Nov 24 BMW NA letter about 2025 Tesla supercharger access for i3

[Mondomensch]

 

[alohart]

I've not been paying much attention to various EV manufacturers' plans to migrate their charging protocol and ports to NACS because I'll almost certainly never charge our i3 with a NACS plug. I was surprised when I read in this letter that I also received today that there are or maybe will be AC-only and DC-only adapters. I had assumed that a NACS to CCS1 adapter could be used for AC Levels 1 and 2 charging as well as DC fast charging like a CCS1 charge port can. For those with CCS1 charge ports, it would be nice to have to buy only 1 adapter that could be used for both AC and DC charging. Maybe the fact that NACS shares the same pins for AC and DC power unlike CCS1 makes it difficult to for a single adapter to support both AC and DC charging. I can see confusion on the horizon…

 

[eNate]

A combined adapter would almost certainly be cost prohibitive – even vs. the cost of purchasing separate AC and DC adapters. A combined adapter's bulk would likely be off-putting, as it would need to contain switching gear, more electronics, and perhaps even a small independent power source.

I figure a combined unit would be very similar in size, weight, and cost to the CCS to CHAdeMO adapter that began appearing about a year ago for $1,000.

 

[Lura Beaumont]

I live in a rural desert and NEED the Tesla NACS Adapter!! ..but which to choose and as above mentioned AC/DC?

I only need DC adapter, and which to choose?

Additional questions around Best Apps to use in SoCal to FIND & Charge compatibly???

Eg: general apps including Plug Share are not showing up as compatible.

Please advise

 

[Mondomensch]

I live in a rural desert and NEED the Tesla NACS Adapter!! ..but which to choose and as above mentioned AC/DC?

I only need DC adapter, and which to choose?

Additional questions around Best Apps to use in SoCal to FIND & Charge compatibly???

Eg: general apps including Plug Share are not showing up as compatible.

Please advise

Apparently there is currently only one way to use Tesla DC chargers on our i3s - find a Tesla charger that includes a Tesla "Magic Dock". That magic dock includes a charging plug that will fit our cars and can properly handshake to get charging started and stopped on an i3.

The letter from BMW indicates that it is working with Tesla to also set up access for BMW cars at standard Tesla DC chargers using an adapter. It is yet unclear whether our i3s will be supported and if so, how soon. I personally expect it will take a year or more.

In order to make this work, BMW will have to develop a software update for the i3 to allow it to communicate with standard Tesla DC chargers. They will also have to develop/certify an adapter to physically and electrically adapt the Tesla Nacs plug to the i3 CCS port.

Adapters that physically convert Nacs plugs to CCS ports are available for sale, but they are useless on an i3 without an as-yet-non-existent software upgrade for the i3 to work with them.

Slower AC charging using a Nacs plug should work even today using a different Nacs-to-J1772 adapter, as discussed up thread.