NACS Adapter shipping delayed until September

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

On the one hand, it's free so we can't complain too much.

On the other, third party adapters are officially prohibited. Luckily they work fine, but technically we are not allowed to use them. So they've been hyping up supercharger access for 5 months now with almost nobody actually allowed to use them. Definitely not a good look, bordering on false advertising. Not a great way to build customer trust

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[02Reaper]

I both agree with you and disagree with you. The complete loon is a complete loon but also really good with growing his businesses.

I was blaming the loon for this setback to, but then I learned that they were/are manufacturing these adapters in buffalo at their Supercharger manufacture facility. So they are using a facility they is designed to make magic dock and maybe about 40k units a year, and they were planning to handle a ton of influx demand (initial launch) at a facility that will likely not see demand like that again. We know this first adapter wave will be higher than long term demand. probably at least 25x higher.

Why this was never outsourced to China (or similar) is absolutely an amazing failure of management. If I was the loon, and I became aware decisions like this and more were occurring on the daily, I would have fired everyone also.
(This is only made worse that when the head of supercharging said she would not fire anyone. Imagine saying all your employees are perfect when you completely fumble something like this adapter issue). The loon probably knew this was going to be a huge issue, long before we started experiencing the issue. This is all the fault of those people who were fired.

You have to think also, its not just the lightning orders Tesla is making these for. It's the Mach-E, its the Lightning, its the Rivian vehicles, and soon if not already, the GM vehicles. That's a lot of adapters to be made put on the same folks. Not only that, but aside from being made in the same factory as the superchargers themselves, those people who seem to have gotten a break from a slower supercharger rollout have also gotten contracts from BP and GM that I know of to fulfill building superchargers for their brand. If it was your company, would you hire more help and cut your profits to get these out or would you just keep plugging on and make profit with what you have to work with? Being that it didn't cost Ford, GM, Rivian, or any of these other companies a penny for Elon to open up the superchargers, I think they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with while making a little bit of money.

 

[Shawnson]

You have to think also, its not just the lightning orders Tesla is making these for. It's the Mach-E, its the Lightning, its the Rivian vehicles, and soon if not already, the GM vehicles. That's a lot of adapters to be made put on the same folks. Not only that, but aside from being made in the same factory as the superchargers themselves, those people who seem to have gotten a break from a slower supercharger rollout have also gotten contracts from BP and GM that I know of to fulfill building superchargers for their brand. If it was your company, would you hire more help and cut your profits to get these out or would you just keep plugging on and make profit with what you have to work with? Being that it didn't cost Ford, GM, Rivian, or any of these other companies a penny for Elon to open up the superchargers, I think they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with while making a little bit of money.

Based on what I have seen, Tesla did not let go of any production staff. Only decision makers at different levels. So the staff who are apparently assembling these adapters are unaffected. We also don’t know if it’s purely a man power issue, or a parts issue with the adapter. Final assembly happens at this plant, but they do not manufacture the individual parts. So that could be an issue as well. Either way, like I said, for high initial product demand that is bound to drop off massively (CCS is going away, so how long can you make this adapter for even) they should have outsourced this to someone who’s built to do this work instead of putting it on the supercharger team.

 

[Shawnson]

You have to think also, its not just the lightning orders Tesla is making these for. It's the Mach-E, its the Lightning, its the Rivian vehicles, and soon if not already, the GM vehicles. That's a lot of adapters to be made put on the same folks. Not only that, but aside from being made in the same factory as the superchargers themselves, those people who seem to have gotten a break from a slower supercharger rollout have also gotten contracts from BP and GM that I know of to fulfill building superchargers for their brand. If it was your company, would you hire more help and cut your profits to get these out or would you just keep plugging on and make profit with what you have to work with? Being that it didn't cost Ford, GM, Rivian, or any of these other companies a penny for Elon to open up the superchargers, I think they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with while making a little bit of money.

as a side note, if you watch what happens every quarter earnings reports are released, shareholders (even the ones on this forum) don’t give two craps about if ford customers are getting their adapters, they care about profits. As both, I want my adapter, but I would also be pissy with Elon if he was tanking my stock price just to make Jim Farley look good.

