I’m getting our first electric charger for the work parking lot (USA). One of us got an electric vehicle that uses the J1772 connector.
After hearing about the NACS standardization, I didn’t think it made sense to buy a leviton charger than only does J1772 like our electrician recommended. He also said he knows very little about it and is learning too.
I was thinking of getting the Tesla Universal Wall Connector on the Pedestal instead to future proof (Can do J1772 and NACS).
- Does anyone know if the Tesla Universal Wall Connector with pedestal is good?
- How does access control work so only employees can use it?
- Is there a way to track who is using it for how much power so they can be billed?
Any help would be very appreciated. Even though I still drive gas I enjoy learning about this stuff.
We started with a couple of chargers at the office and looking to expand now. Tesla’s little magic dock on the new wall connector is pretty sweet. Don’t think anyone has a comparable offering. https://insideevs.com/reviews/686375/tesla-universal-wall-connector-review/
A winery we frequent and their nearby diner bought two different destination chargers. They sit outdoors, have screens, J1772 and wifi control. Both places replaced with Tesla dumb wall boxes and their problems stopped. No screens, no WiFi authorization.
My last employer did a less elegant but functional solution. Put a relay in the 240v circuit feeding each charger and a badge reader on each pedestal tied to the buildings system. You would “badge in” to a normal door reader on each pedestal which closed the relay for X hours.
They weren’t charging for access, just didn’t want it being used by the public.
I’ve changed my mind on this with the mass NACS adoption. I would go NACS at this point for future-proofing. As others have noted, it’s about half the existing stock, and will be ~100% of new sales starting in 12 months. Many J1772 drivers will find themselves buying an adapter (I have). Either way, a large number of folks will need adapters if they want broad coverage in the near term.
J1772 is the way to go. Adapters to NACS exist and I believe even come with Teslas, but J1772 is on the majority of vehicles.
Don’t know why your getting downvotes. I think people are forgetting that 100% of PHEVs are J1772 and are in the most need of workplace charging. If you include all EVs not just BEVs I’m pretty sure J1772 is the most common. If not, like you said, Teslas come with adapters, other cars don’t.
Majority of vehicles are already NACS today, in five years native J1772 will be a drop in the bucket compared to the entire US EV fleet.
Majority of vehicle types probably have j1772 right now, but in sheer quantity of EV’s it’s NACS by a mile. And NACS is standard on all evs in 2025 so your logic makes no sense.
I know the Tesla EVSE (Charger) supports a single window of charging time. It’s intended for limiting to decreased electricity rates, usually in the evening but could easily be used in reverse to only allow 9-5 charging but not by day.
I don’t know how many chargers you are looking at putting in but since you want user billing as well as access control you may want to look at some commercial units such as:
I’m sure there are others.
Trying to force a home unit to be commercial use may be more grief than you want.
I’d agree to an extent but Tesla has massive deals in place delivering the universal chargers for hotels, their commercial software is going to get major focus (and isn’t bad right now) but is nowhere on par with chargepoint and others. For what flexibility you give up you save massively in hardware expensive and ongoing fees. Chargepoint for example charges per charger annual expenses (it’s not insignificant) and 10% of all revenue. Tesla takes 1c per kWh delivered. That’s it. So it’s astronomically cheaper - we plan on deploying tons of Tesla universal wall connectors at work :)
Buy one that does both. The market is 60% NACS and 40% CCS right now.