

Ive been led to believe that cute new superchargers will be fitted with CCS and in future Tesla will change over to ccs. This means that Tesla will have a huge charging network which they can charge others to use.

The EU version of the Tesla Model 3 is fitted with Type 2/CCS capability. So they are upgrading all their EU Supercharger sites to include cables with both the original Supercharging connections and a CCS version. However it still won't support other vendors cars.

What we would need is a ccs to chademo adaptor, this would be a very expensive device really.

Comparable to the Tesla CHAdeMO adapter for the Model S and X. A lot of Leaf owners would probably like one of those too.