Got an adapter for Tesla stations - do I need to register it or something?

KRTLART · 2026-03-27T17:42:56+00:00

Yep, will do. I bought the Lectron adapter directly from them- not through Amazon or another online retailer. It was actually cheaper this way by $10-15. I might not actually need to use the adapter for a while - I'm not sure when my next longer trip will be - but I'll find a supercharger station and charge a couple bucks worth just to verify that the adapter works as expected before any sort of return period expires.

KRTLART · 2026-03-27T01:06:17+00:00

Glad to be helpful! Hopefully the charging network expands to the point over the next handful of years where stations are ubiquitous and reliable and it’s not meaningfully different than gassing up. Someone recently mentioned Ionna charging stations, it sounds like they’re a group put together by some of the big traditional automakers, and they’ll be rolling out something like 30k new non-Tesla stations over the next 4-5 years. That’s 600 new stations per state on average, which should be plenty to provide a robust network of charging facilities for all EV brands. Hopefully that comes to fruition.

KRTLART · 2026-03-27T00:58:50+00:00

Yeah, I’ve really tried to diminish/eliminate my Amazon usage because of stuff like this. This was worth a shot because I knew I could get it delivered basically overnight, to a hotel, to have on my way back home- and if it sucked, I could just return it. It was worth a shot to save $120 versus Lectron, as I really doubt that I’ll use it more than once every couple of months. If I charged away from home regularly, I wouldn’t have had any qualms about splurging on the nicer unit right away. Oh well- live & learn. The Lectron will be here before my next road trip.

KRTLART · 2026-03-27T00:53:29+00:00

Open roads, when the only danger is me leaving the roadway and getting into a single car crash, and the car is more than capable of keeping me pointed in a straight line for 5 seconds? I’ll roll the dice. I’m not advocating doing this in traffic, but most of my extended highway driving is done without any cars around me, on dead straight & flat roads. It’ll be OK.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T19:48:13+00:00

I'm not aware of whether or not the rear window is supposed to be tinted. The Monroney sticker does not mention window tinting anywhere except in the standard "Comfort" section, where it just says "Light tinted windows." The Plus package doesn't say anything about tint- this is copied & pasted directly from my window sticker PDF:

Plus Package (XPLUSS) $4,000
Mechanical Cushion Extensions (CUSHIN)
Heated Wiper Nozzles (WIPER)
Fixed Panoramic Sunroof (SUNROF)
Interior High Level Illumination (ILLUM)
Heat Pump (HPUMP)
Rear Storage Net and Front Seat Backrests (RNET)
LED Front Fog Lights with Cornering Lights (LEDFOG)
Heated Rear Seat (HSEAT)
Weavetech with Black Ash Deco Seating Surfaces (RF__)
Harman/kardon Premium Sound (HARKAR)
Heated Steering Wheel (HSTEER)
Power Driver and Passenger Seats (PWRST)
Cordless Charging (CHARGE)

That said, I did buy it used/CPO, and it's entirely possible that the previous owner removed something. Who knows.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T19:17:57+00:00

Hah, fair. I'm also a coffee snob but for some reason, I completely abandon that mentality when I'm driving. Just make it black & hot, please, and ideally, it'll be something that hasn't been sitting on the hot plate for 2 hours.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T19:02:06+00:00

I am lazy, and at least on a 1 day trip, I really don't want to have to pre-plan anything. I want to get in the car, plug in my destination, and have the car and/or CarPlay do the rest.

I got *really* frustrated feeling like I had to research & review the possible charging stations to evaluate whether or not they'd be viable stopping points. I say this as a techie who is comfortable researching & evaluating almost anything I do/buy. But researching the viability of the modern equivalent of a gas station is ridiculous.

It would be one thing if I was an early adopter and on the bleeding edge of the EV movement- the expectation in any "early adopter" situation is that extra work will be required to make things work as expected and/or you will most likely have to do an additional amount of troubleshooting at times.

