Tesla to actually open a portion of its US fast-charging network to other EVs

I think that it's a mistake to allow only Level 2 charging. They should have instead allow only 800V charging. Level2 charging will cause line ups.

 

I’m confused. The article I read over at Arstechnica said 3,500 of the 7,500 stations Tesla committed to opening up were 250kW superchargers.

 

Maybe our Upstater members like @CorgiCanoe or @GetOffYourGas could head out to Verona and check out the first new Magic Dock-equipped Superchargers.

https://twitter.com/anthonyhensonev/status/1628928757397422080

I still think it’s all a grift to grab some billion$ off the taxpayer, but if we can get some charging flexibility out of this plan, meh.

 

Geez it looks like the cable is 6 feet long. I have no doubt that anybody who points that out will get bombarded by a swarm of Elmo fanbois claiming that every other EV maker just doesn’t know where to put a charging port.

 

Taycan has two ports !

 

I saw a Taycan sideways, occupying 2 EV DCFC charging spots. Can the car charge from two charging stations at once?

 

No it has two ports so you don’t have to drag a cable across the car. GM just patented some system to allow charging from two ports at once

 

You can only DC fast charge the Taycan on the passenger side. The driver's side charge port only has a J1772.

I'm a former Model 3 owner and a current SE and Taycan Cross Turismo owner and I will say there is no way the Supercharger cables are long enough to reach the Taycan charge ports without parking sideways as you mentioned. Even with the Model 3, you have to park pretty close to the Supercharger unit in order for the cable to reach the charge port. The first time I used a Supercharger, I had to get back in the car after parking and move the car closer to the Supercharger in order for the cable to reach (this was at one of the older Supercharger stations though..).

 

I’ve been driving one of them newfangled e-trucks and find that even the EA stations often require parking out of the lines.

The front fender charge port might not have been the best idea given current infrastructure. The Supercharger cables? They don’t have a prayer of reaching most non Teslas. I hope Tesla is required to extend the cable length before receiving any possible government funds.

 

Ioniq 5’s port is behind the passenger side rear wheel arch. But I’d have to back the SE in pretty darn close I think.

 

I believe the Saint Laurent supercharger is pull through style.

 

I believe you’re correct. And as a bonus, it’s in the covered parking lot of the Place Vertu mall.

 

… That said, L Ron isn’t getting any monopoly money from Ottawa for opening up the Superchargers up here.

 

If I was Tesla I wouldn’t open up the network.
The money received for doing so, less the magic dock (which is very clever) retrofit is a lot less than the money they’d make from selling more EVs at the expense of their competitors. I would not recommend anyone buy a CCS car at this time if they need to road trip, the network reliability and stall availability is that bad. The general public will figure this out. If Tesla maintains their current market share because of this they would dominate the auto industry. Getting a few million or even billion dollars for opening up the charging is not worth it vs the competitive advantage they have. That’s business. Not to mention annoying your actual customer base with cars whose charging port is not in a convenient location or charged painfully slowly clogging up chargers. If I were to arrive at a site and had to wait to charge because there were a bunch of Bolt EVs slowly charging over 90 minutes (during which you could charge 3 Teslas) I’d be p***ed. Same goes for a Taycan taking up two bays meaning I can’t charge because that’s the only available bay left.
This is a really bad idea which is going to cause even more tension at charging stations, a problem I’m already worried about, unless Tesla can take that money and do massive expansions across all their current sites to get ahead of the problem. Given how long it takes for permitting and provisioning of site power I don’t see it…
And other car makers need to move their charging ports to rear left or front right to make them compatible. They were late to the party and could put their charging port in one of those two spots instead of getting creative especially given that they don’t make and run the chargers themselves. And no, Tesla should not be required to lengthen their cables to accommodate, that would increase cost, slow charging and reduce reliability if the failed long cables on other networks are anything to go by.
The legacy auto makers have fought EVs for so long I have no sympathy for them, and the public networks are clearly just grabbing government money with no wish to maintain an actual service so I have no sympathy for them either. Finally I have no sympathy for anyone buying a bad road trip experience car just because they don’t like Musk or the styling of a Tesla or whatever. I did when Tesla prices were so jacked up and were not eligible for incentives, but now that they’re pretty much at price parity no/one who road trips should be buying a CCS car until the manufacturers and public networks get together and sort this out. I fail to see why Tesla should dig them out of the hole they made for themselves together.
And I say this as an owner of both a Tesla and a Mini and someone who would happily trade their Tesla for an ID Buzz or Rivian R1S if dependable charging was available for them (by whichever means).

 

The pull through Superchargers are a rare sight in Northern CA. In fact, I never saw one when I had the Tesla. That looks like a nice area to charge and protected from the elements.

The thing I hated was some Supercharger users were just slobs. They would leave behind garbage and partially eaten food and leave the charge cable and plug a sticky mess (and yes, it was the people charging because I witnessed them do it). It was a must to carry antiseptic wipes (or similar) in the car. Sorry - rant over...

 

In my estimates, the Supercharging accounts for 12.3% of Tesla's automotive gross profits of $2.508bn ($20.3bn auto gross profit for 2022). Maybe Tesla really just sells (expensive) devices to get the premium supercharging experience. I mean you could just sell heated seat subscriptions??

Edit: Nevermind that was Q4 data and not annual..so it's only 2.508bn of 20.3bn so 12.3%.

 

I backed in to a Circuit Electrique spot a few weeks ago and never noticed the big pile of... human waste... right behind my rear bumper, partially covered with used-for-wiping fast food napkins. I did not step in it -- but ALMOST! Fack.

 

I don't think the rest of the industry will switch to NACS though. If a Big Auto player -- say, Ford or GM, or even HyunKia North America -- decides to roll out a truly functional CCS charging network, who's to say a hypothetical Tesla decision to maintain proprietary access would have been a good idea?

 

Tesla screwed up by keeping their superior connector proprietary, and now it likely will fade away over time. As popular as Teslas are, when every car maker is making EVs they can't hope to maintain highest percentage of models. And now that the Superchargers are adding CCS the obvious advantage to the Tesla connector will be obscured. People don't care what's best, they care what works and is easily accessible (see VHS vs. Betamax, or Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD). The ubiquity of CCS and the reliability of Tesla chargers with adapters sure makes CCS look undeniable at this point.