Dual charger question

Incorrect statement.

If you look at this thread, you'll see only one charger installed: Photos of car interior taken apart for sound deadening

I don't think two chargers are installed in every car. I've seen photos on this site that show just one charger installed, but I don't remember what thread they were in.

Dual chargers are for faster AC charging. Just want to make sure that you understand that they don't have anything to do with Supercharging (DC charging).

One charger will allow the car to be able to charge at a rate up to 40 amps (208-240v), and the second charger will allow charging to take place up to 80 amps. Worth it if you need it, but not necessary if you won't be needing it...

Yorkshire_By_Eck said:

I was told recently, by someone who should know, that all Model S cars were built with dual chargers fitted, but only one was activated. If the other was paid for - then this is activated by software and can be done remotely.

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This was rumoured to be the case for UK cars specifically, and probably only for the first few cars delivered (which also suffered from the 26A vs 32A limitation that all european cars also had until recently fixed).

Most home charging in the UK is 32A single phase. European-spec cars previously were only specified at 16A per phase (single charger) and 32A per phase (dual charger), temporarily reduced to 13A/26A respectively due to a design deficiency discovered soon after (mainland) european deliveries started.

So Tesla were in a bit of a bind on the run up to UK production - anyone who had ordered only single charger was going to get an unpleasant surprise of charging at only 13A on a home 32A charge point installed under the government scheme.

Tesla went through several iterations of how to fix this: a few people had special 'tweaked' chargepoints installed by Chargemaster (believed to feed the same phase to multiple phase pins on the connector) but these were then replaced by ordinary ones: maybe because of incompatibility with non-Tesla EVs, or maybe because it didn't fix the problem given that there are lots of public single phase charge points out there too.
Then it is believed that the first few cars had the second charger fitted whether ordered or not: some people found they could charge at 22kW on a public 3-phase point even though they had ordered only single charger, but then found that this was reduced by a subsequent software update back to the standard 11kW.

Finally, it is believed that a redesign - possibly part of the fix for the 13A/26A problem, possibly separate - meant that single charger cars could charge from 32A single phase and so the spurious second chargers are no longer being fitted. However, this hasn't been totally confirmed - we need someone with a recent single charger car to lift the rear seat and see what is in there.

Will also be interesting to see any single-charger cars visiting from the continent that have had the fix applied - can they get 32A out of the various 7kW public charge points (Source East etc.)?

Yorkshire_By_Eck said:

The reason for the question - as for lots on this site - is before ordering - what options to go for?

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The answer for the UK is that in the long term the right thing would be to order single charger and save your money for the CHAdeMO adapter (since the only significant places you can take advantage of dual chargers are at the Ecotricity sites at motorway service areas, and they have CHAdeMO as well as >22kW AC); unfortunately, in the meantime the CHAdeMO adapter isn't available and dual chargers are invaluable.

So if you are ordering now and you plan any long-ish distance travel in the first few months of ownership, you really need to buy the dual chargers. In 6(?) months time, with more Superchargers and maybe the CHAdeMO adapter finally available, the answer may be different.

Unless you're absolutely sure you'll never have any use for 22kW charging, you should get the dual charger.

Charging is, after all, a very significant aspect of an electric car.

Eventually there will be lots of superchargers around in the UK also, but in the mean time being able to wait half as long for charging at 22kW or 43kW charging stations is so worth it.

Unless you enjoy to watch paint dry, of course.

Many Norwegians have regretted getting only the single charger, specially when it comes to only being able to charge at 16A (3kW) at 32 (7kW) 1-phase charging stations. We also have lots of 1-phase charging stations here, just like in the UK. And retrofitting the dual charger is expensive.

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arg said:

The answer for the UK is that in the long term the right thing would be to order single charger and save your money for the CHAdeMO adapter (since the only significant places you can take advantage of dual chargers are at the Ecotricity sites at motorway service areas, and they have CHAdeMO as well as >22kW AC); unfortunately, in the meantime the CHAdeMO adapter isn't available and dual chargers are invaluable.

So if you are ordering now and you plan any long-ish distance travel in the first few months of ownership, you really need to buy the dual chargers. In 6(?) months time, with more Superchargers and maybe the CHAdeMO adapter finally available, the answer may be different.

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Advice: Plan from what Tesla is able to ship now.

The chademo adapter has been promised for so long. Many Norwegians thought like you that the Chademo adapter would solve their problems, and be cheaper than ordering the dual charger. But it's still not shipping. And they're now stuck with the singe charger.

However, the supercharger buildout has dramatically reduced the need for the chademo adapter and dual chargers. And chademo charging stations are so unreliable anyways.

Yorkshire_By_Eck said:

I was told recently, by someone who should know, that all Model S cars were built with dual chargers fitted, but only one was activated. If the other was paid for - then this is activated by software and can be done remotely.

Click to expand...

Sounds like they are mixing up dual chargers with supercharging. All cars were built with supercharging hardware, including the 60s, where supercharging is an option. But supercharging has nothing to do with dual chargers. Dual chargers allow faster charging off of L2 chargers that support it, while supercharging bypasses the onboard chargers completely.