[North America] - What it's like to use a Tesla Supercharger (experience report)

[daveo4EV]

https://www.macanevowners.com/forum...-lectron-adapter-at-tesla-supercharger.23505/

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[Tooney]

Thanks a lot for the Porsche charging at Tesla posts.
Is there some guide for those of us who have never used Tesla superchargers to identify various versions of superchargers (photos?) and what the version numbers mean for Taycan charging?

 

[Tucson_Jim]

I'm batting .500 at Tesla compatible chargers. First time went without a hitch. Second time, at a different location, I tried three different chargers and kept getting a "connection lost" errors on the app. Had to detour to an EA site to fill up.

 

[trycan]

Thanks a lot for the Porsche charging at Tesla posts.
Is there some guide for those of us who have never used Tesla superchargers to identify various versions of superchargers (photos?) and what the version numbers mean for Taycan charging?

Trying to identify them by sight is going to lead to unsuccessful charge attempts. What looks like a perfectly fine V3 station is unavailable to NACS partner vehicles (there is one near me and I tried it). Best bet is to use Tesla app with NACS partner filter, there is no "secret" SCs that will work if you just try them with an adapter.
Hardest thing is getting the car up over the curb so the short cable will reach.

 

[figure1a]

Sometimes the app just bonks on the setup for not particular reason. You can then just insert your credit car in the supercharger and usually works with no issue. You don't have to use the app to charge.

 

[daveo4EV]

Sometimes the app just bonks on the setup for not particular reason. You can then just insert your credit car in the supercharger and usually works with no issue. You don't have to use the app to charge.

correct - but only at V4 stations - at V3 stations (which do not have LCD screens or tap to pay credit card readers) you have to use either the Porsche app or Tesla app to begin the charging session.

 

[Watchesandburgers]

I've used a Supercharger once in 18 months and it worked fine. I do not have a NACS to CCS adapter, and used the Tesla app to confirm that the station near my destination had their "magic dock" adapters. This was a relatively large Supercharger station with nearly 30 stalls, and a few had the built-in adapters. I used the Tesla app to start charging and got about 100kw for a short top-off charge. No issues.

 

[gtm]

Just finished almost 3,000 mile road trip. Primarily used Tesla superchargers for their ubiquity, reliability and available towers on pulling in. Zero issues charging. Filtered stations to find those open to non-Tesla vehicles. Open the Tesla app, select your tower and start charging in 30 seconds. Max rate is 135 kW, but that is maintained to 65/70% SoC. Both EA stations I tried failed miserably. P&C did not work. EA customer support could not start a complimentary session (I still have "free" charging). Max I saw at EA was 150 kW (at a 350 tower) and that wasn't held for very long. So Tesla is slow? Wrong conclusion. I spent no time with customer support and the charging level was barely below an EA 350 unit. Tesla had a better charging level than I got on the second EA tower. OK, getting close enough to the tower for the cable to reach is "interesting" but I managed every time without any sideways parking or spoiler damage. As an aside, Flying J/Pilot was excellent on two charging sessions. Actually saw 250+ kw on the Alpitronic units. EA is better and somehow still sucks.

 

[cometguy]

Just finished almost 3,000 mile road trip. Primarily used Tesla superchargers for their ubiquity, reliability and available towers on pulling in. Zero issues charging. Filtered stations to find those open to non-Tesla vehicles. Open the Tesla app, select your tower and start charging in 30 seconds. Max rate is 135 kW, but that is maintained to 65/70% SoC. Both EA stations I tried failed miserably. P&C did not work. EA customer support could not start a complimentary session (I still have "free" charging). Max I saw at EA was 150 kW (at a 350 tower) and that wasn't held for very long. So Tesla is slow? Wrong conclusion. I spent no time with customer support and the charging level was barely below an EA 350 unit. Tesla had a better charging level than I got on the second EA tower. OK, getting close enough to the tower for the cable to reach is "interesting" but I managed every time without any sideways parking or spoiler damage. As an aside, Flying J/Pilot was excellent on two charging sessions. Actually saw 250+ kw on the Alpitronic units. EA is better and somehow still sucks.

interesting... I've used perhaps two dozen different EA stations to charge at this year, and plug-and-charge has worked perfectly for me at every single station but one. The only DCFC stations I've used in the past 7 months across 17 states that have been consistently problematical were the stand-alone older EVgo stations (i.e., those not at gas stations like Pilot/Flying J). For me, the easiest DCFC stations are definitely EA first (because of nearly flawless plug-and-charge) and then Chargepoint (my RFID card usage there is nearly flawless and quick).

 

[gtm]

interesting... I've used perhaps two dozen different EA stations to charge at this year, and plug-and-charge has worked perfectly for me at every single station but one. The only DCFC stations I've used in the past 7 months across 17 states that have been consistently problematical were the stand-alone older EVgo stations (i.e., those not at gas stations like Pilot/Flying J). For me, the easiest DCFC stations are definitely EA first (because of nearly flawless plug-and-charge) and then Chargepoint (my RFID card usage there is nearly flawless and quick).

No clue what was going on with the P&C at EA (it was enabled in the car). Always worked in the past and one of the stations where it failed this trip was a unit I've used in the past with no issues. Throttled charging speeds is normal and usually not too severe. This time pretty slow. Flying J was tap the credit card and charging started. The Alpitronic units were great. Charged right at the upper limit of the car and held it for a while. After almost 3 years of putting up with EA and their issues I'll gladly pay Elon for access to reliable, plentiful chargers.

 

[Stu Kan]

My experience has been excellent with Tesla Superchargers, but, overall, good with EA too. I just drove from the PNW down to SoCal and probably used EA 60% of the time (without issue) and Tesla Superchargers the rest. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Tesla Superchargers plug-and-charge for me so there's no app-related stuff I have to do.

And, related to the which Supercharger versions/locations work for us and which don't question, in my car it's easy to tell because the map (the Taycan nav map, NOT CarPlay) will show the Tesla Supercharger if it will work, and will not even show it if it's not available to Porsche cars. There's a big Supercharger location in Mt Shasta that I always relied on when I owned a Tesla, and it didn't even come up on the map in my Taycan. I tried it anyway just to be sure, and it wouldn't connect. I tried again at another location that didn't show up on the map, and same thing, so I feel like the in-car Taycan map knows. Each Tesla charger I went to that showed on the map worked like a charm.

 

[Minnesotan]

Tried the "Porsche" CCS to NAS converter this weekend. Raised the car up with its lift and drove over the curb about a foot in order to have the Tesla charging cord reach the car. After that connected and charged well. Had some trouble disconnecting the converter attached to the NAS charger from my Taycan's charging port. Had to use the electronic emergency release (that you can find in the PCM dash) in order to disconnect??

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