Watch Why A CCS Adapter Might Be Important For Tesla In The US

The upcoming charging adapter - CCS Combo 1 (CCS1) to Tesla's proprietary standard in the US - might be one of the most valuable additions to Tesla cars.

Ryan Huber, who already uses an adapter (although, not directly from Tesla), recently shared an excellent example of how the CCS1 adapter can improve the user experience in terms of fast charging.

In the area of Santa Monica, California, there are several Tesla Supercharging stations, but some of them are 72 kW or 150 kW, and only some are V3 versions with 250 kW output.

Considering also the traffic, it's often better to recharge at a CCS1 fast-charging station. It can be useful also on long-distance trips or in an emergency.

We don't know how fast the Tesla cars will charge (peak) using the official CCS1 adapter in the US yet, but the first reports indicate north of 100 kW (units sold in South Korea).

A kind of prototype version, used by Ryan Huber, reportedly can handle 200 kW or so (see charging curve analysis here), but it might not be the level supported by Tesla's official product.

In the video description, Ryan Huber mentioned that his adapter comes from Evhub:

"I’m using the adapter from https://evhub.shop/charging-274/tesla... because…

In areas with a lot of EVs (Hello, Santa Monica!), having a ccs adapter is amazing. Too bad Tesla still won’t sell you one. Evhub will, and after helping them refine the CCS 1 version, it works great!"

According to the website, the $525 adapter (there are CCS1 and CCS2 versions) can handle 400 A and up to 160 kW peak (significantly below the level of the prototype's 200 kW).

The situation in Europe is much better, where all new Tesla cars are natively compatible with the CCS2 connector (Model 3/Model Y since launch and on the refreshed Model S/Model X, which will enter the market soon).

A few years ago, the company also introduced a CCS2 adapter for the older Model S/Model X.

See also

Tesla Announces Free Off‑Peak Supercharging In Europe (Holidays)