Charging My 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 at a Tesla Supercharger with the CCS Magic Dock! 

There have been many new announcements regarding NACS since this video was recorded and went live. It will be interesting to adapt to NACS in the future.

Europe has the advantage of 240v by default so CCS2 is better than CCS1 and far more natural. It also had the advantage of requiring Tesla to use CCS2. But because Tesla is the company that took EVs mainstream, meaning none of this Nissan Leaf or EV1 kinds of EVs, but actual EVs everyone wanted, and they happen to be American, they had to design their own port, and build their own infrastructure. Which eventually led them to make it the best one, with the simplest and most reliable connector. But because they had to begin with North America, it gave Europe the time to begin with CCS2 before Tesla could roll out much over there. In America, however, because the Tesla port is proprietary, CCS1 had to be created to allow others to have a standard. But because of the 120v North American standard (thanks Edison for electrocutions that led America to go with a lower voltage) it's a very poorly built standard compared to CCS2. Once everyone is allowed to use most of the Supercharger network, all manufacturers will go with NACS and will likely be better even than CCS2. Even EA will have to switch one of their two cables to NACS. And if they don't fix their reliabilities issues immediately, they are going to be history. They will likely be taken over by someone who can actually run a charging network. There's a lot of money to be made with it.

One connector certinaly simplifies things. Hoping NACS makes things easier, but I wish we had everything standardized and regulated here already.

@Paul-cj1wb Fast forward nearly a year and in North America, as of 2024.03.20, V3 Superchargers are now open to Ford, Rivian, and Polestar with an approved Tesla-made adapter. Furthermore, Rivian unveiled their R2 and R3 vehicles due out in a few years and they had NACS as their native port (unfortunately on the wrong side of the vehicle, which I think they'll change in the production models). One port for all is the way to go. I would have been almost as happy (as a Tesla owner) with CCS1 becoming the standard, as long as all cars including Tesla switched; however, I am {Shocked} and super-excited that NACS is now the standard port going forward here in North America and also that Tesla Superchargers V3+ are opening up to non-Tesla EVs. It's the right thing to do.

​@@Paul-cj1wbThe standard 240 voltage is not the reason. They have a CCS2 standard plug as it could use three phase instead of the single phase for AC charging uses. You will get 22 kW AC charging if your car accepts 3 phase from a level 2 charger. The early Renault Zoe had 22 kW AC, no DC. It will only do a third of that connected to a single phase evse. . The AC pins differ between 1 and 2. Plus you have to carry your own cable with you. 😂😂

We had input our information a week prior in anticipation of stopping at these chargers. We are unsure why it did not save into the app. And for the VW software... It sucks. Nothing we can do about that except complain to VW. We have an appointment for our 30,000 mile check-in and VW corporate customer care is aware of our situation. Hopefully it can be resolved soon.

Go Panthers!

Great suggestion, I will add that to my list! Now that we're back from international work trips and soon to be closing on our first house, I'm looking forward to having the time and space to routinely make videos :)

The magic dock is a great idea! It will be interesting to see if they continue to roll this out after all the NACS announcements in the last two weeks.

I think the adapter they are making for Ford and GM will be for sale on their website for everyone. The only question is how many stations will they make available to non Ford/gm…. But I think everyone will make the switch by the time the adapter is available.

We agree! Although, since recording and posting this video there has been a lot of news regarding NACS. Time will tell exactly which direction Tesla and other charging networks take.

We think that Kaitlin will get an adapter for her Chevy Bolt, but there has been no information recently about this!

The price savings with an electric vehicle are great. We wish a lot more consumers understood how charging worked so they could realize this too!

Yes, in Europe all vehicles use CCS Type 2. In the United States, Tesla was the only one to use NACS and everyone else used CCS Type 1. It seems like the industry is shifting completely to NACS to standardize.

V4 Chargers have 10ft cables and will be rolled out over the next year as they prepare for the others.

Plug & Charge is the answer to make everyone's life easier. This was supported on CCS, but not all charging networks nor car manufacturers implemented it. I do agree about the need for longer charging cables. Not every car has their charging port in the same location as Tesla, which doesn't work with the shorter cables.

We were excited to check it out!

