Finn's Tesla EV Chargers Review & Verdict
Finn Peacock has been a Chartered Electrical Engineer since 1998, and is ex-CSIRO
Tesla’s Wall Connector EV charger is good quality and great value at $800 for the hardware. It will charge any brand of recent EV in Australia.
But there’s a big problem. It’s dumb. Unlike most other home EV chargers, it can’t be set up to only charge off excess solar without a Tesla Powerwall.
So, if you want a reliable, cheap, dumb charger for any EV – it’s a great choice. If you want smarts, look elsewhere.
(Tesla car owners can make it smart without buying a Powerwall by using the ChargeHQ app, which controls the charging by talking to the Tesla car, not the Tesla charger – but that has an ongoing monthly subscription fee).
Tesla EV Chargers: Pros & Cons
- Very reasonably priced
- Good quality
- Good support
- One unit can do both single and three phase
- Dumb
- No OCPP support either
About Tesla
Tesla Wall Connector
Tesla is one of the largest manufacturers of EVs in the world. At the start of 2024 they had made more pure electric vehicles than anyone else. BYD now has them beat, but second biggest is still huge.
In addition to making EVs and home batteries, Tesla has also manufactured a vast number of home EV chargers. Their latest model is the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector and this page will tell you all about it.
There are some good reasons to like the Gen 3 Wall Connector…
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It works with all modern EVs – not just Teslas
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Its price is competitive
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Enough have been sold to show it’s reliable
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Its 4 year warranty isn’t bad for an EV charger
But you can’t have all that without expecting some sort of trade-off and the Tesla EV charger does have a major drawback…
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Not able to smart charge
This means it can’t be set to charge an EV only with surplus energy from rooftop solar. Because this is normally the cheapest way to charge it’s a major drawback. But if you don’t have a problem with this, then the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector may be worth your hard earned money. Or even better, your lazily earned money – if you’re lucky enough to have any.
We Have A Write-Up
If you want to read about the Tesla Wall Connector we have a comprehensive blog post on it: Should You Buy A Tesla Wall Connector As Your EV Charger?
I recommend checking it out because it goes into a lot of useful detail and is likely to answer any questions you have. It’s also a pleasure to read – and I’m not just saying that because my boss wrote it.
Full disclosure: It is one of the reasons why I’m saying that.
This page mostly summarizes the post’s main points.
If you want more information in general, you can check out our EV Charging 101 guide. You can also use our EV Charger Comparison Table to check out technical details of the Tesla Wall Connector and compare it to other chargers on the market.
Not Just For Teslas
Those with a healthy level of paranoia may be wondering if the Tesla Wall Connector only works for Tesla vehicles. The good news is there’s nothing to worry about. Provided your EV has a ‘type 2’ AC charging socket you are good to go and every new EV sold in Australia since the start of 2020 is required to have one.
Single-Phase Vs. 3-Phase
The Tesla Wall Connector comes in single-phase and 3-phase versions and, unlike many EV chargers, there’s no difference in price. But note that 3-phase chargers require more work to set up, so there can be a difference in installation cost.
If your home has single-phase power then you can only use a single-phase EV charger. If you have 3-phase power then you can choose between the two. Generally, I’d recommend getting the 3-phase version as it can provide nearly 50% more power. But a 3-phase charger can add $400 or more to the installation cost and how much you value being able to charge up to 3.6kW faster.
Power Output
The maximum kilowatts (kW) of power the charger can provide depends on the type:
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Single-phase Tesla Wall Connector = 7.4kW
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3-phase Tesla Wall Connector = 11kW
While the 3-phase one can provide considerably more power, the current Gen 3 version of the Wall Connector is not impressive compared to some other chargers which can provide 22kW. But because most EVs can only accept 11kW or sometimes less, not being able to provide more than 11kW isn’t a drawback for most EV owners.
Range Per Hour
Tesla has a table on this page that gives how many km of range Tesla vehicles will gain from an hour of charging at 7.4 or 11kW. For example, it says a Tesla Model 3 will gain 75km an hour when charged at 11kW. But Tesla is well known for dishonesty when it comes to the range of their vehicles and the European EV Database says it will actually gain around 68km of range. That’s around 90% of Tesla’s figure.
While the exact amount will depend on the vehicle, generally, you can expect 40+km of range per hour when charging at 7.4kW and 60+km at 11kW.
Cable Length
Not every EV charger comes with a charging cable, but the Tesla Wall Connector has an impressively long one. At 7.3m it’s long enough to potentially let you charge a car that’s behind one parked in front of the charger. This is an important consideration for some homes with two EVs or when EV driving guests arrive.
