GM will join Tesla's EV charging network in step closer to us industry standard | Hacker News Reader

GM will join Tesla's EV charging network in step closer to us industry standard

bloomberg.com

30 pointswnc314111 comments

Dupe of: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36248815 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36248876

This makes sense as Ford just adopted Tesla's NACS (North American Charging Standard) and GM would logically follow. We can now assume that the charging industry is disrupted by Tesla's NACS. Existing EV charging companies for ex. EVGO would need to upgrade all their chargers to adopt Tesla's connector.

Currently none of the existing chargers, if it all, work with Teslas. The worst thing of this all Tesla would start selling chargers to networks and only moat existing charging companies have is the 10-15 years leases they have on charging sites.

IMO this effectively ends any CCS1 DC fast charging network.

There is an adapter for any tesla (except the OG roadster) to use CCS1 DC Fast charging plug; it's $450 for the elderly original model S cars to be updated to support the CCS1 protocol and you also get the big chonky plug adapter as well.

Apparently the new supercharger kiosks support 'ccs1' protocols with an adapter, so if you've got a CCS1 plug car you can avail yourself of the super new superchargers with that plug.

There's also an adapter to let you use L2 (AC "normal") chargers -- I think you get the adapter when you buy the car; it's just a passive adapter.

But this effectively kills all DC fast charging networks in the same way chademo is dead; there will be some population of cars to use it but it'll plateau and shrink and evaporate.

Good riddance to CCS1 -- the charging experience is astonishingly hostile compared to "drive up, plug-in, get coffee, come back, drive away". I can only imagine that there's a memo somewhere to the effect of "make DC fast charging so bad it drives people away from EVs"

I'm curious to know: How often does a 'typical' US EV owner with their own garage (and therefore the ability to charge when at home) make use of a charger outside their own home? I would have thought that for day-to-day use, all charging would have been done at home, and commercial chargers would only be used for long trips or other exceptional circumstances. How much does 110V vs 230V mains power for US vs non-US homes play into this?

This feels both good and bad.

Good: vehicles from the top two car manufacturers can now fill up at teslas stations, wildly increasing the reach of the electric fleet.

Bad: tesla just became Standard Oil. If you think Musk is wealthy now, wait until he controls the only source of juice for your car across the country.

Does this arrangement mean GM and Ford can make their own charging networks with Tesla-style connectors? If so, I’m not sure I understand how this really really puts Tesla in a dominant position.

I thought the NACS charging standard was free to use, and already interoperable with existing protocols given the fact a simple passive adapter converts from the other standard to the NACS one.

I think it’s more about the connectors. Maybe Tesla Chargers continue to be the dominant charger as well, but I hope and think not. Time will tell.

I suspect it is about the connectors, the charging protocol, and the billing protocol.

The experience should be:

1. drive up to charger

2. plug in car

3. car identifies itself

4. charger identifies how the charging process will be funded

5. if there are funds, the charger charges the car and deducts the funds

6. operator unplugs car and drives away.

There's a big moat around the supercharger network because it is so big -- but anyone else is welcome to invest billions of dollars and create the same thing.

Exactly.

Suddenly all european & korean imports will need to switch as future is NACS and not too many will want to be left out without a charger

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