Tesla Supercharging/ Magic dock Updates?

[Riri03]

Pretty exciting that Telsa started implementing the magic docks (CCS adaptors) into their superchargers. It looks like the rollout has been pretty slow though, the only locations are in Northern California and New York. Does anyone have updates on this? It would be nice if I could start using Superchargers here in SoCal. I really wish they sold the Magic Docks individually so that you could use any supercharger.

https://insideevs.com/news/657335/tesla-magic-dock-rollout-march-2023/

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[carsly]

It was a set of pilots to get Federal money. With most of the large OEM's now pushing their chips in behind NACS (except for VW group and BMW) there is really no purpose for the magic dock.

Supposedly next spring Rivian and other OEM's who have agreements with Tesla will be shipping out free Supercharger adapters to existing owners with the older CCS ports. Yet another reason to end the Magic Dock experiment.

However, Tesla just launched the equivalent for home use - which I placed an order for and looks rather promising as it will support NACS and CCS in one piece of hardware with a built-in adapter.

 

[A Land Rover Forever]

20cents more per Kwh than the EA two miles away in my area is a RIP OFF!

 

[bwilliam79]

Tesla recently added Magic Docks to a Supercharger location in Arlington, TX. I drove over there this weekend to check it out and it worked great. Definitely looking forward to more and I hope they don't slow-roll the rollout of them in favor of adapters that won't come to fruition until next year. The fast charging landscape is definitely the least fun part of ownership thus far.

 

[emoore]

I think they won't be rolling out very quickly with the announcement of other companies joining the supercharger network. I was actually surprised that they added the one in Texas after the NY and CA ones. If Tesla was serious about the magic dock they would have rolled them out much quicker.

 

[SoCal Rob]

20cents more per Kwh than the EA two miles away in my area is a RIP OFF!

Hopefully you can imagine that there are people who, if the EA station 2 miles away is full, would happily pay a $0.20/kWh premium to save time.

 

[bwilliam79]

I think they won't be rolling out very quickly with the announcement of other companies joining the supercharger network. I was actually surprised that they added the one in Texas after the NY and CA ones. If Tesla was serious about the magic dock they would have rolled them out much quicker.

Unfortunately, I think you're right on this. The positive is there is a light at the end of the tunnel... the negative is that tunnel is a bit longer than hoped.

 

[Riri03]

It was a set of pilots to get Federal money. With most of the large OEM's now pushing their chips in behind NACS (except for VW group and BMW) there is really no purpose for the magic dock.

Supposedly next spring Rivian and other OEM's who have agreements with Tesla will be shipping out free Supercharger adapters to existing owners with the older CCS ports. Yet another reason to end the Magic Dock experiment.

However, Tesla just launched the equivalent for home use - which I placed an order for and looks rather promising as it will support NACS and CCS in one piece of hardware with a built-in adapter.

Yeah, a stand-alone adaptor seems to be the way to go. Installing a magic dock in every supercharger always seemed super inefficient. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Riri03]

Tesla recently added Magic Docks to a Supercharger location in Arlington, TX. I drove over there this weekend to check it out and it worked great. Definitely looking forward to more and I hope they don't slow-roll the rollout of them in favor of adapters that won't come to fruition until next year. The fast charging landscape is definitely the least fun part of ownership thus far.

Yeah, completely agree fast charging has been one of my biggest obstacles. Interesting that they installed one in Texas, I didn't hear about that. Makes sense with them moving more of their operations to Austin.

 

[VSG]

Yeah, a stand-alone adaptor seems to be the way to go. Installing a magic dock in every supercharger always seemed super inefficient.

Why? It would be WAY more efficient to retrofit <10,000 chargers to use Magic Dock (Tesla has described the retrofit as simple and inexpensive) rather than mandating that millions of individuals each buy an adapter and carry it around with them in case they might possibly want to use a Supercharger somewhere.

But that also explains it - Tesla can now sell millions of adapters, instead of paying for <10,000 Magic Dock retrofits. Nothing wrong with them maximizing profit, just don't mistake this for Tesla being motivated by higher goals. And don't expect them to charge you the same amount as they do Tesla owners, unless perhaps you pay a monthly membership fee.

