Hacker News Reader

Comment by yread | Hacker News Reader

The standards war for car charging is going to be a big mess:

there is the standard which i3 is using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772 that in itself has (incompatible?) AC (2 levels) and DC (3 levels) variants

then there is this with a completely different plug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO

and another standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDE-AR-E_2623-2-2#VDE-AR-E_2623...

China will use yet another one http://www.longtailpipe.com/2014/02/chinas-electric-car-fast...

Oh and then there's Tesla's supercharger network

View on HN

I have faith in EU to set some kind of standard for at least Europe.

It's only a matter of time before we all have to get our own stupid Belkin adapters for our electric cars. :)

If you ever have had a LPG car, you are already used to that kind of things.

I owned one in the past and crossed the border between 3 countries everyday (Europe ...) - so I had 2 different adapters in the car always.

Aren't there ways to use adapters for increased compatibility?

I don't see why companies wouldn't want to partner with Tesla, especially now that they have a significant number of charging stations and I don't think they charge a licensing fee for companies using their plug design.

Tesla already sells a SAE J1772 adapter, but it's $750 http://shop.teslamotors.com/products/j1772-connector

That's for the Roadster, the Model S version is only $95: http://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-ada...

The BMW vehicle would need the adapter to go the other way though, and apparently the cost can be reasonable. There's no reason why the j1772 to whatever the supercharger connection is should be greater than ~$100.

Even when everyone's compatible, will you be able to charge on another company's charger? Or will it be like the ATM issues of the past? "You can only withdraw money from your own bank's ATMs"...

I expect an EU smash as soon as EV charging networks become popular. That's the kind of stuff it's handled fairly well so far.

If you're in the US, you're probably screwed (because liberty)

Maybe they'll add premiums for non-partnered manufacturers, or secretly charge them much more slowly, sort of like the Comcast and Verizon of the roads.

Wouldn't charging more slowly risk creating a line behind the charger, causing issues for drivers of the manufacturer's cars waiting in line?

In the UK, most of the charging networks allow roaming by customers of other networks. It isn't comprehensive but so far I've found it good enough.

I can't agree more. It seems like this is going to slow down the progress until they all give in and choose a standard.

Or every car comes with 12 or more converters stored in the trunk...

Let's hope someone will quickly start manufacturing adapters bridging different standards.

Tesla does it so it's definitely possible to manufacture the adapters fairly cheap. From what I've heard the Tesla plug doesn't require a licensing fee so that certainly helps keep the price down for adapters.

http://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-ada...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com