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Mobile Connectors to go? Replaced by a Wall Unit?

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Lerxt

Active Member
Feb 21, 2014
1,076
226
Australia
Wondering if anyone has heard that Mobile Connectors are being eliminated in favour of a thermally protected Wall Unit? Some Hong Kong buyers have been told this by Tesla. Though it is not confirmed the implication is that you will no longer be able to charge by a standard 13A wall power point socket. Can anyone elaborate or contribute?
 
Tesla provides a Wall Unit today - the High Power Wall Charger (HPWC) - which charges up to 80A on a 100A circuit.

The Mobile Connector provides the ability to charge the Model S on a range of power outlets, when away from "home" - ranging from standard 110 to 14-50 outlets.

For "home" use, the HPWC provides the Wall Unit ability - today.

When travelling, I've done almost all of my charging either at a Tesla Supercharger or at a public charging station (using the J1772 adapter). However, the Mobile Connector provides a fallback for charging the car when you aren't near either a Supercharger or public charging station - which I've used a few times through a dryer outlet.

And for those travelling on roads that don't have either Superchargers or public charging stations, the Mobile Connector may be the only option for charging - through power outlets designed for RVs.
 
It doesn't make sense today to eliminate the mobile connector as the charging infrastructure isn't quite there yet everywhere. You'll still need one.

Now, that said, perhaps Tesla is working on a LPWC that would be an option at roughly the same price. I find my HPWC incredibly valuable because it's there and fixed and I don't have to repeatedly handle my UMC on a daily basis.
 
No I don't mean the HPWC, they are talking about a separate device that replaces the mobile connector cord. It is designed to protect against plugs melting. People have been told there is a "strategic" change and no mobile connector cords will be supplied.
 
No I don't mean the HPWC, they are talking about a separate device that replaces the mobile connector cord. It is designed to protect against plugs melting. People have been told there is a "strategic" change and no mobile connector cords will be supplied.

That is what I assumed you said, and my reply still stands -- the reason there is a mobile connector is so that you can take it with you when you go somewhere, since the infrastructure is not built out everywhere yet. Perhaps once we have a Supercharger every 30 miles or so, the plan might change, but that won't come until at least 3 years from now.

As for the "separate device that replaces the mobile connector cord", who knows? If it is a new "thermally protected wall unit", it could be a "LPWC" offered at a lower price than the HPWC. We haven't heard anything like that before, and that doesn't eliminate the need for a mobile connector when on road trips.

I suspect you're hearing of the new thermally protected adapters on the UMC, what rlang59 posted.
 
It sounds to me like the recall notice I got in US Mail yesterday. It was about the NEMA 15-40 adapter of the UMC that is being recalled. It's being replaced with a thermally protected version. The recall notice said it was going to be shipped in 2 weeks. For what ever a ship date from Tesla is worth...

On the subject of a mobile connector (with adaptors) vs a dedicated wall unit - I have the HPWC and think it's the only way to go. The UMC with adapter has 3 friction fit connectors (4 if you count both sides of the adapter connection). The HPWC has one. Friction fit connectors by their very nature will wear. Even if you left the 14-50 adapter plugged in all the time, it would still get stresssed. I like having the HPWC, fewer mechanical connections.

I use my UMC when charging away from home but that's not very often.
 
I think it is HK/JP only and still under evaluation by Tesla. Current UMC and adapters can't be used "as is" in our countries: Tesla seemed to learn a lot in Europe.

I guess for home charging Tesla seems to think giving away HPWC to everyone makes sense rather than to make all th efforts to get certification for UMC in each country, and create/manufacture necessary adapters, a few per each country.

For mobile charging it us a different story. I guess Tesla eventually provide us UMC and adapters, but maybe at a later date.

For Japan Tesla decided to use US vehicle connector on European car, so at least we can import UMC, J1772 and 5-15P adapters at our own risk (it's not allowed but should work).
 
It would be helpful in these forums if people stated what country they were talking about, especially if you aren't talking about the US. And for the Americans, please be on the lookout for foreign electrical questions. That standard 13A figure should have alerted you that the OP wasn't talking about the North American electrical grid.
 
It doesn't make sense today to eliminate the mobile connector as the charging infrastructure isn't quite there yet everywhere. You'll still need one.

Now, that said, perhaps Tesla is working on a LPWC that would be an option at roughly the same price. I find my HPWC incredibly valuable because it's there and fixed and I don't have to repeatedly handle my UMC on a daily basis.

This.
 
Interestingly it now says on the Hong Kong website that a 40A Wall Connector is supplied and equipment to charge on the road, but no mention of a cable. They also have replaced the HPWC with an 80A wall connector that is available for preorder and no deliveries till late 2014.
 
It would be helpful in these forums if people stated what country they were talking about, especially if you aren't talking about the US. And for the Americans, please be on the lookout for foreign electrical questions. That standard 13A figure should have alerted you that the OP wasn't talking about the North American electrical grid.

