Report: Charging my Taycan at Tesla Supercharger with new CCS compatible magic dock

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Greetings folks. I had the opportunity to try one of the new design superchargers that features the "Magic Dock" CCS adapter in Scotts Valley CA today, between San Jose and Santa Cruz through the mountains off highway 17. Came away very impressed and reminded of why people love the supercharger network. If you're not familiar, Tesla are upgrading their charging stations to include a system to dispense a CCS adapter that is stored inside the charger itself to enable non Tesla vehicles to use superchargers. Also please save any Elon Musk discussion for another time, this is about charging our cars.

On the Tesla app, all you have to do is create an account and add a credit card. then you click "charge my non tesla vehicle" and it guides you to a station that supports this system, and prompts you to pick which stall you're at. One large advantage of Supercharger is that many of the stations, even in the middle of nowhere, have many more stalls than EA's standard 3-4 stall stations, I believe most are minimum of 8 with some enormous stations (such as on I5 between SF and LA providing as many as 40, split between 150 and 250kw. This station has 16, providing up to 250kw.

After that, you unlock, the adapter comes out with the normal tesla plug, and you plug it in. I did not have any issues with plug length attaching to the Taycan but some folks with an ID4 would have had to block lanes. And then, it started charging. Regrettably my Taycan did not have the 150kw/400V charger option so my charge speed topped out at 47kw but still was able to do a respectable 2 miles per minute of charging.

My understanding from all my friends with Teslas and my parents who have owned 4 is that this is the standard experience with superchargers, that it just works. EA is just such trash by comparison in terms of reliability and honestly, I hope they are terrified of this, because if I had the 150KW charger, I would literally never go to EA again once my complimentary charge plan runs out.

Anyway, I think this will be great for us, and honestly even capping at 50kw it pretty good if you're going to be somewhere for a little while or in a pinch. Ask me anything.

 

[Archimedes]

So all you had to do was: download another app, put your credit card in the app, consult the app to locate the charging station, find a charger with the adapter, unload the adapter from the charger and attach it to the charger, plug it in, and it charged your car at 47 kWH?

Gee, and all this time I’ve been just driving up to EA chargers, plugging in and getting an average of 90kWH. Wait…that seems easier...

 

[npx]

So all you had to do was: download another app, put your credit card in the app, consult the app to locate the charging station, find a charger with the adapter, unload the adapter from the charger and attach it to the charger, plug it in, and it charged your car at 47 kWH?

Gee, and all this time I’ve been just driving up to EA chargers, plugging in and getting an average of 90kWH. Wait…that seems easier...

jeez who pissed in your coffee? it's a nice additional option for us to have, and considering the reliability i've had with EA, i'd love to have more options beyond just sitting on the phone trying to get their shit to work when it fails. not sure if a one time pain of adding an account and a credit card really stacks against having a potential large network of chargers but if that's a big issue for you i'll just say okay and move on

also just to clarify- it's an interesting and well thought out design where the normal Tesla plug receptacle is actually sitting in the CCS1 adapter in the stall, and then when you select non tesla, the CCS adapter comes out as a unit with a pin that locks it in place. So you don't have to actually do anything to get the adapter, and we don't have to buy an adapter...which is more than i can say for their own customers that want to use CCS and have to purchase an adapter and keep it in their car. make no mistake this is very well designed.

- here's a video showing how the adapter comes out of the charger already attached

 

[ithinkmac]

150kW is no brainer, glad I spec it when ordering. Bought it with the understanding that Tesla will open up their Supercharging network. Don't knock the Supercharging network, it works. I'm just hoping they'll open up more than 10%.

-ThinkMac-

 

[npx]

150kW is no brainer, glad I spec it when ordering. Bought it with the understanding that Tesla will open up their Supercharging network. Don't knock the Supercharging network, it works. I'm just hoping they'll open up more than 10%.

-ThinkMac-

Yeah, absolutely a no brainer option.

 

[carboard123]

Yeah, absolutely a no brainer option.

Anyone know if the 150kw charger can be retrofitted to an existing car?

 

[bsclywilly]

How was the cable length in that stall? I was there last night but went straight for the stall with the charger alongside the car.

 

[daveo4EV]

Anyone know if the 150kw charger can be retrofitted to an existing car?

to date it can not.

 

[Archimedes]

jeez who pissed in your coffee? it's a nice additional option for us to have, and considering the reliability i've had with EA, i'd love to have more options beyond just sitting on the phone trying to get their shit to work when it fails. not sure if a one time pain of adding an account and a credit card really stacks against having a potential large network of chargers but if that's a big issue for you i'll just say okay and move on

also just to clarify- it's an interesting and well thought out design where the normal Tesla plug receptacle is actually sitting in the CCS1 adapter in the stall, and then when you select non tesla, the CCS adapter comes out as a unit with a pin that locks it in place. So you don't have to actually do anything to get the adapter, and we don't have to buy an adapter...which is more than i can say for their own customers that want to use CCS and have to purchase an adapter and keep it in their car. make no mistake this is very well designed.

