Tesla HPWC and Single Charger Model S

No. If the HPWC is 80A your car will charge at 40A. You will find that Tesla employees aren't always the best sources of information.

There are dip switch settings inside the HPWC that can be set to limit the output as well. Please check your HPWC documentation.
The HPWC offers a really nice power cable and plug and the styling just cannot be beat IMHO.
I have one already, but no model S....yet. ;-)

I've used a few 80amp HPWC with my single charger MS. No issues at all. The car shows 80 amps, but still only lets you specify up to 40. The HPWC itself just doesn't care what you have. Its job is to tell the car the max amperage it can pull and to switch the power on/off as needed.

I have charged at the Tesla Sale's in Raleigh, NC. 40amp.

Kbra said:

I picked up my MS last week at the Fremont factory. During my demo it was mention that some Tesla HPWC "may not work" with my MS because I did not opt for Dual Chargers. They were implying that the 80amp configuration was too much for the on board charger so it wouldn't work. I responded with wont the charger just accept 40amp and charge at a slower rate than the HPWC is capable. They responded back with "It may not charge at all."

I find it hard to believe this statement. Has anyone ran into a Tesla HPWC that does not work with their single charger MS?

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Sometimes I wonder where they find these people, and why they'll say anything they don't firmly know rather than "I'm unsure, let me check with another associate." I've had plenty of owners with single charger use my 80A HPWC without issue.

Tesla needs to send new employees to a bootcamp or something.

AmpedRealtor said:

Tesla needs to send new employees to a bootcamp or something.

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Or at least have them spend a few hours reading posts here.

People who make s**t up and give and an "authoritative" answer when they really have no clue deserve to be fired, plain and simple.

To be clear, the HPWC (and any other J1772 EVSE) simply advertises the max current available to the car. The car can pull anywhere from 0 to <max-advertised> amps. A single charger car will charge fine on a HPWC. It will charge at the minimum of 40A and the setting of the HPWC (if set lower than 40A)

TexasEV said:

Or at least have them spend a few hours reading posts here.

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Or just have them read the owners manual. It is addressed there.

AmpedRealtor said:

Tesla needs to send new employees to a bootcamp or something.

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That only helps if the bootcamp doesn't teach them to make up answers that they do not know. Somehow, some front line Tesla employees are already being taught this bad behavior, it seems. They've got to stop teaching the wrong thing before they start teaching the right thing.

Lloyd said:

Or just have them read the owners manual. It is addressed there.

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Or plug a single-charger car into an HPWC at a store or service center... My single-charger car was happily charging away on an HPWC earlier today while in for service...

tga said:

People who make s**t up and give and an "authoritative" answer when they really have no clue deserve to be fired, plain and simple.

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It's not plain and simple at all -- far from it. I run my own business and have had many employees, some of whom I've had to fire. It's very difficult and not a decision to be made lightly. Many have families and children who rely on that person for support. We all make mistakes. Good employees are also really hard to find. Many people are lazy and useless. If this is an overall good and hardworking employee firing him over this one mistake is idiotic.

There was a related bug a few years ago on the Roadster that may be fueling some of this mythology. The Roadster can charge at up to 70 Amps AC. Early versions of the Roadster firmware would refuse to charge if the L2 charger (J1772, and now HPWC's with Henry's CAN SR) offered more than 70 Amps on the pilot. A firmware upgrade fixed that problem and Roadsters with the latest firmware will charge at 70 Amps when 71-80 Amps is offered by the L2 charger.

Who knows. This factoid may have drifted down in the oral tradition and mythology to what the OP heard.

At any rate, the sales and service folks at Tesla should be more up to date on this charging stuff.

FlasherZ said:

Sometimes I wonder where they find these people, and why they'll say anything they don't firmly know rather than "I'm unsure, let me check with another associate."

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Many of them are hired from the auto industry where taking time to actually look up something is likely to get you on the RIF list.