Tesla Charging does not work as promised

[Zcd1]

I go to Tesla Supercharger on the Tesla app but where do you find the support non-tesla car charging. Can I assume if you dont see it on the app, its not supported?

"Hamburger" at upper right corner of home screen, select "Charge Your Other EV", scroll down and enter your EV make/model, and then only the Superchargers compatible with your car will be displayed.

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[SergeyIndy]

"Hamburger" at upper right corner of home screen, select "Charge Your Other EV", scroll down and enter your EV make/model, and then only the Superchargers compatible with your car will be displayed.

That is correct and also when you select the charging station from the map, there is a note that says that an adapter required to charge. Very clear and appears to be in sync with the PCM and Porsche App by showing only Tesla Superchargers that support non-Tesla vehicles.

I have to agree that Tesla app usability is horrible. This is my first time using it and it is not user friendly, pretty much all but advertising, not clear where to go and what to do, but may be on purpose since this is for non-Tesla users.

 

[Zcd1]

That is correct and also when you select the charging station from the map, there is a note that says that an adapter required to charge. Very clear and appears to be in sync with the PCM and Porsche App by showing only Tesla Superchargers that support non-Tesla vehicles.

I have to agree that Tesla app usability is horrible. This is my first time using it and it is not user friendly, pretty much all but advertising, not clear where to go and what to do, but may be on purpose since this is for non-Tesla users.

Happy to help.

Having been a Tesla owner for 8+ years, I find the Tesla app to be “okay” when it comes to user-friendliness. Spend a few minutes poking around and its logic will become clearer.

 

[Gino]

I wanted to venture out on an out of town relaxing trip to a Dutch Country store 155 miles away thinking now with Tesla charging I can just pull up and charge away at one of those on the way back as I cannot make round trip on full charge, so I decided to test it out first locally where we have many.

I dial it up on the PCM, battery preheated nicely to about 100F and with SoC of 50%, 3 tries to lineup, I plug in with my Porsche branded adapter and then it goes into grey Initializing for at least 2 min and then red, charging not possible. Trip in the Taycan today cancelled as I cannot take a chance to be in the middle of the country at a Tesla supercharger for this to happen with EA too far to reach as a backup. More testing needs to happen.

I do not have the Tesla app as I need to leave like now to make it to the store before it closes, so no time to deal with that and then still risk it.

Question: Anyone knows how to detect the ones that are on working with the car as I was relying on the Plug and Charge that was supposed to be live since September and should just work.

When I used the Tesla adapter from Porsche I had to select “Direct Charge” in order to get it to start charging.

 

[SergeyIndy]

When I used the Tesla adapter from Porsche I had to select “Direct Charge” in order to get it to start charging.

Very strange since that only applies to [corrected] AC charging.

 

[Gino]

Very strange since that only applies to DC charging.

That’s what I thought too but I tried connecting & disconnecting 4 or 5 times and then I decided to select “direct charging” and it all of sudden started working. No idea why it did. It could have also been a coincidence.

 

[Zcd1]

Very strange since that only applies to DC charging.

A Tesla Supercharger IS a DC charger.

Tesla Destination Chargers are AC chargers...

 

[SergeyIndy]

A Tesla Supercharger IS a DC charger.

Tesla Destination Chargers are AC chargers...

My mistake, you are 100% correct, I intended to say that Direct is only for AC and does not apply to DC. I made the correction to my post.

 

[SergeyIndy]

That’s what I thought too but I tried connecting & disconnecting 4 or 5 times and then I decided to select “direct charging” and it all of sudden started working. No idea why it did. It could have also been a coincidence.

Very interesting, but please confirm if the charger was a Supercharger (DC) or Destination charger (AC). This way I can try to use the station again that did not work (DC station with PCM and PlugShare showing support for non-Tesla vehicles with the adapter) and enable Direct charging to see if that makes it charge.

You just never know, since in order to charge at Tesla supercharger Taycan is using the 400V DC OBC with mine optioned for 150kW and charging perfectly at one Tesla charger but not the other.

 

[Zcd1]

Very interesting, but please confirm if the charger was a Supercharger (DC) or Destination charger (AC). This way I can try to use the station again that did not work (DC station with PCM and PlugShare showing support for non-Tesla vehicles with the adapter) and enable Direct charging to see if that makes it charge.

