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Ok, we have CHAdeMO, now what?

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Dbitter1

Journeyman Member
Dec 12, 2014
217
14
Chicago, IL
Now that Tesla is offering the CHAdeMO adapter on the store for the masses, the question now becomes: What do you do with one?

I of course know the local charging options for my region outside of personal HPWC and SC; and we know that SOME Nissan dealers welcome our kind... but what are the national paid options? Are there networks worth pre-joining, if you know you want a L3 charge and aren't around a SC ? A few that I'd done research on waiting for the adapter seemed to be very local markets.
 
You really need to look at the areas you plan on traveling to and see what you might need. If you aren't on ChargePoint already, that's a good one to be on because they probably have the largest charging network and they do have quite a few CHAdeMO stations. There are some that are free, but still require a ChargePoint card. There are others that are free without requiring a charging network card at all. There are a couple here locally which would be good for anyone traveling to the Raleigh area and needing to destination charge for free. Yes, there are the Nissan Dealerships as well, but I'd only use that as a last-resort.
 
Nissan is building out their DC fast charging network. They will also have an agreement with BMW I think, because the 50kW Nissan unit I have has the CCS plug on it too. There will be more of these showing up and they won't all be at dealerships. They know that hasn't always been convenient. Ours is just off the freeway West of Milwaukee on the way to Madison.
 
Just use Plugshare to see if there are any CHAdeMO DC FCs where you plan to go to...

FWIW, I've had my Leaf since end of July 2013 and I have the CHAdeMO inlet. I've so far paid $0 to do ANY public charging. All public charging L2 and CHAdeMO has been on free DC FCs, the latter of which are becoming rare.

I have a Chargepoint card, only to L2 charge @ work and use a couple free Chargepoint L2 (haven't done that in many months). I have a Blink membership and have used it 0 times.
 
There are two free, public CHAdeMO points here in Portland/South Portland, and currently they're the fastest charging option east of the Hookset Superchargers in this hemisphere. Beyond the Nissan dealerships, there are many CHAdeMO charge points in Tennessee and the PacNW, and some more in strategic locations (e.g. in Vermont, making Boston-Vermont pretty easy).

At "only" 50 kW, CHAdeMO is a factor of two worse than a SuperCharger. But it's five times faster (at maximum) than a 240 V @ 40 A L2 point, and nearly 9x better than the more usual 208 V @ 30 A L2 point.
 
I just finished a great road trip that was made possible by the CHAdeMO adapter. They are clunky as hell, but they get the job done fast enough to be useful. I've gotten between 25-40kW at two different stations, and that was enough to both make it, and not (quite) get frustrated during the wait.
 
I travel to the Dallas area frequently for both business and pleasure. Its just this much outside my comfort zone with regards to range for a roundtrip. In other words, EVTrip Planner says I could make it with about 15 miles to spare if weather conditions were perfect. Since we don't have any SC's nearby, when I go to Dallas I will stop by a Walgreens NRGEVgo CHAdeMo and grab a quick 50 miles or so to give me enough comfort to make it back home. I have used it 3 times so far, works fine.

As a side note, the 2nd time I used it (2nd public charging experience ever), I plugged in with the anticipation of about a 45 minute charge as my wife and I had an appointment, and then had to go pick up the kids from the babysitters and make it all the way back home. Plugged in and walked across the street to grab a quick bite. Sitting down at the table I checked on my App and it said, "Charging stopped". So I go back, and some punk in a Leaf had unplugged me and plugged himself in. I got no more than about 7 minutes of charging, and he said "Sorry dude, I didn't know where you were and I needed a quick 10 minute charge". He was at 75% and I was at 18%. He said sorry and unplugged and drove off. What really sucks about it is that NRG charges a one time $6.00 fee for each session, regardless of the length of charging (in addition to a per minute charge). So by him unplugging me and me having to start another session cost me money. I really wish they didn't have the ability to unplug the CHAdeMO adapter while it is locked.
 
So I go back, and some punk in a Leaf had unplugged me and plugged himself in. I got no more than about 7 minutes of charging, and he said "Sorry dude, I didn't know where you were and I needed a quick 10 minute charge". He was at 75% and I was at 18%. He said sorry and unplugged and drove off. What really sucks about it is that NRG charges a one time $6.00 fee for each session, regardless of the length of charging (in addition to a per minute charge). So by him unplugging me and me having to start another session cost me money. I really wish they didn't have the ability to unplug the CHAdeMO adapter while it is locked.

That guy owes you some money. That's outrageous.
 
I just finished a trip from Dallas to Nashville where there are no Superchargers. We relied on CHAdeMO in Memphis, Nashville, and coming back through Rockwall. The adapter worked flawlessly, but some of the Nissan chargers will overheat during extended sessions. Make sure the breaker panel is nearby (and unlock) for those. The Eaton and NRG units are very beefy and produce the highest kWh rates.
 
VERY VERY happy with my Chademo. Thanks to Greenlots new chargers pop up frequently, some of them free. I am doing now 80 % of my charging onm a solar power free Chademo station. I do not have a charger at home so this is live saver. Also the best destination charging !
 
...Sitting down at the table I checked on my App and it said, "Charging stopped". So I go back, and some punk in a Leaf had unplugged me and plugged himself in. I got no more than about 7 minutes of charging, and he said "Sorry dude, I didn't know where you were and I needed a quick 10 minute charge". He was at 75% and I was at 18%. He said sorry and unplugged and drove off. What really sucks about it is that NRG charges a one time $6.00 fee for each session, regardless of the length of charging (in addition to a per minute charge). So by him unplugging me and me having to start another session cost me money. I really wish they didn't have the ability to unplug the CHAdeMO adapter while it is locked.

Two thoughts on this:
1. Your experience reinforces the advice I've seen elsewhere on these forums to leave your contact info visible when you're charging at a public location. Doing so has saved me some MAJOR hassle at least once so far. (To be clear, I'm NOT in any way suggesting you did anything wrong or that you should've known to leave a note. The Leaf driver clearly should not have unplugged your car.)
2. It might be worth calling or emailing NRG and politely pleading your case for a session fee refund. I wonder if they might even be able to move the fee over to the other guy's account... they should at least know who he is.