JESLA vs. Turbocord vs. Clipper Creek vs. other portable

I'm not certain I will go through with this (it is a want, and not a need) but to research it:

I'm interested in portable charge equipment to allow me to plug in at a broader range of NEMA 208/240 plugs, one at the dryer outlet at the house of a friend, and at least one along my routes at a commercial place. I'll need to buy an adapter or two regardless of which I try.

I'm wondering if there are any recommendations that folks would care to offer. I'd like to keep my expenditure under $600 or so, which would seem to rule out JESLA, though I do like they get straight to the point and offer the adapters on their page:

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JESLA-is-THE-40-amp-J1772-portable-charging-solution-JESLA.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If possible, I'd like to go with a place that will sell me an appropriate adapter or two and not make me go elsewhere to research this or that, on that point.

My Leaf is 2012, so at this time, my amps that I can accept are not very high, but if I can get a bit higher in amps on the cord, I will take it since in the future I might be able to use it.

Anyway, the best affordable name-brand candidates seem to be:

http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product-category/all-products/on-the-road/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and

http://evsolutions.avinc.com/turbocord" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have had good experiences with a couple of unrelated Clipper Creek purchases, so that is one factor in their favor.

Anyway, if anyone has any input thoughts, would be glad to get them.

Only JESLA will automatically charge at the correct voltage and amperage for your wall outlet.

If you are including all the costs, JESLA has two adaptors included (NEMA 5-15 and NEMA 14-50).

Only JESLA is portable and 40 amp (about 10kW) capable and only eight pounds.

JESLA comes with a carrying bag.

JESLA (and our JLong) has the most flexible cord in the INDUSTRY!!!

Quality, features, options, "plug-n-play", small and light, flexible and not ugly like some charge cords all have value.

If you need a discount to get closer to your decision price-point, shoot an email to sales ((( @ ))) QuickChargePower.com and tell them Tony sent you.

Edit: the Turbo cord is only 16 amps, I think. Why would anybody spend $600 for that, plus adaptors? I guess I don't really get that one.

evseupgrade.com will upgrade your 2012 oem EVSE to a 16amp 120v/240v unit for about $300 (depending on how many adapters you buy) you can't beat that with any "name brand" option out there.

quickchargepower.com (Jesla) is even better but with an obvious cost increase.

So long as you are going portable those are the only two attractive options out there.

Once you hang it on a wall and deal with a proper socket or hardwired situation were no adapters are involved you can look at other brands. But the mobile EVSE market is dominated by the OEMs because the cost of the product can be rolled into the price of a $20,000+ car.

You just can't make a Panasonic/leaf style EVSE or Tesla/Jesla style EVSE any cheaper than they do. There are too many safety factors and even with them over engineered you can still plug it into a bad socket and have melting or fires.

Stick with a known oem style start with upgrades. EVSEupgrade does the cheaper oems and quickchargepower.com does the Telsa based evse converted to be usable with other cars.

Maybe when the 2017 EVs roll out in larger numbers there will be a cheaper way, but for now the costs are spread out over very few cars.

Siemens VersiCharge - 240V only, can be "dialed down" to 25, 50 or 75% of it's rated 30A. It costs ~$500, but does not come with a Tesla logo (Tesla T shirt would be extra). It's also UL listed.

Thanks for the prompt responses, appreciate it.

Tony, if you have a 2011 or 2012 leaf, aren't those going to max out at 3.3 kW anyway? Isn't this about 16 amps at 220 volts or so? So, 16 amps would be major-lame as far as future-proofing (point taken), but in theory it would be adequate for some near-term purposes. The clipper creeks seem to go to about 20 amps, so slightly better.

dhanson - I lease my Leaf, and only for one more year. A couple of years ago I did debate whether to send in my cord to EVSEUpgrade.com, but decided not to. One factor was that since the moment I agreed to do a lease (which I've never done on a car before), I guess I've just been very clear on trying (as much as possible) to take good care of the equipment that belongs to Nissan and not to me.

