I just returned from a long road trip and had stopped at a rest stop on the turnpike. I didn't notice any charging stations that would take our car. A fellow charging his car noticed that we looked confused and asked us what kind of car we had and he told us that we need an extension or I guess it would be called a Fast Charge Adapter so we could use the charging station. Has anybody heard of this? When we bought our car in 2017 there was no such thing. Any help would be appreciated.
You probably were at a Tesla charger. Adapters exist to let Tesla’s use nonTesla chargers but not the reverse. Makes sense to me. Tesla sank a boatload of money in their charger network why turn it over to the competition?
You can use any J1772 evse. The Prime will not charge faster than 16 Amps no matter how powerful the EVSE is. (Fortunately the Prime gets about 55 MPG as a gas powered car so it is not a terrible long distance vehicle) So it will take about 2 hours to charge your Prime, at best. PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You I suggest happy hour at the Alluvian, then dinner at Giardina's. (But you may prefer a Spa day to recharge both you and the car) The Alluvian You can build or buy a 14-50 to 5-15 plug adapter, that lets you charge in RV Parks; that may offer more charging in your area. I suspect they will be more boring locales than the J1772 EVSEs and about 1/2 hour slower. 220v NEMA 14-50P Plug to 3PIN 220v NEMA 5-15R RECEPTACLE POWER CORD ADAPTER | eBay
That should be qualified with an "at public chargers", since they tend to deliver a sustained 3.2 kW. At home, my charger delivers a sustained 3.5 kW, which shortens time to 1 hour 50 minutes.
Sorry no pics....It wasn't a Tesla station but it was a CHAdeMO and a fellow was charging his electric car there and said for me to use it I would need an extension, not necessarily a Fast Charge Adapter. The extension is supposed to let you use the charging station but it would still take a couple of hours to charge...not "fast charge". Never heard of it. If all turnpikes have only these and Tesla's, then we can't charge our cars. My husband and I did notice that the handicapped aisle did have the charger we need....but we're, thankfully, not handicapped.
No, you can't use a CHAdeMO charger. Those are quick charge DC voltage chargers and have a similar but different connector. Only cars that can accept a DC charge can use those; typically BEV's. IIRC the only PHEV that can accept chademo is the Outlander. Next time you're traveling try using a charger location app to see if there are appropriate j1772 chargers on your route.
another prime owner here posted a thread showing him charging from a free 120v at tesla supercharger. but that would be way slow, unless you're sleeping there