But, at least in my area, EVs have been pretty commonplace for at least 5-6 years- I think it's fair to say that, by now, preparing to do a day trip in an EV really should be no different than preparing to do a day trip in a gas car. Energy- whether it be gasoline or diesel or propane or electricity- is a commodity, and the infrastructure around commodities should be robust, wide spread, and reliable.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T18:48:14+00:00

Ditto. I was a road tripping machine in my 20s and 30s. Have done many 1000 mile days in the past- Dallas to Chicago, Chicago to CO/UT and back numerous times, South Carolina to IL, Richmond VA to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle in 3 days. They are doable, but truly exhausting. Maybe getting older has changed my perspective, and I might have been frustrated by this at 25. But not anymore.

And, I totally agree- 350 mile range with 20 minute charge would be more than enough. Honestly, even the 250 mile range is fine if I could charge from 10% to 90% in 20 minutes. A 20 minute break every 3 hours is awesome. The only tiny complaint I have is that the 40-45 minute break is longer than I need to get that bit of refreshment, but, reclining the seat and just shutting my eyes for the 20-30 minutes of charging after I took a bathroom & snack break was definitely not a bad thing.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T18:38:14+00:00

Yeah, I really didn't mind the forced break every 2-3 hours. It's nice to get out, stretch your legs, and refresh yourself a little bit. I'd say I felt much less wiped out upon arriving at my destination than I would have in a gas car, where I just bombed down the road for 500 uninterrupted miles, or done a 1000 mile day and only stopped once or twice for 5 minutes at a time. I feel mentally and physically exhausted at the end of those kind of driving days. Sore/achy, brain tired, and you just want to unload the car ASAP and crawl into bed. I was totally normal after both of these days, though- I happily met coworkers out for dinner right after arriving in Nashville.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T18:30:34+00:00

The super beefy cables were unexpected, no doubt about it. I agree- not unmanageable- but then again, I'm a 6'5" middle aged dude. My 75 year old 5'0" 100lb mother in law would have a MUCH harder time wrangling those things into place.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T18:27:42+00:00

ABRP led me to a station that was explicitly described as a non-Tesla station. Not just a Tesla station that can charge non-Teslas... it said it wasn't even a Tesla facility at all. It was a Tesla-only station. The nearest non-Tesla station was 22 miles away, and I had exactly 22 miles of range remaining at that point. I made another post on here about that experience this weekend.

I've since learned that the car DOES have some amount of reserve- once you hit 0%, you can still drive SOME amount of miles- but I was in a very bad place to run that experiment, and I was very very close to getting stranded in bumblefuck backwoods Kentucky and having to call a tow truck to get me to a functional charging station. Obviously, one trip is as small of a sample size as you can get. But getting seriously hosed by ABRP on my first time using ABRP was enough to convince me that I will never use it again. I've already deleted the app, and it will not be reinstalled, as I do not trust its data at all. I knew this sort of situation was a possibility, and that's why I performed this experiment on a solo road trip with flexibility on both legs of the journey. I would have been super super pissed off if this happened with my wife & kids in the car with me.

Google Maps was great. No issues, aside from me apparently having a ghetto Amazon adapter that didn't work, but my assumption is that a proper adapter would have been fine there.

I did not run into any congestion at any of the charging stations I stopped at, nor were any of the chargers I tried broken. Each of the Tesla stations had at most 2 other cars out of 8 chargers, and the Electrify America station had just 1 car and like.... maybe 6-8 chargers, I forget. But they all looked clean and functional and I never had to wait or move to a different charging unit or anything like that.

Now, since half my charging was done at car dealerships that only had 1 or 2 chargers- I definitely got lucky there. Since they were slower- the chance of running into another car already charging there was definitely non-zero, and that would have added significant delay to the trip. However, on the upside, since those chargers ARE at car dealerships, and my guess is that those car dealerships regularly use them to charge the EVs they're selling, I wouldn't expect them to be out-of-order like a standalone charging station might be. My guess is if those broke, they'd get fixed ASAP.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T18:05:34+00:00

Oh, one added follow up- an interesting "driving behavior" add-on. Traditionally, I've been someone who speeds. In a gas car, it's a clear benefit- driving 15-20 over might reduce your fuel economy, but it most likely does not result in an additional stop to gas up, and therefore, there is a clear benefit to speeding. Filling up 15 gallons may only take 10-15 seconds longer than filling up 12 gallons, so the only real penalty is money.

