No charging card, only the app
To be able to charge at Tesla you need the Tesla App from the AppStore or Android Store. You have to create an account and add your payment informations. It is then later also the app in which you can view the invoices. If you search for "Tesla", you will find quite a few apps. But from Tesla itself is only one. Red background with white Tesla logo. Unfortunately, this is not possible in the browser or the like.
Find and activate charging stations
Finding and activating charging stations is then relatively easy. After opening the app, you will see your Tesla or an overview of your account. Tap on your profile picture and then swipe left on the list of cars, the tap "Charge your non-Tesla vehicle" will appear on the right. Tap on this and you get to the map overview of all public Tesla charging stations.
There you can select the location where you are at the moment. Here you get an overview of the kWh price and an overview of all subscription options. At Tesla, pricing is based on Supercharger location and time. At peak times, charging is more expensive than at times when hardly anyone is at the supercharger.
After you have taped "Charge here" you can choose which charger you are standing on. By the way, at Tesla one speaks of stall, not chargers. Each stall has a letter and number designation on the front, for example "1C". Select that and tap "Start charging". Now the stall is unlocked and you can plug in the cable. The charging process will then start after 5-30 seconds.
The app now shows you how much you have already charged, what it costs, how fast you are charging and how full the battery is. In this view you can also end the charging process again. Or you end it on the car yourself.
Useful information
There are fewer and fewer, but Tesla still has so-called V2 superchargers. This is the 2nd generation of Superchargers, which can deliver up to 145 kW. However, it's important to know that this power is always divided between two stalls. You can tell which they are by the numbers on the stalls. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, .. are always counted through at V2. In this example it is 1A & 1B, as well as 2A & 2B, share the power. If the utilization of the supercharger allows it, it is worth choosing a stall where A & B are still free.
The V2 Superchargers can be recognized by the fact that they have two cables hanging in them. One CCS and one type 2. However, only the CCS plug works for charging. The Type 2 connector is for old Model S and Model X.
Newer Superchargers are V3 & V4 Superchargers. These no longer share the power in this way. So you can charge anywhere with full power, which is increasingly the standard at Tesla. In addition, each stall delivers 250 kW at V3 and V4. This is also how the smart #1 also achieves its full 158 kW.
Incidentally, smart cars have the charging port in the right place, so they don't have to worry about the stall cables. Cars with charging ports in unusual places or at the back right sometimes have difficulties. Because then they can hardly get to the cables without parking inconveniently.
Since the V4 generation, however, that is also history, as it has significantly longer cables. You can use them to get to any point on the car.
CCS to Type 2 adapter only works on the old Model S and Model X
As mentioned above, the V2 Superchargers still have type 2 plugs for the old Model S and Model X (built until the end of 2020). For historical reasons, these have not the usual CCS port. In 2012 it was still standard that you can also charge DC current with type 2. Accordingly, the old superchargers still support this. So that these vehicles can also charge on modern superchargers, Tesla has a corresponding adapter.
With this adapter, these cars can also charge CCS as normal. However, this adapter only works with Tesla. Mechanically, it also fits any other type 2 car, but you can't use it to charge. It is therefore not possible to make a smart ED or a smart EQ CCS-capable with this adapter.
Incidentally, the same applies to Tesla's CHAdeMO adapter. This also only works on the old Model S and Model X.
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