- Tesla's Universal Wall Connector is a Level 2 home EV charger.
- As its name implies, it works on any EV, but it was primarily designed for Tesla vehicles.
- Some non-Tesla EVs sometimes refuse to accept a charge from it, but there's a solution.
Tesla’s Universal Wall Connector is one of the best-known Level 2 home chargers for electric vehicles. It can recharge just about all EVs on the market today, including the Nissan Leaf, thanks to an integrated J1772 adapter that clicks onto the standard NACS connector.
It’s an AC charger, so there is no fast charging here, but the charging current can be set to a maximum of 48 amps for a power output of up to 11.5 kilowatts, which leads to about 44 miles of range added per hour of charging.
However, the problem is that, even though it’s a universal EV charger (as its name implies), some EVs refuse to accept electricity from Tesla’s wall box, including the brand-new Chevrolet Equinox EV.
Several reports from other EV owners who drive anything from BMWs to Rivians point to the same issue that could occur with a Tesla Universal Wall Connector. But as our own Tom Moloughney explains in the video embedded at the top of this page, you can rest assured that there’s nothing wrong with the car or the charger.
If your non-Tesla EV refuses to charge from a Tesla Wall charger, sometimes all you need to do is just wait a little longer and the charger will sort out its communication issues with the car. But in the case of the Equinox EV, that wasn’t enough.
The solution was to go into the charger’s settings page on the smartphone app and select Compatibility Mode. That’s designed for cars that have older software, which is weird because the Equinox EV is actually newer than the Tesla Universal Wall Connector, but at least it works.
Multiple people said in the comments that flicking that switch sorted their problems with other non-Tesla EVs, so if you’re planning on getting a new EV that doesn’t have a NACS plug but still want to install a Tesla wall box, it’s all green lights.
If your EV still refuses to charge, some Rivian owners on Reddit suggested contacting both the automaker and Tesla to sort the issue. In one case, the problem was resolved after Tesla pushed a non-public firmware to a particular charger that didn’t go along with an R1S.
