All the Dominos are Falling

[spsheridan]

Electric vehicle maker Rivian said it has agreed to adopt Tesla's NACS charging standard, giving customers access to the biggest U.S. charging network and adding momentum to Tesla's bid to set the industry standard.

Exclusive: EV maker Rivian to adopt Tesla's charging standard

 

[ai4px]

I just posted these same comments on teslarati. Just putting a NACS plughead on some CCS charge dispensers is nice 'n all, but most of the issues I've had with CCS chargers involved the inner workings. Windows PC software that crashed... credit card readers not working or not able to communicate... Self test / diagnostics not passing. The biggest driver for NACS is the reliability of the chargers. Just putting a NACS plug on a crappy charger still won't solve the problem.

Out of Spec Kyle showed that EA chargers couldn't pass self tests (ground fault, etc) when it was below freezing. If EA / Chargepoint / others don't solve this problem, we'll still have unreliable charger network. Of course in the long run, if they don't solve it they'll go out of business.

Credit card readers... if the cell netwrok is down, they should still allow people to charge their cars. Just attach the bill to the VIN number and catch them the next time they charge at another station. Never not let people charge. Both CCS and NACS exchange the VIN number, so it's not like you don't know the car for next time.

It is my hope that the NACS agreements these other car vendors sign specifies that the charge port is on the rear right or front left.

Just my 2c worth... ha! 2c for my thoughts and "a nickel for your time"... there's a dad joke in there somewhere.

 

[srs5694]

It is my hope that the NACS agreements these other car vendors sign specifies that the charge port is on the rear right or front left.

Here's a YouTube video showing a Kia EV6 charging at the (AFAIK only) V4 Supercharger:

Between a longer cable and a changed placement of the pedestal relative to the parking space, it looks like V4 Superchargers will have no cable-length problems with at least most non-Tesla EVs. (I'm not sure even the V4's cable would reach a Ford F-150 Lightning's charge port, but it might.) Thus, in the long term it might not matter if charge-port location is harmonized across manufacturers, so long as they avoid placing it someplace really weird, like between the bed and the passenger cabin of a pickup truck.

That said, for compatibility with older V3 Superchargers, it certainly would be helpful to harmonize charge port location. Doing so might also enable moving back to shorter cables in the future, once CCS vehicles become a small enough minority of cars on the road. Shorter cables mean cheaper cables, which means lower costs to end users -- although probably not by much.