Recently Elon Musk stated that Tesla won’t be giving mobile connectors as the usage is low. However, based on some statistics from the internet, it appears that it is not true, that owners do use mobile chargers. The new statistics are by Tesla Scope, which shows that they had 61% of sessions with a mobile connector, but only 32% used with a wall charger.
There was only anecdotal evidence. While we wouldn’t have been shocked if the Tesla Mobile Connector accounted for only a minority of charging sessions by Tesla owners. It was suspected that the charging solution was still used occasionally by most owners and that these occasions were critical enough to warrant including it with new car sales. Now there is actual third-party data that show that not only is the Tesla Mobile Connector widely used, but it might even be the number one charging solution. Teslascope, a service that collects data on Tesla vehicles to provide owners with services that the automaker doesn’t provide directly, has access to data on thousands of Tesla vehicles around the world.
We're a bit perplexed by Elon's statement regarding the removal of the Mobile Connector cable with new vehicles.
While our own data is, by far, not as detailed as Tesla's, it shows a different story. ?
61% of sessions were with the mobile connector.
32% used the wall charger. pic.twitter.com/PoN91RYzsz— Teslascope (@teslascope) April 16, 2022
Following Musk’s claim, the company shared the data of the sources of charging sessions in its customer fleet and revealed that 61% came from the Tesla Mobile Connector.
Charging sessions
As noted, the service doesn’t have as much data as Tesla, but this is still based on hundreds of thousands of charging sessions and therefore fairly convincing data. It would appear that Musk is exaggerating the “super low” usage of the mobile charging solution. However, the CEO didn’t go into the details about his claim. It’s likely that the use rate has certainly gone down since Tesla stopped providing a NEMA 14-50 adapter with the mobile connector, even though it remains an important charging solution and the adapter can be purchased separately to improve its functionality.
Tesla appears to be sticking to its decision and will not deliver the mobile connector with new vehicles ordered after April 17. In response to the backlash, Musk said that Tesla would bring the price of the mobile connector down from $275 to $200. As we noted earlier, Tesla is listing the charger as “out of stock.”
Tesla used to include a charging cable with both a NEMA 14-50 (level 2) connector and a connector for a regular outlet (Level 1). The automaker later decided to drop the NEMA 14-50 connector from the included bundle and only included the NEMA 5-15 adapter, which is for a regular outlet. You could buy the Level 2 connector separately. With a max power output of 1.3kW, the included connector enabled charging speeds between two and three miles of range per hour. It’s not much, but it is still better than nothing and suitable for overnight charging. For anything better, Tesla owners would have to install a level 2 charging station at home.
