I have had my Model S about 2 1/2 weeks now. I upgraded from a Nissan Leaf. My lease was up so this seemed a good time to upgrade. When I got the Leaf instead of installing a fancy charging station from Evgo I just added a 220V plug in the garage and sent my cable to evseupgrade in California to be modified so I could charge by just plugging it into the outlet. When I bought my Tesla I was told that I could use what I had and an adapter would allow me to charge. Not so. The adapter goes on the plug at the car not the wall and there is no Tesla adapter that allows the cable to plug directly into the wall outlet. The Tesla approved electrician this morning recommended a service upgrade at a cost of $3500-$4000. I'm checking out some alternatives. Has anyone run into this kind of problem?
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newdev
Member
Depending on the amperage which now comes to the receptacle may really be the issue. The adapters issued by Tesla are for connecting to other charging stations or a 110volt outlet. If you have a 50amp service coming to the outlet you just have to have the electrician match the 220v/40amp plug which is part of the electrical harness which comes with the car; Anything less than the 40amps of electric the car will not charge very quickly. I believe the Leaf requires only 30amps of electric and your receptacle will be different and will not convert. If you go to a public charging station you will notice that they supply a chord from their device to plug into your car and that is when the adapters, you got with the car, are used; you do not use the chord assembly supplied by Tesla.
I hope some of this has been helpful.
davewill
Active Member
Most of the folks who installed a receptacle specifically for an EVSEUpgrade ended up putting in either an L6-30r or an L6-20r. The L6-20 is a 240v 20a receptacle and the l6-30r is a 240v 30a receptacle. Tesla doesn't sell an adapter for the UMC for either one of those. They do sell one for the 10-30, but it is outdated and not allowed for new installations, so you can't install one.
You can buy an adapter for either of them to the 14-50 plug the UMC that came with the car from evseadapters.com, but the car will try to draw 40a, and you will have to manually dial it down, not a good plan for daily charging, although a lot of people have done just that. It's the cheapest way to go.
If it were me, I would go ahead and buy the HPWC for $750 which has settings for 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 80 and 100 amp circuit breakers. It will charge at 16a on a 20a circuit and 24a on a 30a circuit. Go ahead and install it and set it for whatever capacity circuit you have now, then upgrade the circuit to a higher capacity when and if you are ready to. That will get you going for now, and give you the most flexibility going forward.
If that's too spendy, then I'd get whatever J1772 EVSE fits your budget and the circuit, and go that route.
Oh, and get a second opinion on the upgrade of your circuit.
You can buy an adapter for either of them to the 14-50 plug the UMC that came with the car from evseadapters.com, but the car will try to draw 40a, and you will have to manually dial it down, not a good plan for daily charging, although a lot of people have done just that. It's the cheapest way to go.
If it were me, I would go ahead and buy the HPWC for $750 which has settings for 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 80 and 100 amp circuit breakers. It will charge at 16a on a 20a circuit and 24a on a 30a circuit. Go ahead and install it and set it for whatever capacity circuit you have now, then upgrade the circuit to a higher capacity when and if you are ready to. That will get you going for now, and give you the most flexibility going forward.
If that's too spendy, then I'd get whatever J1772 EVSE fits your budget and the circuit, and go that route.
Oh, and get a second opinion on the upgrade of your circuit.
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glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
I am a little confused. The Model S will charge on just about anything AC between 50 to 60hz and 90 to 250 volts. Is your issue that the UMC supplied with the car doesn't have the particular UMC adapter for your specific wall outlet? Telsa no longer sells the NEMA 6-50 outlet adapter and never sold a NEMA 6-20 adapter. However, no matter what outlet you have you can always make an adapter for it that adapts to a plug Tesla does sell for the UMC. This would be the $50 dollar option. If your not comfortable with that, other EVSE manufactures sell EVSEs with NEMA6-50 and NEMA6-20 plugs such as Clipper Creek, you can just use the J1772 adapter that should have come with the car. A little bit more expensive but not thousands.
Edit: And I second what davewill is saying.
Mogul59 has the original Nissan LEAF 120 volt EVSE that was upgraded to handle 240 volts/ 16 Amps. There's an issue with Nissan and Tesla interpretations of the J1772 standard. We tried it on my buddies RAV4 EV, it would not start charging with the modified Nissan EVSE. It worked fine on our old BMW ActiveE and both Fiat 500e's. Newer modified Nissan EVSE's will work with the onboard Tesla chargers.
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Why can't you change the plug to a nema 14-50 and use the mobile cable that came with the car? If the wire and breaker won't support 40 amps you can dial it down in the car one time, it will remember the charging setting moving forward. If you're at all handy this is a $25 solution. If you need assistance, an electrician can help you with a simple service call. Save the money, the HPWC won't do anything above this for you.
Because it's against code, comes with insurance and liability implications, and is illegal (since the NEC is codified as law in most jurisdictions).
The car is not guaranteed to remember the charging. It has reset for me a few times after software upgrades.
To support the NEMA 14-50, you must have 50-amp rated receptacles, conductors, and breakers.
See the FAQ in my signature (below) for more information.
CHG-ON
Still in love after all these miles
I simply had another 240 "dryer" receptacle installed and it works perfectly. Like a charm. And it was cheap.
davewill
Active Member
I don't think he has the EVSE anymore, just the outlet. The older Nissan EVSEs don't generate the negative part of the pilot signal and the Tesla on-board chargers (also in the RAV) won't accept it.
The rub there is that Tesla doesn't seem to sell the 14-30 adapter anymore and code doesn't allow installation of new 10-30 outlets, which they do sell an adapter for. You'd have to install a 14-30, buy the 10-30 adapter and then buy or make a 10-30 to 14-30 adapter. You'd be out approx $150 and end up with a Rube Goldberg setup.
I'm still unclear how many amps your 240V circuit is, but if it's just 20A put in for a Leaf you wouldn't be happy charging Tesla with that anyway. Your Model S has a much bigger battery and needs higher amp charging for a reasonable experience. In my opinion anyone who buys a Model S and has a gararge should install a 50A circuit for it. Whether you use a 14-50 outlet with the UMC or hard wire a HPWC is personal preference, but don't try to get away with anything under a 50A circuit. It's just not the same ownership experience.
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