Operating Temperature
The Tesla Wall Connector’s operating temperature range is from -30 to 50 degrees Celcius. But, according to its operating manual, as it approaches its maximum operating temperature it will start to “derate” and reduce the maximum amount of power it can provide. Depending on conditions, this derating can start at as low as 35 degrees Celcius. Derating is likely to occur sooner with the 11kW 3-phase version than the lower power 7.4kW single-phase version.
Because of this, it’s very important to locate EV chargers in the shade whenever possible. If a sunny location is the only good option then I strongly suggest giving it a shade cover.
While derating at as low as 35 degrees is not good for Australian conditions, it’s not unusual for EV chargers.
Installation Location
The Wall Connector’s Ingress Protection rating is IP55. This means it can resist storm driven rain from all directions and can be installed outside. But, as a precaution, you should never intentionally spray it with water. As mentioned, it’s best to install it out of direct sunlight.
It’s Got Guts
If you want to see what the innards of a Tesla Wall Connector look like, you can check out this video where a couple of Americans pull one apart:
EV Home Charger Teardowns E1: Tesla Wall Connector
It’s Not Smart
The Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector is not capable of smart charging. This means it won’t be able to charge your car using only surplus energy from a rooftop solar system. As this is normally the cheapest way to charge an EV it can be a huge drawback. Of course, if you don’t have solar it’s not an issue. But not having solar is an even larger drawback, so you have my sympathies if that’s the case.
There are ways to work around this. With most EVs you can set when they charge and how much power they draw and this can be used to try to maximize the amount of solar power they use. If you don’t mind paying a subscription, you can also use an app such as Charge HQ to help do the same.
But one simple solution I think works well is to just have a large solar system and charge in the middle of the day.
Cost
At the time of writing this in January 2024, the Australian Tesla store is selling the Gen 3 Wall Connector for $750. Installation can add considerably to this cost. Note you’re not allowed to install these things yourself without suitable qualifications. Rather than buying one from the Tesla shop, I recommend getting a Wall Connector through your installer so they will be responsible for its warranty. This can make getting problems fixed much easier.
Installing an EV charger isn’t cheap and Tesla says getting Wall Connector installed will knock you back $750 to $1,500. This range is realistic. Installations that are straight forward and single-phase will be towards the lower end, while more complex and 3-phase ones will be towards - or sometimes past - the higher end.
Colours Are An Optional Extra
Just like with Tesla cars, if you’re willing to pay extra you can get one in a colour other then white. For $140 you can get different coloured covers for the Wall Connector. The choices are black, dark blue, red, and metallic. But if it’s going to be installed in the sun, I recommend sticking with its original off-white cover, as it might help keep it a little cooler.
Warranty
The Wall Connector has a 4-year warranty. This seems pretty lousy, given that Tesla also makes Powerwall batteries that are far more complicated and have 10-year warranties. But most EV chargers only have 2- or 3-year warranties, so compared to the competition, it’s considerably better than average.
Because many Wall Connectors have been produced, if they had serious reliability issues we probably would have heard about it by now. This makes me optimistic that, in normal household use, they’ll last much longer than 4 years.
My Conclusion
Given what else is on the market, the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector looks like a good choice – provided its inability to smart charge is not a drawback for you. But if you can do without the ability to charge cheaply in that way, then it’s probably not a bad choice for a home EV charger.
Tesla has 2 EV chargers in our database
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Tesla Reviews (36)
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25 June 2024
03 June 2024
28 January 2023
08 May 2024
08 March 2023
23 June 2024
20 March 2023
18 June 2024
I was considering using the Tesla mobile charger, but wanted to charge the car on the weekends when I am home to use solar. 2kW from the mobile charger would not be enough to take advantage of my 8kW solar system. I was considering getting an electrician to wire a 32A circuit, so I could get 7.4kW, but then realised I would need to buy an ugly bright orange adapter that cost over $100. This brought the mobile charger and Wall Connector fairly close in price, so the aesthetics of the Wall Connector was the deciding factor.
I also really like taking advantage of our 3 phase power. I don't know why, but it's satisfying.
22 March 2023
13 June 2024
29 April 2023
25 May 2023
18 June 2023
Tesla Wall Connector works well with my Tesla Model 3. No complaints at all.
30 July 2023
07 September 2023
I have 2 phases, but without the 3rd phase, the charger will only delivery 7kW, which seems like a silly limitation.
29 September 2023
13 December 2023
All the "smarts" are in the car, the charger is "dumb" but as a system, it works very well.
If I was choosing, I'd probably go for the Tesla charger again.
22 May 2024
06 January 2024
19 March 2024
27 January 2023
This was the only charger that was economical ($550 charger + $175 for 32A tail) among all others that I evaluated.
The build quality and brand is also trusted (Tesla charger for a Tesla car).
Also, being a Tesla charger is a very easy plug and play (car's charge port opens right from the button on the cable)!
17 April 2024