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Comment by throwaway894345 | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it make more sense for manufacturers to ... put the charge port in the same spot?

Front center (like the LEAF) or passenger side makes most sense to me (for street parking), but it's just a free-for-all right now.

Putting it in the front means its more likely to take damage. No thanks.

Putting it on the passenger side means I need to walk around the car nearly every time even though I pretty much never street park the car. No thanks.

Idea: put 2 on the car, opposite each other. Provides redundancy in the event one is damaged & increases usability by not being fussy about the specific parking situation.

Yeah but we both know it will cost more than $0 so it's impossible to implement :-P

Porsche Taycan has optional AC charge ports on both sides. DC charging is single side.

But it also means it's on the correct side for buyers in right hand drive countries.

Yes, and I believe Tesla proposed that >5 years ago. The industry chose to make it a free for all instead.

they could just leave the superchargers as they are - and the industry would fix the cars (to the benefit of all society going forward).

I agree, and I have to think that's what will happen. Other EVs in North America have already consolidated around the Tesla charging standard, and it would be a really frustrating customer experience if customers are unable to charge because there are no charging stations with two adjacent free spots (and even then, I think most people won't want to feel like the jerk who is taking up two free spots) or else an open spot on the end.

Maybe, maybe not. I expect to see trailers come with range extender batteries (very useful for RVs where those batteries can also provide power for whatever you do when there) this means ports on the back, but those will not be accessible when towing so you want one in front too...

The important thing to take away from this is we are still figuring out details and so should not lockin yet.

Honestly I think that RVs are kind of a worst-case for batter power, and range extender trailers are unlikely because EVs get progressively less efficient as the battery capacity increases (increasing battery capacity increases the weight). When you're starting with something as heavy as an electric RV, attaching even more weight seems unlikely to pay off.

(Now I'm curious if the relationship between range and battery capacity is merely sublinear or if it actually peaks at some point i.e. there is a maximum theoretical range beyond which increasing battery capacity reduces range)

Or make the cables a bit longer, like all the other chargers do.

Does the toilet paper go over the top or under the bottom?

Does the gas port go on the side opposite the exhaust?

diesel trucks figured it out - you can pump from either side (or both).

I mean, after 120+ years that's still not the case for gas filler ports, so I don't hold out hope...

Gas filler ports is actually an advantage being a free-for-all, because it means that roughly half are on one side, and half the other, which fits pumps quite nicely.

The problem is when 80% or more are on one side (like Teslas are all on the same side now) and the rest are not.

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