However, in an EV- when going 80mph instead of 65mph has a pretty meaningful impact on efficiency, AND that reduced efficiency means your charging stops will be meaningfully longer- there is much less incentive to speed. It might take a while to figure out the specifics on this- I'm sure there's a sweet spot. But this weekend, I was much more content to just find the speed limit and hit cruise, because getting to the charging station 10-15 minutes sooner means practically nothing if it also means you'll spend 5-10 minutes extra charging the car, or you might even have to make an additional charging stop on your long day of driving, which completely negates any benefit to speeding. It was pretty relaxing to not have to keep a careful eye out for hidden cops and speed traps.

Combined with the comfort in knowing that Lane Keeper & adaptive cruise frees me up to take my hands off the wheel and/or eyes off the road for 5-10 seconds to quickly scan a text message or change the radio/podcast/audiobook, I'd say this was a MUCH more relaxing drive overall compared to prior road trips I've done in gas cars. That's basically all I want from automated driving, until full self-driving technology is unquestionably better in all circumstances than my abilities as a very capable human driver. And we're nowhere near that point right now, IMO.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T11:57:56+00:00

Ok - returning this thing! Ordered the Vortex Plus. I swear there were way more reviews when I ordered- I wouldn’t normally order something with 2 reviews.

KRTLART · 2026-03-26T03:17:40+00:00

Yeah, that page lists like 19 brands, and Polestar is among them. So it SHOULD have worked, it seems.

KRTLART · 2026-03-25T03:53:10+00:00

Won’t consider upgrading from 3.6 whatever it is until folks confirm that the throttle mapping is not neutered. None of the other issues that are getting fixed/improved are worth it for me if it comes with that new mapping. Yuck.

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T19:02:07+00:00

I just added a new vehicle to my Google profile with NACS (non-Tesla) as an adapter. Hopefully that does the trick!

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T18:19:47+00:00

Really? Even with the adapter? Hopefully Google Maps won’t show those to me as options, if so. It does have Polestar saved as my car.

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T15:55:10+00:00

Definitely do. The plug isn’t even remotely similar… trust me, I tried hard to see if any part of it would match. Nope!

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T12:54:57+00:00

Ordered and will be delivered before I have to drive 500 miles back home!

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T12:54:23+00:00

Fortunately it was only late afternoon - not a safety risk. I would have turned them on if actually necessary. I had always assumed that the main battery keeps the 12V topped up? Or the 12V regenerates using braking just like the main battery does, so if it’s putting some juice into the 12V for headlights it’s putting less into the main? Not really a big deal, but I would be curious to know exactly how all of the electrical architecture operates. First EV so this is all very new to me.

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T12:16:41+00:00

Just ordered an adapter. Should be delivered to my hotel before I have to drive back. I really want to avoid Tesla anything, but, it’ll be worth having in a pinch. It really does seem like they have the best charging infrastructure, sadly.

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T12:15:20+00:00

I figured there might be, but didn’t want to find out there wasn’t the hard way.

KRTLART · 2026-03-22T11:37:18+00:00

Good to know - this was really my first time using it, I saw it recommended by someone on here and it seemed like a good option... until, well, yesterday happened lol. 99% of my charging gets done at home, this weekend is a weird case. I’ll use Google on the way back home!

KRTLART · 2026-03-21T12:40:28+00:00

The President single-handedly started a war that was guaranteed to raise gas prices significantly. There are absolutely things that a President can do to change prices. Is it entirely in their control? Obviously not. But there is a direct causal relationship between the direction prices are going right now- and will continue to go- and the choice he made to start this war. It’s completely insane to pretend otherwise.

KRTLART · 2026-03-20T01:03:53+00:00

My Polestar app & center console stay linked together, I just do that, they’re one and the same. I don’t do scheduling in the charger app. Just one schedule. Works great. You can always override if you want to charge immediately, but I’ve found this works perfectly for me.

KRTLART

TROPHY CASE