Is it possible to convert CHAdeMO to CCS?

The two technologies use completely different handshaking protocols, as well as physical locking mechanisms. For instance, when using the CHAdeMO interface, the physical lock that keeps the charger in place is on the charger side, whereas CCS does it differently.

Chademo provides the physical lock on the charger side, and CCS does it on the car side. The only way is to add a small computer between the CCS side and the chademo side to translate the signaling and allow a proper handshake to take place.

At this point, the more technically minded among you might be thinking that this sounds like a task that you could take on yourself. We believe that this is one of those tasks that while technically possible, is not necessarily a good idea to pursue unless you have considerable experience performing this kind of modification.

Nissan doesn’t offer any official channel for people to go down in this regard, offering no kind of conversion service. This means that right now, Nissan Leaf owners have to rely solely on those services provided by third parties, which in itself is not necessarily a problem, but it could create problems on the powertrain warranty further down the road if the warranty is still active.

If a third-party job to install a new charging port goes wrong and it causes damage to the powertrain, there’s no chance that the standard warranty would cover the cost of the repairs since it wouldn’t be considered a failure on the part of Nissan or its parts.