Nobody pissed in my coffee. I just find it funny when someone says ‘all you have to do is…’ and then lists out a ten step process.

And then compares it to a much simpler, one step process and proclaims the latter is inferior.

Not knocking the Tesla charging option, just the idea that it’s more efficient than opening no apps, giving no credit cards, using no adapters, and getting faster speeds.

 

[npx]

Nobody pissed in my coffee. I just find it funny when someone says ‘all you have to do is…’ and then lists out a ten step process.

And then compares it to a much simpler, one step process and proclaims the latter is inferior.

Not knocking the Tesla charging option, just the idea that it’s more efficient than opening no apps, giving no credit cards, using no adapters, and getting faster speeds.

for the record I never claimed it’s *more* efficient, just that the method they used to implement the adapter Is well sorted and the process wasn’t lengthy or tedious (in my view)

 

[irrelevant]

Thanks for the report.

 

[daveo4EV]

Nobody pissed in my coffee. I just find it funny when someone says ‘all you have to do is…’ and then lists out a ten step process.

And then compares it to a much simpler, one step process and proclaims the latter is inferior.

Not knocking the Tesla charging option, just the idea that it’s more efficient than opening no apps, giving no credit cards, using no adapters, and getting faster speeds.

once set up the steps are like a two step process - and way better than sitting on hold with EA to achieve a 38 kW charge rate - because with EA it is not often all that easy, and superchargers w/Tesla app is fewer steps with a better app than either the EA app or Porsche App when plug&charge either does not work or is not an option (2020 Taycan or Audi eTron SUV)…

people seem to miss the point _IF_ EA works and gets you optimal charge times it is in fact better than Superchargers…

the problem is - at least in mine and other's experience often times you can not rely on EA working for either charge session activation, app functonality or charge rate…EA's only problem is it's reliability - not it's aspirations or goals and it's rarely demonstrated effectiveness and/or superiority.

the fastest and best EV charging experience I have EVER had was Paso Robles EA charging stations with my 2020 Taycan - far better and faster than 100's of supercharger sessions over the years - with full 268 kW charge rate with taper to like 92% in less than 25 minutes - hands down that best charging session I've ever had in 10+ years of EV road tripping…I simply can not replicate that with any regularity - and this past 5 day sample - EA was far far far off that mark - and the best charging session I had between Wed. March 1st and Sunday march 5th was the Scott's valley Supercharger…EA was simply awful in EVERY opportunity and encounter 9 times at 5 different EA sites in North California.

EA was inconsistent in 4 attempts at the same site in a consecutive 48 hour time period - the SAME EA site:

• would not app activate or local card read - require a phone call - less than 90 kW charge rate from 350 kW charger after activation
• less than 12 hours late - all 4 chargers "offline" could not be used at all
• less than 8 hours later - 2 of 4 chargers online - app activation works - 75 kW charge rate from 350 kW charger
• 12 hours later - app activation will not work - customer support call required to active - and again less than 100 kW at a 350 kW station…

all customer support calls are 10 min or more delay before charging starts…

in one 48 hour period for 4 trials EA was inconsistent, buggy, and ultimate slow to activate and then delivered a substandard charge rate. Amazing.

when it works and works well EA is the best - we need to always be the best - it's not.

 

[W1NGE]

So all you had to do was: download another app, put your credit card in the app, consult the app to locate the charging station, find a charger with the adapter, unload the adapter from the charger and attach it to the charger, plug it in, and it charged your car at 47 kWH?

Gee, and all this time I’ve been just driving up to EA chargers, plugging in and getting an average of 90kWH. Wait…that seems easier...

Had you guys taken the advice to option the 400v - 800v 150kW DC booster you would have been able to charge at that rate and be saying something different.

 

[daveo4EV]

in the past 5 days w/EA & EVGo I never got more than 90 kW - and 1/2 the sessions I had were below 70 kW with EA/EVGo

the Tesla supercharger was the _ONLY _ session over 100 kW I encountered in the past 5 days - 132 kW steady and fast and session activation with no drama or long hold times for a customer support representative to activate the session since the Porsche & EA app could not do it and the card readers were broken…

the Scott's Valley supercharger was the only fast, easy and high performance session I've had since Wed. March 1st - and I charged or tried/needed to charge with alternate networks all over the greater bay area at 8 times in 5 different locations.

picture below is my 2020 Taycan @ Scott's Valley supercharger - I already had the Tesla app instsalled and setup - 2 step process to activate the session - electrons started flowing after 20-30 seconds of physical plug insert - much faster than _ANY_ EA stations even when they work.

 

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Had you guys taken the advice to option the 400v - 800v 150kW DC booster you would have been able to charge at that rate and be saying something different.

regrettably the previous owner of my car didn’t ask me if I wanted to have the400V charger