You just never know, since in order to charge at Tesla supercharger Taycan is using the 400V DC OBC with mine optioned for 150kW and charging perfectly at one Tesla charger but not the other.

As has been mentioned previously in this thread, using anything other than the Tesla app to determine which Superchargers will work with your non-Tesla is a recipe for disappointment.

 

[SergeyIndy]

As has been mentioned previously in this thread, using anything other than the Tesla app to determine which Superchargers will work with your non-Tesla is a recipe for disappointment.

100% agree. I did not note that I have also confirmed that the charger that did not work was shown in the Tesla app as supporting non-Tesla vehicles.

 

[gtm]

@SergeyIndy, just for you I did a little experimenting (but mostly because I have a trip coming up and haven't used Tesla SCs in 3 months, and your experiences had me a little worried). 3 Tesla Superchargers close to my house. Never used them previously since they are too close to home to be useful. Two shown as open to non-Tesla vehicles, one Tesla only (an old installation, V2 I think). As expected, nothing I did would initiate a charge at the station marked as Tesla only in the Tesla app. Plug and Charge did not work at either station open to non-Teslas (didn't expect it to as I don't believe any version of the e-tron GT has this enabled but figured it couldn't hurt to try). So I opened the Tesla app, tap, tap and the app automatically identified my location. Two more taps and charging started. Using the app I've been 100% successful charging at Tesla Superchargers that are open to non-Teslas (with a J1.1 Taycan and now with a J1.2 e-tron GT). Unless there is something really strange going on in your geographic area I think if you go through the Tesla app you can count on being able to locate open Superchargers and charge there. Good luck, because it really does make travel away from home a lot less stressful.

 

[whitex]

As expected, nothing I did would initiate a charge at the station marked as Tesla only in the Tesla app.

The old Tesla superchargers are incapable of talking using the CCS communications protocol. Same is true of old Tesla onboard chargers (IIRC, pre 2018 or 2019), they cannot charge from CCS even with an adapter, unless the owner pays for a new onboard charging module.

Fun fact, the original V1 superchargers were made out of stacked onboard chargers. You could even stack them in the car, so for example you could get just one for 40A/9.6kW, or two of them in the car would give you 80A/19.2kW. Original superchargers has 12 of them stacked inside the cabinet IIRC. A smart solution for a startup, design only one OBC and with it cover 9.6kW, 19.2kW, and DC charging stations - less designs to maintain, but more importantly less part SKU's to manufacture and stock.

 

[Zcd1]

...So I opened the Tesla app, tap, tap and the app automatically identified my location. Two more taps and charging started. Using the app I've been 100% successful charging at Tesla Superchargers that are open to non-Teslas (with a J1.1 Taycan and now with a J1.2 e-tron GT)...

These are the key sentences - the Tesla app is the method most likely to consistently work to identify appropriate chargers and to initiate the charge.

 

[slothinker]

@SergeyIndy, just for you I did a little experimenting (but mostly because I have a trip coming up and haven't used Tesla SCs in 3 months, and your experiences had me a little worried). 3 Tesla Superchargers close to my house. Never used them previously since they are too close to home to be useful. Two shown as open to non-Tesla vehicles, one Tesla only (an old installation, V2 I think). As expected, nothing I did would initiate a charge at the station marked as Tesla only in the Tesla app. Plug and Charge did not work at either station open to non-Teslas (didn't expect it to as I don't believe any version of the e-tron GT has this enabled but figured it couldn't hurt to try). So I opened the Tesla app, tap, tap and the app automatically identified my location. Two more taps and charging started. Using the app I've been 100% successful charging at Tesla Superchargers that are open to non-Teslas (with a J1.1 Taycan and now with a J1.2 e-tron GT). Unless there is something really strange going on in your geographic area I think if you go through the Tesla app you can count on being able to locate open Superchargers and charge there. Good luck, because it really does make travel away from home a lot less stressful.

Using the Tesla app I can navigate to Tesla SCs and select a pump but my Taycan will not charge. I've tried this at four local Tesla SC (both 3s and 4s), all open to non-Teslas. A few Taycans, including mine using a Porsche adapter, cannot be charged at these stations for reasons unknown. I'm taking my car in for 4-year service this week and will try again to get the dealer to take this issue seriously.

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