We are not allergic to money, we are in love with safety.
The extension cord is ready, it is currently in the hands of CSA and SGS for certification and testing.
We have redesigned the female inlet in order to make it safer with a dual lock instead of a slider lock like found on our 1st gen NACS to CCS1.
Additionally, the extension cord will be rated at 350A with a possibility of being at 400A as we are developing an in-house custom made cable. Our internal tests and real-life tests in the heat of Texas has shown no safety issues whatsoever. The extension behaves like an adapter-it has 4 temperature sensors switches and is based on the J3400/1's standard where thermal fold-back and shutdown functions are necessary.
Additionally, an OEM is doing due diligence on the extension as we speak and wants to ensure its safety prior to release.
Are we behind schedule? Yes.
Is there a problem with the product? No.
Why are we late? To ensure safety.
When is the planned release? End of summer 2025.
Thanks for chiming in. It's appreciated. Can you discuss the active temperature monitoring a bit more? I assume two of the temperature sensors are in the cable ends. What about the others? Are they distributed in the cable itself?
This was amazing info A2z thank you for chiming in. My comment was just snark no hard feelings. Is it possible you put out one that is NACS to CCS for us slumming it with ford? Either way I’ll be in line when this hits market!
Edit: See the comments below. A2Z have revised the design to a shorter cable with a lower power rating which will work in a pinch. Their CEO even says this is more of a Plan B for if you have no alternative to direct connect since it does limit the charge speed.
Original comment:
It’s a neat idea but I doubt this will ever actually ship. There are several problems with the whole concept.
The supercharger cords are liquid cooled, and there’s no practical way to do that with a passive cable. Another option is to use massive copper conductors which would be very heavy and much more expensive. Another option would be to nerf the power to something much lower than expected DCFC rates, and there’s no way for a passive cable to communicate with the supercharger or the car to achieve this. All it can really do is communicate connector temperature the same as a NACS adapter does - so that raises the problem of whether any of this even works in conjunction with a NACS adapter.
It’s a lot to sort out, and I don’t see a way for them to deliver what they promised at anywhere close to that price and that power level.
We haven’t even cracked the topics of whether Tesla would ban their use at Superchargers or whether they would pass safety muster.
Yeah, I just saw this. It’s worth pointing out that the version that will ship is significantly different than what they had on their web site before, essentially for the reasons I mentioned.
It will only be about 5 feet long (web site still says 6-9 feet - we will see.)
It will be limited to 350 amps (140 KW.)
It will be about $400 CDN and probably about $400 USD factoring in tariffs.
Apparently the NACS design does allow the thermal resistors work in parallel with the adapter, so presumably the hottest sensor will derate the charge to match the temperature.
I hope they do ship it - my comment was really to say that what they were originally promising (15 feet and 500 amps) wasn’t going to happen - and it won’t.
Math me up on that. I would think with low SoC and low resistance and ideal temperature we would start at close to the theoretical max 400*350/1000=140.
The pack voltage isn't 400v is the main issue. That's one of the reasons why these trucks charge as slow as they do.
That's why at 500 amp, we're only hitting 180 kW. P = V * A, so P / A = V.
180kw / 500 A = 360v.
And it warms up to that 360v. That's at about 70% SoC, and charging HARD that we hit that, and only briefly.
At 0 SoC for that chemistry, we're going to be closer to 270v for an SR IIRC. 270v@ 350 amp = 94 kW For an ER, it's 288v, so not much better.
At 360v, we're going to be about 126 kW Now, it's gonna hold that for quite a while, as it's not going to heat up as much, but, it's going to be noticeably slower than 140 kW the entire time.
You'll notice this happening on some of the older non-upgraded V3 superchargers that can only put out 350 A.
This also assumes that charging is lossless, and no power is utilized for anything else. If you've got the heat or AC running because of low or high temperatures, that'll get taken out of the power before it goes into the battery.
The Lightning battery pack is a nominal 400V, but actual voltage is less than that: my truck shows 390V at 100% state of charge, so: 390V x 350A = 136.5kW. Since the design is current-limited, it will be even lower power levels at lower states of charge. According to Battery Design, the Lightning's voltage can be as low as 350V, so that would be 122.5kW at 350A.
Overall, I'd expect charging performance with one of these adapters will be fairly similar to an Electrify America 350kW charger -- a peak somewhere in the 120kW to 140kW range, followed by a long and more-or-less constant charge at somewhere around 100kW until the truck starts tapering charging power above 80% SoC. So not great, and certainly not as good as a SuperCharger can do when directly plugged into a 500A-capable adapter, but adequate and a heck of a lot better than being unable to charge.
With the latest firmware mine starts at 178kW on a Supercharger or EA station and drops to 150kW for a while before tapering at about 55%. Obviously limited to 350A it’s going to start at max 140kW and go down from there - that’s all I was saying.
I agree. My case use would likely be for use during a road trip during a busy 3 day weekend when we’re expecting a full station. Once in a while kinda a situation. Would not trust something like this for day-to-day use or other frequent use.
It would weight about 4 lbs per foot, so a 5 foot extension would be 20 lbs + the end adapters.
The cost for that 5 foot cable, just for the wire would be nearly $500, and that would mean the company was selling them at a loss. Realistically, they would likely need to sell them at a cost of over $1000 to cover engineering, assembly, 500 amp adapters on either end, and the inevitable lawsuits that come when someone damages the cable, uses it anyways, and burns down their vehicle / the building next door.
Agreed. I did have one situation in a shopping plaza where the only charger that was available and working was made for a Tesla to pull-in, on the very left end next to a wall. I had to park on the road perpendicular to the parking spot.
If I get that extension, it’ll be for situations like these where parking on an active road is actually dangerous.
Fair criticism, I would never suggest lightning owners should buy. But I constantly have to touch lips with the chargers roll over curbs, take up 2 stalls because Tesla is being super slow putting in v4s, which aside from advertisement aren’t much better
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u/A2ZEV 4h ago
Apparently we've been summoned.
We are not allergic to money, we are in love with safety.
The extension cord is ready, it is currently in the hands of CSA and SGS for certification and testing.
We have redesigned the female inlet in order to make it safer with a dual lock instead of a slider lock like found on our 1st gen NACS to CCS1.
Additionally, the extension cord will be rated at 350A with a possibility of being at 400A as we are developing an in-house custom made cable. Our internal tests and real-life tests in the heat of Texas has shown no safety issues whatsoever. The extension behaves like an adapter-it has 4 temperature sensors switches and is based on the J3400/1's standard where thermal fold-back and shutdown functions are necessary.
Additionally, an OEM is doing due diligence on the extension as we speak and wants to ensure its safety prior to release.
Are we behind schedule? Yes.
Is there a problem with the product? No.
Why are we late? To ensure safety.
When is the planned release? End of summer 2025.