In their Magic Dock announcement, Tesla promised to make 3,500 Superchargers available to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024. So far they have 12 sites - 9 in NY and 2 in CA, which opened in March and 1 new one in TX which opened a few weeks ago.

 

[Riri03]

Why? It would be WAY more efficient to retrofit <10,000 chargers to use Magic Dock (Tesla has described the retrofit as simple and inexpensive) rather than mandating that millions of individuals each buy an adapter and carry it around with them in case they might possibly want to use a Supercharger somewhere.

But that also explains it - Tesla can now sell millions of adapters, instead of paying for <10,000 Magic Dock retrofits. Nothing wrong with them maximizing profit, just don't mistake this for Tesla being motivated by higher goals. And don't expect them to charge you the same amount as they do Tesla owners, unless perhaps you pay a monthly membership fee.

In their Magic Dock announcement, Tesla promised to make 3,500 Superchargers available to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024. So far they have 12 sites - 9 in NY and 2 in CA, which opened in March and 1 new one in TX which opened a few weeks ago.

I hope this is sarcasm haha. Definitely seems better to just sell the adaptor, wouldn't be cumbersome at all to just keep it in your car. They could start selling it tomorrow. I'd buy one in a heartbeat and wouldn't have to wait for them to install the magic docks in my area.

 

[Autolycus]

Why? It would be WAY more efficient to retrofit <10,000 chargers to use Magic Dock (Tesla has described the retrofit as simple and inexpensive) rather than mandating that millions of individuals each buy an adapter and carry it around with them in case they might possibly want to use a Supercharger somewhere.

But that also explains it - Tesla can now sell millions of adapters, instead of paying for <10,000 Magic Dock retrofits. Nothing wrong with them maximizing profit, just don't mistake this for Tesla being motivated by higher goals. And don't expect them to charge you the same amount as they do Tesla owners, unless perhaps you pay a monthly membership fee.

In their Magic Dock announcement, Tesla promised to make 3,500 Superchargers available to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024. So far they have 12 sites - 9 in NY and 2 in CA, which opened in March and 1 new one in TX which opened a few weeks ago.

This. It's far more efficient and better for everyone except Tesla's profits to have Magic Dock or dual cable on every charger than it is to have every car owner need an adapter.

 

[NY_Rob]

20cents more per Kwh than the EA two miles away in my area is a RIP OFF!

Hopefully you can imagine that there are people who, if the EA station 2 miles away is full, would happily pay a $0.20/kWh premium to save time.

Agree with Rob.. If I was on a road trip, I would gladly pay more at the Tesla stations that were operating at full power vs the EA stations are throttled down to 50kW (as often happens).

 

[RivianXpress]

20cents more per Kwh than the EA two miles away in my area is a RIP OFF!

I'll happily pay it after my last RT road trip from San Diego to the Bay area. All the EA chargers up I-5 were limited to 42kW heading north to the bay area. I mean I stopped at five chargers hoping to get one that worked right. I zipped thru LA only to get hung up charging all the way going North.

Heading south last week on a similar route it was even worse. Stopped at Lost Hill and two charger of the four were not working and the two that were were slow. There was a R1S queued up with 5 miles of range so I would have had to wait a long time. I took a change and headed south down I-5 to the Bakersfield Steel on South Enos. Got there with 6 miles of range - no choice to go anywhere else now.

1 out of 4 chargers not working, Chevy Bolt charging and two others. I took my place in line and called EA when I hooked up to charger #2 - they rebooted and it didn't work on the Rivian, so two chargers down. Was on the phone and trying to connect for 45 min. Waited for next spot and yippee started charging at 210 kWh at #4. Five min later it dropped to 42kWh! Charged there for 2 hours (3% to 69%) waiting in the Taco Bell etc. The return trip took 10+ hours... Hooking up to EVGO later and I had zero problems.

Yeah, I'd happily pay a bit more for reliable charging!

 

[LL75]

Hopefully you can imagine that there are people who, if the EA station 2 miles away is full, would happily pay a $0.20/kWh premium to save time.

I'll be glad to pay that extra because I know it works. It is a crap shoot at EA

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