Tesla Car Charger???

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Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Retired Electrical Contractor
I have wired many car charger but this one was new to me. The home owner has a Tesla and all he has is a cord as shown below. This cord plugs into a standard outlet or can be plugged into a 50 amp 4 wire plug because the cord has adapters. No charger involved. I assume the Tesla must have the charger built into the car-- Anyone know about this. This is the setup-- no external charger

tesla-charging-adapter.jpg
 
I have installed receptacles for many of those. It is the standard charging cord that comes with the car. The wall mount charger is extra $$$. The car knows which adapter is installed on the cord and will adjust the charge current accordingly.
 
Sierrasparky said:
Yes that is correct. part of it is in that oval box on the cord
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So how does that oval box deal with a 50 amp and 20 amp charge. For instance-- does it really charge quicker at the 50 amp load? And it is using that tiny box instead of a large charger????
 
Dennis Alwon said:
So how does that oval box deal with a 50 amp and 20 amp charge. For instance-- does it really charge quicker at the 50 amp load? And it is using that tiny box instead of a large charger????
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure what is in the box. The charging equipment is inside the car, not part of the cord. The cord just gets the power to the car. When you install the adapter on the supply end of the charge cord it tells the car how much current is can charge with. 15A-120V, 30A-240V, 50A-240V. You can get 5-15, 10-30, 14-30, 10-50 and 14-50 adapters.

I just did one a couple of weeks ago that had a 100 amp service that is close to maxed out. They are planning a remodel soon which will require a servcie upgrade. We installed a 30A circuit with a 14-30 receptacle. They programmed the car to only charge after midnight so the other service load will be minimal.
 
curt swartz said:
I'm not really sure what is in the box. The charging equipment is inside the car, not part of the cord. The cord just gets the power to the car.
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I think that box ( regular charger) is mainly used as a place to store the cord when not in use. The box is used as a storage rack/reel. It does keep the cord out of harms way if they wrap the cord around it.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I have wired many car charger but this one was new to me. The home owner has a Tesla and all he has is a cord as shown below. This cord plugs into a standard outlet or can be plugged into a 50 amp 4 wire plug because the cord has adapters. No charger involved. I assume the Tesla must have the charger built into the car-- Anyone know about this. This is the setup-- no external charger

tesla-charging-adapter.jpg
Click to expand...

the onboard charger on the car adjusts for input voltage,
and limits a 120 volt potential to 20 amps, and a 240 volt
potential to 50 amps.
 
The "oval" box simply contains a relay and some signaling electronics. Different NEMA adapters for that Tesla cable have different resistors in them. The box reads that resistance, and based upon it, tells the car to only pull up to 80% of that particular circuit. For instance, plugged into a NEMA 14-50, the box will tell the car to only pull 40A. If you plug in an adapter for a 14-30, the box will tell the car to only pull 24A. This is how all J1772 compliant (the Tesla uses this standard, but another plug to connect to the car) EVSE's work. The box also incorporates a ground fault detecting circuit to open the relay under ground fault. The box also checks for proper 120V from the supplied ground to each line, or 120V to one and no potential to the other in the case of a 120V outlet. Until the car signals the EVSE that it is ready and properly connected, no line voltage is downstream of that box. The key thing about these installations is to understand that they push the limits of NEMA outlets. If the wipes are not tight, or the lugs are not torqued properly on the receptacle, 40A continuous will cause issues (meltdown/fire). The car will charge faster the more power its permitted to pull, up to its own internal limit. The actual charger (switched mode power supply) is housed inside the car. Some EVSE's are cord and plug installations, some are hardwired. Interesting point, the 14-50 and 14-30 adapters, while having a neutral prong, actually have nothing connected to them. So if you are metering the neutral and think there is a problem, there isn't. As to why they didn't standardize on NEMA 6 series, I believe it was due to the ubiquity of RV outlets (14-50).
 
Fulthrotl said:
the onboard charger on the car adjusts for input voltage,
and limits a 120 volt potential to 20 amps, and a 240 volt
potential to 50 amps.
Click to expand...
Even at 240V and 50A it is still going to take seven hours excluding losses to charge that big battery.

And you then get a claimed range of 320 miles assuming a constant speed of 55mph. From a sports car..........???????

I have no particular aversion to EVs, they have been around a lot longer than the ICE, and I think there are some applications where they are practical and make perfect sense.
In UK, we had milk floats that delivered milk in bottles to the doorstep in the early hours of the morning. The quietness, the frequent stop start operation, and a defined route made them a good choice for that duty.
For short commuter trips, purely electric cars can do the job. But charging points need to be at relatively close intervals and you have to be prepared to wait hours or find some activity in the meantime.