 

[htobin]

I enjoy all the comments, but, after all, we can get an adapter so what’s all the fuss?

 

[potato]

I enjoy all the comments, but, after all, we can get an adapter so what’s all the fuss?

We are not officially allowed to use the adapters we can get.

Luckily nobody is enforcing this. But legally if anything were to happen (damage to vehicle or charger) it'd be your fault for using an unapproved adapter.

 

[The Weatherman]

And it’s illegal to park in a handicap space, but people do it every day.

Personally, I wished they enforced that more strictly.

 

[Newton]

Parking in a handicapped space doesn’t cause fires. I wish that Tesla would just certify the other adapters, I don’t really care about free that much. I have at least $300 into L2 adapters so I can use whatever 220V outlets that we find when traveling. Bless those Air BnB rentals with dryers in the garage!

 

[Madtroniks]

Thanks all for posting updates.

 

[PrimeRisk]

@petewatts

the majority of buyers bought never thinking Tesla network would be an option. Probably a small % of reasoning to say I’ll buy a lightning because I can charge on Tesla network.

it’s free from a company that’s losing hundreds of millions on ev’s.

keep the laughs coming.

I literally bought my Lightning yesterday and access to the Tesla charging network was one of the must-have items for me to purchase. I have been interested in the Lightning since they announced it and charging access made it a no-go. I bought my first EV, a Nissan Leaf SV, in 2015 and charging high-speed charging away from home was always a nightmare.

The Leaf only had a range of 88 miles, so I was never under the illusion I'd be taking it on cross-country trips and it was only my commuter car. That car was still the best value I've ever had:

I bought it through a special program at my company for $11k net after state and federal rebates and sold it for $6800 in 2021 to buy a Tesla MYP. $4200 cost for 5 1/2 years and 75k miles. Only maintenance was a set of tires, a 12v battery, a few wiper blades, and windshield wiper fluid.

I had a 60 mile roundtrip daily commute, so if I needed to go somewhere after work, say meet friends for dinner on the other side of town, I needed to hit a high-speed charger for a top-off. It was a never ending odyssey trying to find a charger that wasn't down for one reason or another.

I've never had to think twice with the Tesla. I've never arrived at a station where I couldn't charge nor have I ever once had to wait to charge. The Tesla also tells me how many stalls are expected to be available when I arrive and will tell me how many other Teslas are in route.

Access to Tesla's charging network is a big deal. I literally would not have purchased the Lightning without it.

 

[PrimeRisk]

"Blame" is a perfectly good word in this case. There is a delay. Shipping estimates have been pushed back by months. It is fair to say we "blame" whatever entity is causing the delay. Even if we are overall still feeling positive about the whole situation.

I would cut Ford more slack if we were officially allowed to use third party adapters. But we are not. They promised access to Superchargers but have not delivered.

The dealers aren't helping the situation. My dealer was really talking up the access to the Tesla chargers and said the free adapter would be shipped "within a week or two".

Not so much...

 

[PrimeRisk]

Yikes, I'm 131k behind you assuming they are serialized.

 

[cyclops]

Just a reminder that I've been loaning out my adapter free of charge (Just the cost to ship it onto the next guy). The adapter is currently in Oregon on a long road trip until mid August, but if you've got an upcoming road trip and need the adapter, send me a message.


Original thread about the adapter

 

[Joe.....Montana]

Parking in a handicapped space doesn’t cause fires. I wish that Tesla would just certify the other adapters, I don’t really care about free that much. I have at least $300 into L2 adapters so I can use whatever 220V outlets that we find when traveling. Bless those Air BnB rentals with dryers in the garage!

This...I purchased an A2Z in May because my free adapter is/was set to arrive in September...after using the A2Z and Superchargers I would gladly not receive the "free" adapter in exchange for official approval of the A2Z.

 

[RickLightning]

This...I purchased an A2Z in May because my free adapter is/was set to arrive in September...after using the A2Z and Superchargers I would gladly not receive the "free" adapter in exchange for official approval of the A2Z.

Unfortunately, Tesla is unlikely to approve anyone's adapter, ever. Tesla Tap for destination chargers has been out for years.

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