TESLA charge connector

[asimba2]

My area of California has many L2 charging stations, but they are all 1-stall L2 chargers that are almost always occupied all day by the same car. CHAdeMO is worse yet, there are always a couple of cars waiting in line. It is quite common to see people trying to charge to 100% on CHAdeMO. All of these things make public charging frustrating and unreliable.

This could be a pivotal moment for Nissan. If they help fund and install supercharger stations, we will have more of those nice 7-stall stations rather than the lowly single-J1772 charging stations around my area now. Charging speeds are much faster and you're likely to eliminate the situation where one car is tying up a charge location for hours on end. I'm hopeful we will see some positives out of this...

 

[DaveEV]

My area of California has many L2 charging stations, but they are all 1-stall L2 chargers that are almost always occupied all day by the same car. CHAdeMO is worse yet, there are always a couple of cars waiting in line. It is quite common to see people trying to charge to 100% on CHAdeMO. All of these things make public charging frustrating and unreliable.

Yes, single-stall stations are highly annoying, especially for L2 stations. L2 station installs would be better served by having 4 plugs minimum and QC station installs better served by having 2 plugs minimum, even if that means fewer locations. See: Capacity of Charging Stations Using an Erlang-B Model

This could be a pivotal moment for Nissan. If they help fund and install supercharger stations, we will have more of those nice 7-stall stations rather than the lowly single-J1772 charging stations around my area now.

I personally think that Nissan would be more likely to fund more QC stations, but so far they can't seem to install more than a single QC per location except in very rare circumstances - and that tends to be a result of the host requesting it rather than Nissan recommending it.

Tesla appears to be the only company that truly understands how to build a usable/reliable charging network, but even they are having growing pains at busy locations. Still, even when a line forms at a SuperCharger location, you generally know you're not going to have to wait too long since there are generally 6+ stalls to open up.

 

[asimba2]

^^ The only implementable way I can think of to address the "CHAdeMO to 100%" problem on superchargers is to have the machine automatically stop charging when the charge rate drops below some threshold (the point at which Leafs and others ramp the charge rate way down). That's when it's time to move to L2. It would help reduce Tesla owner's fear that all their stations will be choked with Leafs, because it really IS a problem. I wish more EV owners were educated on this issue.

 

[edatoakrun]

I doubt any mass-market BEV manufacturer will ever utilize the TESLA charge connector, or a Charger network that uses it as the initial charge connection.

There is a reason that the CHAdeMo connector is bulky and ugly, and looks as if it was designed by committee...it was.

The Tesla connector is certainly prettier, but...

...I really start to wonder if Tesla should start shipping cleaning kit for the charge port contact and UMC/HPWC, like contact cleaner and small brushes. I was having similar issues at home and did a good cleaning of both side and it did a HUGE difference, it basically works as new. Talked to a ranger and he said, "when we do 100km to reach a client we cannot just clean the contact and hope it works we swap the cable and/or chargeport, then the owner is 100% satisfied and the issue resolved" but he agreed that when inspecting some chargeport they are extremely dirty. I must say that the contact cleaning also reduced a lot the heat generated while charging, not that its a surprise, but still a good indication that its a good measure.

Most of my issues were with the tiny proximity and pilot signals at the bottom, it any of those have dirty contact you get very inconsistent connections, port clicking, green, white, green, white, red...

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/10398-Model-S-Technical-Mechanical-Issues/page247" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I've always believed separate ports/connectors for slow AC and fast DC were inherently superior to either Tesla or SAE combo designs, as you reduce the wear issues for the infrequently used DC port, and give the BEV driver a degree of redundancy, when and if the inevitable wear issues of any electrical connector cause either to fail.

BTW, how many LEAF drivers have ever inspected or cleaned either port on their own cars?

I can't recall any DC port replacements on LEAFs reported, have there been any?

I seem to remember a few LEAF AC port repairs/replacements, but most or all due to initial defect, IIRC.

 

[TomT]

I clean and lub mine regularly...

BTW, how many LEAF drivers have ever inspected or cleaned either port on their own cars?

 

[QueenBee]

I clean and lub mine regularly...

BTW, how many LEAF drivers have ever inspected or cleaned either port on their own cars?

Lube which part? Not the pins right?