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

[DerekS]

Careful, you're arguing with someone that claims he has never seen a pothole on 101 on the Peninsula. Forget hitting a pothole, he claims he's never seen one.

Hell I saw AND hit one (in a Lyft) on Sunday.

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[npx]

Hell I saw AND hit one (in a Lyft) on Sunday.

Not 101 but I hit a pothole on 87 the other day that probably would have changed my DNA if I didn't see it coming and hit it at full speed.

 

[Capt Mike]

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.

What app do you use?

 

[daveo4EV]

What app do you use?

Tesla app

https://apps.apple.com/app/id582007913

but it will only work with Tesla sites that have the MagicDock…

only 12 sites in north america so far - 2 in california - 10 in New York - we'll see how this goes for more sites, or if NACS changes anything

ultimately it would be better to have an adapter you could purchase for yourself and use at any site, but that day is not today - we'll see…

in 2024 Ford/GM customers will have that adatper…we'll see if other vendors are granted or negotiate access…

 

[whitex]

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.

Same argument for MagicDoc deployment. Exclude Tesla aspirations, and all you have a handful or two chargers in all of USA open to non-Tesla cars. The Tesla app doesn't even let me filter out destination (L1/L2) chargers from the "Charge your non-Tesla" app functionality. So if all it takes to declare a victory is showing a few chargers working, check out my trip report, 30 working EA's in a row! There isn't a trip you could take today with 30 CCS enabled superchargers to show the same. Yes, they say they plan to deploy more, EA says they plan to be more reliable - aspiration vs. aspiration. Reality is Tesla MagicDoc is a proof of concept, which may or may not ever be widely deployed (even less likely now that Elon got GM and Ford to agree to use adapters and later to include NACS in their cars). As a point of reference. Tesla had a great proof of concept of a 3 minute battery swap too, deployed in CA or NV IIRC, after they got their government money for it, they never deployed anywhere else, no longer operational as far as I know. The whole interoperability of superchargers came along for the same reason, government grants.

 

[joecool99]

I understand I need Tesla app. What else to charge there?
Do I need to buy some kind of an adapter to fit Taycan?

 

[daveo4EV]

at the moment you can only use superchargers with magic dock - tesla and or porsche have not announced any plans for general supercharger access in north america beyond the 12 sites with magic dock installed

 

[bsclywilly]

This was mentioned in the NACS thread but thought it would be worth adding details here that Tesla just added a bunch of Magic Docks over the last couple days and I think ongoing. Over 25 sites now across Utah, Michigan, Washington, Colorado, and Indiana in addition to the ones opened in Texas, California and New York earlier.

https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tesla-adds-magic-docks-in-utah-michigan-and-washington-state/

 

[MAPC]

Perhaps a stupid question, but which Tesla app did you use for this? Is there a Tesla charging app separate from the basic Tesla app?

thx

 

[Jonathan S.]

Perhaps a stupid question, but which Tesla app did you use for this? Is there a Tesla charging app separate from the basic Tesla app?

thx

Same app. It just knows you don’t have a Tesla, so will let you charge only at Magic Docks.

 

[PSUEric]

Had not checked in a while, supercharger locations with Magic Docks across the U.S. now total 43

 

[whitex]

Maybe it's just my skeptical 90% of the brain talking, but could it be that the "adapters for CCS cars coming in 2024/2025" are instead going to be magic docs? It would allow Tesla to control not just quality/reliability of adapters, but more importantly availability of CCS plugs, allowing Tesla to do things like keep some stations reserved for Tesla only. Heck, with magic dock, they could do it dynamically, for example always keep at least one free station as Tesla-only, up to some percentage of the total stations. For example if there are 16 stations, as soon as there is only 1 station available, it becomes Tesla only, once that one is taken, the next free one becomes Tesla only, up to say 4 stations total. This way there is never a bad PR photo of all non-Tesla charging at a supercharger while there is a line of Teslas.

 

[arijaycomet]

Maybe it's just my skeptical 90% of the brain talking, but could it be that the "adapters for CCS cars coming in 2024/2025" are instead going to be magic docs?

Interesting idea. Would make sense, given Tesla (and Elon) like to hold as much control as possible. As you said, it would also permit them to avoid photos which send bad vibes. It'd also be smart for them to do this for the time being, where stalls are laid out in a way that less spots get blocked too (based on which corner the charge port is located, for example). Hmmm... your speculation could be close to correct, guess we shall see!

PS: I recently visited a MagicDock with my Taycan, in Pittsburgh. I was the only car there so my location didn't matter. But I wonder how bad the "locals" (read: Tesla owners) will be/get when non Tesla vehicles start using more of their chargers.

 

[whitex]

But I wonder how bad the "locals" (read: Tesla owners) will be/get when non Tesla vehicles start using more of their chargers.

Only time will tell, but I've seen Tesla owners charge at EA via CCS adapter, even with a Supercharger fully open in the same parking lot. I asked one why he was charging at EA with all those Tesla superchargers open, his answer was simple - EA was cheaper.

My comment was less about locals getting mad, more about media spinning it badly for Tesla, possibly trying to get the locals mad.

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