I saw it, and it still doesn't make sense that Tesla would eliminate a mobile charging cord from the vehicle, regardless of whether it's sitting in Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, the UK or the US; whether a 14-50 or an IEC plug or a UK plug, and whether it's 13A, 16A, 32A or 3x32A. I'm familiar with the grids there, too.

- - - Updated - - -

Interestingly it now says on the Hong Kong website that a 40A Wall Connector is supplied and equipment to charge on the road, but no mention of a cable. They also have replaced the HPWC with an 80A wall connector that is available for preorder and no deliveries till late 2014.

Would love to see it. Perhaps HK laws prohibit high-amperage connectors and therefore it needs to be installed as a fixed device.
 
The following was received from a Tesla rep and posted by user KingKitenga in the HK forum. I received a similar reply.

Hi-amp charging is not banned in HK.

If you change country at the bottom of the Tesla home page to Hong Kong and navigate to Design Studio you can see how they have changed it.

Im wondering if this is a 240v country thing. Given that most people live in large apartments in Asia and 13A is all they are likely to be allowed by the management committees, even needing to install a low power wall unit is a massive minus in these markets. They simply will not be allowed to do it due to the management structure of these places. Tesla cannot succeed in Asia without out of home charging solutions on a massive scale as people will not be able to charge at home. There are 1000 13A EV charging sockets in every car park in Hong Kong but without a mobile connector Teslas will not be able to use them.



I would recommend installing a 32a 220v single-phase outlet in preparation for the wall connector. If possible, having your carport wired to provide a higher amount of power would provide more flexibility than wiring for a 13a socket. By having a 40amp breaker, and the appropriate wiring, you will be able to dial the amperage up to 32a or to as low as 10a to suit your individual needs.

This more recent strategic change is based on some negative long term test results we received on the BS1363 outlets. Our testing has shown that the BS1363 outlets are not robust enough to handle the continued stress that high volume electric vehicles will subject it to, even if configured to 10A. The outlets are home outlets essentially designed for lamps and desktop computers: they were never conceived or designed to handle an electric vehicle’s unique needs. We want to assure you we continually looking for solutions to provide the safest most reliable public charging and are actively working with HK Electric and CLP to achieve this goal. They have offered us great support thus far so we are excited to see what we can do together for our Hong Kong.

I received this reply

our current charge strategy will be a wall connector, single phase 10A-40A, 220v. This was part of a recent strategy change; website and sales are being updated to reflect this.
 
It seems I was on the right path, HK electric probably wants high-amperage continuous loads to be delivered through the dedicated wall connectors so it doesn't stress the outlets. Now it'll be interesting to see if Tesla offers this wall connector beyond HK. If offered at a reasonable price, it might make sense for those in the US as well who want something fixed but don't need the dual-charger + HPWC bundle cost, or who can't install the > 50A circuit.

Thanks for the pointer to the HK page. I am really surprised there is going to be no offering for a mobile connector, maybe HK electric just won't let them offer it because of the outlet limitations you mention. It seems it would be beneficial to be able to charge anywhere there's an outlet available.

I guess we can all hope there might be a wall connector option outside HK at least, as well. :)
 
I have a feeling that Tesla is facing the cancelation of a few hundred orders shortly if the don't offer a BS1363 (regular power plug) charging solution. Many people will not be able to charge with anything else and it also means that every public charging station in HK (1000 of them) will not be supported by Tesla. There goes the China market too, I suspect.
 
So, this is being discussed in the HK forum here: Hong Kong Tesla Model S Charging Standard - Page 7

Lerxt - no, I don't think any of us not in Hong Kong, or not reading the HK forum know anything about this very HK specific policy Tesla is introducing. Hopefully Tesla will figure something out since it sounds as if owners are going to be left with no public charging options unless a third party option is possible.
 
What Tesla says in HK doesn't make sense IMHO. 10A thru BS1363 is only 2.4kW in HK - that could be the same power as electric dryers or large air conditioning units. If 2.4kW continuous load is dangerous then dryers and aircons are dangerous too.

I personally guess they want to spend more time to introduce UMC and market specific adapters, thus various reasons not to provide them. For HK folks though that decision *may* be fatal in HK market.
 
What Tesla says in HK doesn't make sense IMHO. 10A thru BS1363 is only 2.4kW in HK - that could be the same power as electric dryers or large air conditioning units. If 2.4kW continuous load is dangerous then dryers and aircons are dangerous too.

I personally guess they want to spend more time to introduce UMC and market specific adapters, thus various reasons not to provide them. For HK folks though that decision *may* be fatal in HK market.

Dryers and A/C units are not continuous loads... a dryer element cycles many times during the drying cycle, heating up only for a few minutes, then switching off, which allows the electric equipment to cool. Same thing for A/C units, that either cycle a piston compressor or vary the speed of a scroll compressor. EV charging is on at high current continuously - many hours at a time - which doesn't allow for any of the conductors, plugs, etc. to cool down.