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Comment by bobthepanda | Hacker News Reader

With the recent NACS deals they have basically also become the charging network of choice in North America, which is certainly worth something.

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With North America slowing working toward a common EV plug and CCS winning the charging standard war, North American EV charging will become more like Europe. Charge any brand of EV on any brand of charging network, just as nature intended. No more vendor lock in.

NACS is winning, not CCS.

NACS is CCS. It's CCS type 3. It's why older Teslas can't charge on NACS chargers without a retrofit. They can't talk CCS without upgrades.

Don't get confused by the branding.

They are CCS with a proprietary connector (well, soon to be SAE J3400), so it still means we (CCS1 cars) can’t use their chargers without an adapter, even if they let us.

It won't be proprietary. It is SAE J3400. It is CCS. That's why other manufacturers are willing to support it.

It's true that North America should have standardized a plug and charging standard a long time ago so drivers aren't in a situation where they have to waste money on adapters just to charge their car.

Europe has much better EV infrastructure today in part because manufacturers have been able to build to a common standard and have it work across all brands. That standardization has driven investment, development, and deployment.

It didn’t help that Tesla seemed to be much better at setting up charging infrastructure than VW. Electrify America is kind of a joke now, with busted chargers being the norm rather than the exception.

The lockin is at the charger level. Fill up with petrol? Drive up, tap your card, fill up. At some places you fill up then go into the shop and tap your card.

Electric? Drive up, work out which of the dozen of apps there are, try to download it, hold your phone in the other hand to try to get a signal, finally download it, then register, sell your personal data, then finally you can try to work out how to charge your car.

More sensible infrastructure regulation in Europe. They're mandating contactless payments on charger. No app required: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-...

Even on Tesla's newer dispensers: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yflZN0dLT8s

It's true that North America still has a long way to go on EV infrastructure, but it will get there eventually.

Damn government, making things better for everyday people. How can honest corporations abuse their captive audiences when the government keeps restricting their abilities?

We need less/more/same regulation, whichever one satisfies my desires at any given moment!

Who else right now manufactures NACS chargers?

All CCS charger manufacturers. NACS is CCS with a different plug on the end. It's CCS type 3.

It's a very simple change for all manufacturers.

Here are interviews with various charger makers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPa6nO6GyM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfyO-o85U-8

Alpitronic and Kempower make the best chargers.

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