Thank you for letting us know this!

Not many cars will take over 150 kw. VW is about 158.

We will have to see how the government adjusts regulations because I think currently it requires CCS. I'm sure that will shift, following the industry, to NACS.

Great point! EA across the street was $0.48/kWh at the time of recording. We did complete our charge at EA and that video is included in our road trip video which will be posted soon. When we plugged into the EA charger right across the street it worked flawlessly the first time and we got slightly better speeds.

EA from 2% to 80% is less than $12

Thank you for pointing this out! Typically, our videos show the cost for charging at EA stations, but since we did not include our EA session during this charge we failed to mention it. We went over to the EA across the street and it was $0.48/kWh. We had no problems initiating a charging session and charged at slightly higher speeds. The full video will be included in our road trip which is being edited right now!

Eray has input his information prior to charging at this site so we are unsure if the app glitched and removed the information or if it timed out when he had downloaded the app a week prior to the road trip. We actually did go across the street to the EA where the price was $0.48/KWh and we received slightly better speeds. That video is shown more in our road trip video which is coming out soon!

@@midwest_ev there is no doubt EA has faster speeds. It is just their reliability of working when you pull up to a station that is the issue. Sega Dreamcast by the specs alone was way better than Sony PlayStation 1. Dreamcast had crappy offering to customer. PlayStation gave users a better offering. No one should ever not know a DC fast charger is not working properly before they get there. Today, because Tesla put in the hard work and built a reliable system, no owner worries if they want to take a long road trip. They don’t even have to leave their house with a full charge. Just get in and go. With CCS cars, the owners have to plan. They need to have multiple apps with account loaded. They probably should check Rate Your Charge to see if any stations on their route has been reported not working. That’s taking us back to early days of the automobile where long trips needed a lot of planning. Crazy! CCS operators could’ve solved this by having a unified system to find and pay the individual operators. They are all part of the same consortium, so why did they miss such a critical opportunity to make a rival to Tesla’s navigation?

We are very interested to see how NACS will be implemented into the new EVs, new charging stations, and if it will become the new charging standard based on the US government policies.

It’s to verify the card. And you only do it once.

We actually had already input this information a week before the trip in anticipation of stopping here. Not sure why it did not save!

This was the second time we had to put the card and address in. We have initially put this information into the Tesla app prior to leaving Milwaukee.

We are also curious on if the magic dock roll out will continue or not. There have been a lot of announcements already about NACS after we filmed and posted this video.

Car screen ended up being a hardware defect. The screen was replaced under warranty the other week and works perfectly now. I know Teslas have their share of hardware issues too.

Defective touch screen - got it replaced under warranty and now works perfectly.

Then buy a Tesla. You just drive up to a charger, put the cable in and voila. No need for an app, present payment, flag membership card at a screen which most of the time doesn’t recognizes it. At a gas pump you need to take out your credit card, put it in a reader, tap in your PIN code, wait for confirmation and then you can pump gas. Pffft boring…

@@eddieke4751 I will take the gas pump model any day. No payment methods on file. No permissions based charging. Just pull up, present payment, charge. The data mining nonsense needs to be addressed with legal protections. That is what we deserve. If you like the Tesla model great. I don't. The only thing I like about the Tesla "model" are the number of chargers and they are expanding quickly. They are reliable. That is it. I don't care for the data mining, gate keeping that goes on with Tesla and sadly all the other companies are trying to mimic. Consumer rights and choices are being removed from them without even a whimper. It is just sad. The current mantra: Give me convenience and I will give up everything for it.... LOL Enjoy your Tesla.

I'm a big fan of the Tesla model. Park, plug-in, verify it's charging and walk across the parking lot to the restroom. Tesla motto is "The best process is no process, the best part is no part". No card readers, buttons or screens to malfunction. Maybe EA, EVGO and others can do a hybrid system where they can charge any EV like a Tesla, but you'd have the option to "pay-at-the-pump". Might come in handy for car/truck rentals or a if a family member or friend is using your car for a while.

I'm hoping that NACS improves things and makes payment much easier than it currently is. In my opinion, CCS should be just as easy but it's charging networks and car manufacturers who aren't quite at Tesla's level for ease of use.