I do think that although Nissan did some things really well, they could arguably have made this a better experience in a variety of ways such as:

208/240 capable cord
6.6 kW charger onboard the earlier cars
letting us pay more for a bigger battery
installing a properly working available-24x7 (not within the dealership gates) DCQC within 50 miles of where I live (such as outside the Ford Dealership that is the sister dealer of the Nissan dealership that leased me my vehicle)
offering a vehicle with a much bigger battery as a trade-in option to those of us turning our leased Leafs

but all that stuff was and is up to Nissan, and not in my control.

On the last point, even if they offered a bigger battery BEV for lease at this point, I would still probably have to opt for buying a used Volt over a new lease on a new Nissan BEV. It's just way more economical for me, I think, to get back to lower priced used vehicle ownership, get away from the steeper part of the depreciation curve, and when I finish paying off the loan go back to no monthly payments of any sort... not to mention the savings I'll realize on insurance going back to a 1-vehicle used-vehicle household.

Still, I will leave it as a hopefully constructive suggestion to Nissan that for those lessees who might want to move on to a different car and are open to a new lease or making payments on buying a new car, they might be like me and be basically happy with their first Leaf experience (I have been very happy with reliability, reduced NVH, low fuel costs, etc.), but some might be more interested in getting into a next-gen BEV or some other vehicle than in buying out the first gen comparatively-limited-range BEV.

I went with the EVSE Upgrade route. They were very fast and economical, and I couldn't be happier with it. I charge twice a day, and have put 7500 miles on my 2015 since Nov 6th of last year.

srl99 said:

Siemens VersiCharge - 240V only, can be "dialed down" to 25, 50 or 75% of it's rated 30A. It costs ~$500, but does not come with a Tesla logo (Tesla T shirt would be extra). It's also UL listed.

Click to expand...

are you talking about this 18 pound huge box that is normally permanently mounted?

http://www.amazon.com/Siemens-VC30GRYU-Versicharge-Electric-Flexible/dp/B00MFVI92S" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Did you miss the portable part of his request? Or are you saying this box isn't as ungainly as it seems?

recmob said:

I went with the EVSE Upgrade route. They were very fast and economical, and I couldn't be happier with it. I charge twice a day, and have put 7500 miles on my 2015 since Nov 6th of last year.

Click to expand...

If Nissan were to make an official comment that they would have no problem with lessees turning in their vehicles and cords with modified cords (i.e.: there is no chance I would be financially penalized on those grounds at the time I turn the vehicle back into them), then I would consider going the evseupgrade.com route, or I would have considered it. I would probably have done it a couple of years ago.

At this point, since there are only 12 months left on the lease, I would be spending about $300 to modify something that I'll then soon have to turn in, and instead would possibly opt for something else that I would be able to keep. They seem to address this sort of buyer by offering the Aerovironment Turbocord:

http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=index&cPath=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would also prioritize going with the one that requires learning the least amount about the different plugs and circuits one encounters.

jlsoaz said:

I would also prioritize going with the one that requires learning the least amount about the different plugs and circuits one encounters.

Click to expand...

I think most of that is device agnostic.

Either way, I went thru the same thinking initially when I got my 12.
I was considering getting a very flexible connection set for multiple possibilities.

Then I started to think about how often I would actually need it....
Added up the cost of a device/conversion and plugs/adapters...

I went thru my routes and couldn't find any obvious situations..

Then I started thinking, for the several hundreds of dollars for something that is likely to be very infrequent, is it worth it for me?
I mean, for that cost, I could rent a car, or we could use the Subaru, etc... I still have the "emergency (slow 110v) EVSE, and there's always towing, calling for a ride, taxi, etc.. Just when I starting thinking of options, I came up with a lot of them...

And while I really liked the concept, I decided I just didn't need the EVSE+adapters, so I haven't done it..

Doesn't mean it's not the right choice for other people. It certainly can be..
But I think it's probably worth really looking at how often would you "need" it and what are you willing to spend..

Now, full disclosure, if $600 were no biggie to me, I'd have the set in the car... ;-)

desiv

Understand your concern, you make your choice and pick your poison as they say. Since I charge at home and at work, it wasn't feasible for me to pay for two charge stations. I don't charge enroute anywhere else, but I did buy the 120 adapter cord for it 'just in case'.

