Got my CCS1 -> CHAdeMO adapter in the mail. A few pictures.

[duncan-s]

I purchased via https://accraine.co.uk in England. The unit shipped from Hong Kong a little under two weeks later, in line with the expected backorder window.



The adapter is branded ELECTWAY and lives in a fairly sturdy-looking hard case.



Also supplied are an instruction leaflet, a communication cable for updates, and a ciggy lighter power cable that I guess won't be needed in normal circumstances.



Once connected, it's ready to go. There are no additional controls. This being a Chargepoint station, I started the session by tapping my phone on the charger tower.



The spice flowed. When it got up past 70kW I felt the case of the adapter, which was nice and cool. I stopped the session after just a few minutes because I want room to visit other nearby CCS chargers in the next couple of days. I'm mostly interested in testing Electrify America and Shell facilities. But it's looking rainy so this will probably be an evening to stay home.




------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: so far, so good!

 

[marshallinwash]

The Nomadic Hippie got his the other day too. It seems to work for him.

See his latest video on YouTube.

 

[Malcky]

Good grief.....what an insane price for an adapter.....thankfully it is something I will never need as my leaf is a commuting tool only (60 miles a day, 6 days a week) and I charge at home.

 

[marshallinwash]

Good grief.....what an insane price for an adapter.....thankfully it is something I will never need as my leaf is a commuting tool only (60 miles a day, 6 days a week) and I charge at home.

I think the price reflects the cost of making an adapter with a bunch of electronics inside and the anticipation that the device will sell in low volumes.

Anyhow, if you don't need it, then you don't need to spend the money.

Personally, I don't see me buying one since the Nissan didn't liquid cool the battery, making the car a commuter vehicle and not a road tripper.

 

[duncan-s]

The Nomadic Hippie got his the other day too. It seems to work for him.

See his latest video on YouTube.

Indeed, the Hippie's adventures were my introduction to this adapter. I was pleased when they made a gift of that test unit to him, and said so in an email to Patrick after I got my shipping notification. Without that, somebody might have had to start a gofundme or something.

Good grief.....what an insane price for an adapter....

Disagree. Some adapter types are just a matter of wires being rerouted in a plastic molding, but two charging protocols had to be be reverse engineered to make this one work. Since most of the investment for that is on the software development end (and even involved flying an engineer across the world, as documented in the videos mentioned above), I won't be surprised if the prices decrease some after the initial sales. But if that's going to happen, somebody has be in the first wave of buyers. I really don't splurge on a lot of things, and am happy to do my bit here to help get the ball rolling.

 

[Chad E. Mo]

I'm getting an itchy trigger finger myself. I expect there will be enough demand in the US that prices will stay up for some time, so I don't see waiting being much use.

I think a fair portion of DCFC vandalism is malicious rather than simple copper theft, and knocking out some of the few chademo chargers has an outsized impact on us Leaf owners. Having the adapter could simply be anxiety-balm, but I think access to a magnitude more chargers is probably worth the expense.

As for early-adoption of tech... I spent 20 bux for single LED flood bulbs back in the day.

 

[Jerther]

Also, that price seems way less than the previous solution which involves an under the hood conversion with a BMW module.

I'll most probably get one of those when prices get lower. Not that I really need one with the 62kWh battery, but having suffered many a frustration with the 40 kWh battery combined with the availability (or lack thereof) of the Chademo connector in many charging stations here (nearly got stranded, twice), it's fair to believe I'll eventually be glad I have the adapter.

Thanks for the pictures and the followups

 

[Chad E. Mo]

Hitting the sweet spot in product lifecycle is a bit of a game... Introductory pricing can be high to test what the market will bear. Enough early-adopters can even inflate pricing. Competing manufacturers may drive pricing down, but THEN comes the race to the bottom in production cost control using cheaper, less reliable components or design shortcuts.

Fair points are made about the Leaf's battery lack of cooling: no long trips = no/little need for DCFC adapters, or taxi/uber use. BUT, the adapters may open more doors to prospective owners who cannot charge at home (apartment dwellers, etc.). DCFC is often not much cheaper than gas, but the Leaf is cheap/reliable A2B, lighter on the planet and no CAT to steal when street parking.

 

[GentleGiant]

The prices have already dropped, people are selling them for around £900, whereas originally the offer was £1500, and you had to buy two (I have been watching like a hawk since they were announced).