In a week's time I will do over 400 miles in the space of five days - collect and return grand girls is that alone. Trips to parks, lunch out, shopping, taking the big fuzzy dog to the big park............
Sorry kids, can't go to Houghton Hall Park until the car gets juiced up. That won't be today.

I can fill up in ten minutes and do 1,000 miles. The EV has some way to go.
 
The home owner stated it can take 3 days to get a full charge with 120V---yikes. But at 50 amps it will charge over night. I didn't realize that there were cars with onboard chargers. So what happens if the charger is emote from the car-- will the car work with them also? Double charger
 
Besoeker said:
Even at 240V and 50A it is still going to take seven hours excluding losses to charge that big battery.

I can fill up in ten minutes and do 1,000 miles. The EV has some way to go.
Click to expand...

You're really not comparing apples to apples. You don't have a gas station in your house. If the Tesla owner pulls up at the EV equivalent of a gas station (i.e. charging station not at the house), then charging takes 20 minutes at higher VA. Unless he's on a road trip, though, the Tesla owner will almost never have to do that. He's going to sleep for those seven hours at night, and wake up to a car ready to drive its full range. A gasoline car owner will never get to do that.

We're off the original topic, but whatever. And BTW, it's marketed as a luxury car, not a sports car. Whatever you're point was about that.
 
So the question still remains as to whether or not you can plug the Tesla into an external charger when you have an onboard charger. I suspect you can
 
Dennis Alwon said:
So the question still remains as to whether or not you can plug the Tesla into an external charger when you have an onboard charger. I suspect you can
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I believe that you can, as the standard EV connectors have both AC and DC pins. But it would have to be a Tesla charger such as the ones they use at supercharger stations.
You can also get a complete loaner battery swap in 20 minutes or less.
 
My understanding is that a Tesla charger is proprietary however the Tesla vehicle can plug into other chargers if you have the proper adapters. I got that info from a Tesla person.
 
dflash

dflash

I wired three car chargers last week two at 208 and one was a double cord charger at 480 for BMW the amps on the
spect was 40amps for each on all three the car putter knows no different ​
 
jaggedben said:
You're really not comparing apples to apples. You don't have a gas station in your house. If the Tesla owner pulls up at the EV equivalent of a gas station (i.e. charging station not at the house), then charging takes 20 minutes at higher VA. Unless he's on a road trip, though, the Tesla owner will almost never have to do that. He's going to sleep for those seven hours at night, and wake up to a car ready to drive its full range. A gasoline car owner will never get to do that.

We're off the original topic, but whatever. And BTW, it's marketed as a luxury car, not a sports car. Whatever you're point was about that.
Click to expand...
The Tesla was first marketed as a roadster based on a (British) Lotus - the Elise I think it was. Acceleration time to 60mph was claimed to be under four seconds. Definitely a sports car. Tesla then developed a luxury saloon that you might call a sedan.

No, I don't have a gas station at my house. But quite a few within five miles and at least three within two miles.
Sleep overnight and get a full range? Well, I can get about 1,000 miles from a full tank, probably more if I stuck to a constant 55mph. That's as many miles as the average for a month for most. So I can get a full tank in about ten minutes and not have worry for a month about "charging" overnight.

I'm not anti EVs. I'm anti the hype. Charge in 20 minutes for example. Do the sums.
 
I've done quite a few for Teslas. Almost all of them that Ive done are that 50 amp circuit (oven circuit, lol). I've also put a couple of the high power chargers. It'll have dipsticks inside charger that you set based on the amperage of circuit you are providing... Up to 100 amps. I've only done resi chargers. No commercial ones.
 
Besoeker said:
I'm not anti EVs. I'm anti the hype. Charge in 20 minutes for example. Do the sums.
Click to expand...

well, they work fine locally when you charge at home every night, while asleep.

point to point, not such a good thing... let's say you go LA>SF... there is a spot
in coalinga to charge... so everyone thinks... i can get a charge and go to the
starbucks next door, and less than an hour, i'm off and running...

they can do ten cars an hour... you are number 22.... 4 hours later......
hey... harris ranch is nice... you can get a steak for lunch....
 
So I put a 50 amp conductor with a 50 am overcurrent protective device which means the unit probably draws 40 amps or so. Now charge the car for 7 hours-- home owner states that what it takes for a full charge - and that is a lot of energy and money to charge that vehicle.

I read an interesting article that stated how the power company's are really worried about the load on their system from EV's.
 
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