That said, if you read the FAQ's they address your concern:

http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=faq_info&fcPath=5&faqs_id=8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Question:
I am leasing, so is it still ok to upgrade my unit?

Answer:
Our assurance guarantee: At the end of your lease we will be happy to downgrade your unit for free. (you cover the shipping)

If Nissan were to make an official comment that they would have no problem with lessees turning in their vehicles and cords with modified cords (i.e.: there is no chance I would be financially penalized on those grounds at the time I turn the vehicle back into them), then I would consider going the evseupgrade.com route, or I would have considered it. I would probably have done it a couple of years ago.[/quote]

jlsoaz said:

recmob said:

I went with the EVSE Upgrade route. They were very fast and economical, and I couldn't be happier with it. I charge twice a day, and have put 7500 miles on my 2015 since Nov 6th of last year.

Click to expand...

If Nissan were to make an official comment that they would have no problem with lessees turning in their vehicles and cords with modified cords (i.e.: there is no chance I would be financially penalized on those grounds at the time I turn the vehicle back into them), then I would consider going the evseupgrade.com route, or I would have considered it. I would probably have done it a couple of years ago.

At this point, since there are only 12 months left on the lease, I would be spending about $300 to modify something that I'll then soon have to turn in, and instead would possibly opt for something else that I would be able to keep. They seem to address this sort of buyer by offering the Aerovironment Turbocord:

http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=index&cPath=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would also prioritize going with the one that requires learning the least amount about the different plugs and circuits one encounters.

Click to expand...

I had no problem trading in my 2012 Leaf with a stock EVSE that was upgraded to an OpenEVSE. I think they just look to make sure there is an EVSE. My lease had a check mark for requiring that the EVSE be returned but I understand that some early leases did not mention the EVSE.

No charge cable can increase that maximum charge capability of the car.

So, the 2011-2012 LEAF with 16 amp charger will charge at 16 amps, even with a 20 to 80 amp charge station.

Whatever is the lower in capacity (charge cable or board charger in car) is what it will charge at.

TonyWilliams: Can you please give any details on why Tesla no longer supplies a NEMA 6-50 adapter for the MC EVSE that your JESLA is based on? And is that also the case for the NEMA 14-30 adapter?

I liked the clever approach that Tesla used with the adapter controlling the maximum amperage that the EVSE will try to draw, and I certainly support adapters monitoring overheating at the receptacle for additional safety like their NEMA 14-50 adapter now does. I would greatly appreciate if you can comment on this aspect of the MC/JESLA adapters as well.

MikeD said:

TonyWilliams: Can you please give any details on why Tesla no longer supplies a NEMA 6-50 adapter for the MC EVSE that your JESLA is based on? And is that also the case for the NEMA 14-30 adapter?

I liked the clever approach that Tesla used with the adapter controlling the maximum amperage that the EVSE will try to draw, and I certainly support adapters monitoring overheating at the receptacle for additional safety like their NEMA 14-50 adapter now does. I would greatly appreciate if you can comment on this aspect of the MC/JESLA adapters as well.

Click to expand...

Tesla has had numerous stops and starts in their charge cable, and the adaptors as well. Most of those interruptions were due to flaws or redesign. Tesla doesn't actually build them... they are built in Chihuahua, Mexico by Jabil.

While I would like to give a logical reason for all their actions, the fact is that would be impossible. I think they just ran out of 14-30 adaptors, but the 6-50 they stopped altogether... maybe because they didn't want to spend money to redesign both the 14-50 and 6-50, and the latter was a low volume product.

It is very likely (and rumored) that the mobile connector will be redesigned. I would expect that.

TonyWilliams: Thanks for your quick reply! I notice on the TeslaMotors.com website that neither the 6-50 nor 14-30 MC adapter is currently offered for purchase (even though the 14-30 is mentioned in their Adapter Guide section for the Model S). On the other hand their website store for their Roadster UMC EVSE still seems to have adapters for the 6-50 and 14-30 (and 8 other receptacle designs), but I believe they are not compatible with the MC/JESLA nor do they have any internal temperature monitoring protection.

I welcome the evolution/improvement of EVSE design -- especially related to safety, and I am sure you concur.