I will probably take a punt on the CCS2 version if it gets down anywhere near £500; all the longer trips I have to take have CHAD chargers I can reach, but if (like at Easter), there are a couple of road closures, it can be a PITA to find a safe CHAD location to plan as a stop.

Single charger locations arent safe - you might find it broken, or occupied by someone charging to 100%; as has happened to me a few times.

 

[MikeinPA]

Thanks Duncan for documenting this!

Just noodling on the likely need for adapters. Over 1 million Chademo EVs produced globally. Say 2% of those owners want the CCS adapter. That's 20,000 adapters, which is enough for the makers to get reliability issues worked out. Interesting, especially with 2 year old Leaf prices dropping with no end in site. Yep, I am a bottom feeder by preference.

 

[GentleGiant]

Thanks Duncan for documenting this!

Just noodling on the likely need for adapters. Over 1 million Chademo EVs produced globally. Say 2% of those owners want the CCS adapter. That's 20,000 adapters, which is enough for the makers to get reliability issues worked out. Interesting, especially with 2 year old Leaf prices dropping with no end in site. Yep, I am a bottom feeder by preference.

Leaf owners - with access to mainland Europe at least - can have a CCS2 charger added next to their existing CHADEMO charger.

Sadly for me, they arent planning on doing this for non Leaf/NV200s for the foreseeable future.

 

[MikeinPA]

Leaf owners - with access to mainland Europe at least - can have a CCS2 charger added next to their existing CHADEMO charger.

Sadly for me, they arent planning on doing this for non Leaf/NV200s for the foreseeable future.

This is the MUXSAN upgrade?

 

[GentleGiant]

This is the MUXSAN upgrade?

Yes, I emailed and asked if they were going to offer this for non-Nissans.

From a few other outfits, it may be possible to get a kit of parts from them, shipped to your location, for a local garage to install; there is a garage not too far from me who have fitted a few MUXSAN range extender kits.

They were the ONLY garage who said they could fix my OBC if Kia refused warranty repairs on it (got fried 10 weeks before the warranty expired)

 

[duncan-s]

Tried a CCS-only Electrify America site this afternoon, no problems.

 

[Chad E. Mo]

Ok. I'm in.

 

[cwerdna]

Tried a CCS-only Electrify America site this afternoon, no problems.

View attachment 4445

That's one of their next gen dispensers which could be from SK Signet or BTC Power. Not sure if the charger cabinets (behind a fence) can come from the other maker or must be matched w/the dispenser.

EA had 4 vendors and prior to next gen, had two different versions of Signet. See https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/usa-ccs1-to-chademo-test….35149/page-2#post-644924.

 

[Chad E. Mo]

@duncan-s , did you get an order confirmation right away? I'm not seeing one yet, but it's less than 12 hrs since I placed the order.

 

[duncan-s]

@duncan-s , did you get an order confirmation right away?

There was a confirmation, but I don't remember at the moment whether it was immediate. Might have been next day.

 

[duncan-s]

We are 3 for 3 so far, after successfully charging from the CCS side of one of those Shell Recharge/Greenlots units that looks like a slouching robot with hands in its pockets. (Not that it matters maybe, since afaik those chargers always include a CHAdeMO plug.)

I'm reflecting on the gray area between what we call normal commuting and long road trips. Not sure if it's common for a lot of us, but the wife and I do a fair number of day trips of 200-ish miles, and some weekend getaways of 400-500 miles. Such intermediate distances are outside what we can do with only home charging. They need typically one DC charge along the way (in the case of the weekend getaways, one in each direction plus maybe an overnight level 2 hookup at a well-chosen hotel or campground).

But those scenarios aren't prone to pushing the battery temperature very much, which I think means that even if we still revert to a different vehicle for our longest vacations, carrying a reliable CCS adapter should let us at least double the radius of what we've considered a practical Leaf trip up until now.

 

[cwerdna]

We are 3 for 3 so far, after successfully charging from the CCS side of one of those Shell Recharge/Greenlots units that looks like a slouching robot with hands in its pockets. (Not that it matters maybe, since afaik those chargers always include a CHAdeMO plug.).

The pic is of a unit from Tritium like https://tritiumcharging.com/product/rt-50/ and https://smartchargeamerica.com/electric-car-chargers/commercial/tritium-veefil-rt50/.

Would be interesting to DC FC on at least non-EVgo ABB, Signet "v1" and "v2", EA BTC Power and some non-EA BTC Power (there are numerous variants), non-EA Signet, to name a few.