Tesla Supercharger vs Electrify America With CCS1 Adapter: Which Charges Faster?

I drove my 2021 Tesla Model 3 down to zero and plugged it into a 350 kW Electrify America DC fast charger using the new Tesla CCS1 adapter and recorded the entire 0-100% charging session. After analyzing the full charging curve, I compare it to the 0-100% charging session I did with the same car on a Tesla V3 Supercharger.
The results may surprise you...

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:12 Tesla Model 3 Charging on a 350 kW Electrify America charging station
4:05 Charge summary
7:26 The charging power graph
8:22 The time to charge graph
11:23 The V3 Supercharger vs the Electrify America charging station recording
13:39 Charging power graph w/ V2 & V3 Supercharger compared to Electrify America w/CCS1
15:24 The time to charge graph w/ V2 & V3 Supercharger compared to Electrify America w/CCS1
16:10 The wrapup

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[BecauseTesla]

I'm so glad that you mentioned at the end about not all Teslas are equipt to support CCS1 adapters. A lot of people have been buying these adapters and finding out it doesn't work. There are DIY instructions online on how to swap out the charge port hardware to make it work, but it's risky. I believe the Tesla service center will also swap it for you but it's pretty expensive. Thanks again for the testing results!

[yolanda]

I just bought the CCS adapter and am excited to try it. My parents live in Canada in a border town. There is a supercharger on the US side, but the nearest SC on the Canadian side is an hour away. So when I visit them for a week I need charging options. An electrify Canada station was recently installed there, so this adapter is going to save me.

[KyleBrightman]

Tom, I love that you answer the important questions with sufficient detail to understand the process and the pros and cons. Excellent work.

[Eduard.Popa.]

Excellent video ! And excellent advice to install chargers only with professionals.

[Lynyrd_Evnyrd]

I’ve been extremely happy with my CCS1 adapter. I was able to peak at 188kW on an EA station in Bristow, OK and it charged up my Model 3 super quick.

If your car can support it, I highly highly recommend it.

[ezpoppy]

Hey, Tom. I just drove my 2021 Model 3 SR+ from Sacramento CA to Louisville, KY. I drove thru CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, MS, and KY. Having the base model means I visited 1 or 2 more SuperChargers each day. Average of 500 miles per day. Average stop of 25-30 min.

At no stop, in all those states, did I wait. Big city (LA area), small town, wide spot in the road. I drove up, backed in, plugged in and started charging. Two stops filled up while I was there, but the turnover seemed good. At one stop, there was one stall not working. Most of the time, if I wasn’t the only Tesla there, there were one or two others. Weekday, weekend, day, night… It made no difference.

The week Before, my wife drove her 2021 VW ID.4 PRO from Sacramento to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We are talking some remote roads through remote areas (Google map it). Yet, we had no problems. All but one charger was EA, and the other (a ChargePoint in Kanab UT) worked perfectly.

In a few days, I am driving back to CA via a different route. I expect I’ll have similar results. Even in THE base model Tesla, a cross country trip is not only feasible… it’s quite a joy!

Keep up the great work, Tom.

[dbwelder]

Tom, you are always thorough and honest with your reviews, explaining the results and reasons for any variance that was unexpected. Couldn't ask for a fairer reviewer!!!

[camrodger]

As always, a no nonsense, no ego, very informative video. Thanks Tom.

[heathwirt]

Great information and testing Tom, this is good news for Tesla owners who are capable of using CCS adapter. Having more available charging stations is a wonderful thing.

[carlmasse]

Very interesting - did not expect that result! thank you for sharing.

[webx]

This is awesome! Got a subscriber out of me.
I'm glad Electrify America is doing so well. Though I do kinda wish Tesla's connector had become the standard, because I think the connector itself is superior.

I do have a feeling those discrepancies are due to cooling the cable, and it looks like EA is doing a great job of it if that's the case.

[ClaytonAndersen]

Thank you for being so consistent and thorough. As far as I am concerned you are the authority on EV charging and its not even close. I bought my Wallbox charger a year ago on your recommendation and love it. This video as always was very informative and useful. I will likely be picking up one of these adapters

[arnecarlsson]

We do not have an EV yet, but I really appreciate your charging research. It will be very helpful for us when we get our first EV. Thanks Tom, Great Job again!

[irishsausage]

This is very shocking in a good way! I've only even seen a handful of Electrify American chargers so far and many times they are new and not actually operational yet. Definitely want to get one of these adapters though just to have that extra option during our road trips.

[ericdirnbeck]

I took delivery of my new Model Y on 10/31/21 and my car is not CCS compatible. I understand that this had to do with the chip shortage and my car would need a minor hardware upgrade in order to use the CCS adapter. So you can’t just go by build date, you have to check in the car’s software as Tom showed. Great video!

[dougholmes]

I find your numbers fascinating Tom. Thank you so much for your efforts!

[bigdougscommentary]

I
On a recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I used the charge adapter included with my 2021 Model Y and plugged into the 115V every time I was back at my Airbnb. This was sufficient for the entire week. No special charging plug or dryer access. Many people don’t realize that they don’t drive enough miles per day to require DC Fast charging.

[DonLandis]

Excellent testing as usual, Tom. FYI- I have a 2020 Model S LR+ and recently bought the CCS1 adapter as my Model S, manufactured in February 2020 is compatible. With free SC, I only have the adapter as a backup for traveling where there are no Superchargers in range which is pretty rare these days. I did test it out and found the charging curve to be about the same as the V3. However, I don't run down to zero and charge to 100%. Usually 15% to 60% for long trips. I do understand your testing which is not how one would normally drive on a road trip. My 2+ year old Model S has a calculated range now of 387miles. When new it was 402 miles. I've been considering doing your cell balancing test at some point to see if that improves my calculated range. Some time if you can it would be great for a test on a Model S LR+.

[conrado]

This is a game changer! Makes out frequent road trips to LA even easier with the Model 3. Big amount of places to charge.

[ericobut]

Hi Tom, I like these types of vids, thank you!

What would be great:
- give us a TLDR. My takeaway was Electrify was a smidge better
What I didn't learn:
- cost differences?
- nav integration for TSLA or Ford?