Yes we're all on CCS2 plug - but taking the hassle out I won't agree with.
The EU is good in designing compolex regulatory frameworks that allow non-vendor-locking solutions in a big scale across countries - in theory - so that's why CCS2 is only a plug definition, but the hole charging process is defined into multiple roles that can and will all be different vendor as well:
View attachment 790901
only Tesla combines the roles of CPO ChargepointOperator, EMP EMobilitPRovider and "User" aka CAR Software within one ecosystem, so it works seamlessly. And this graphic does leave out vendor of the charging-stall itself. i.e.:
You drive a Porsche (with tech by Rimac) to an EnBW Charging station, built by Compleo and use your Plugsurfing Charging Card via the Hubject roaming network .... if something fails, no single party/piece in the puzzle has the full picture.
And coming regulations for mandatory integration of local payment solutions (card readers, RFID etc...) won't make it easier but just more complex.
(Europe is not the US where every Vending Machine has a CreditCardReader
)
Ahem.
I wish to raise up and show, "Object Lesson A". Once upon a time all medical records were kept on paper in doctors' office, or in some central paper filing cabinet physical database in a hospital or clinic. And Then, Computers Happened.
Initially, it was all ad-hoc. Some software company filled with sneaker-shod 20 or 30-somethings would put together a package for a doctor's office that they thought would sell and they would make few sales. Another company would be in competition with the first; and then there were companies that thought that hospitals would be a nifty target for this kind of thing, with even more money involved, and even more competitors.
Operative point: In the beginning, all these software databases were mutually incompatible because any three CS types in one company could easily make fifteen incompatible databases. And would, too: First version of the software may or may not have had an upgrade path to the second, and so on. You thought that Word vs. Wordperfect was a problem? You hadn't seen anything yet with these bozos.
And then there were the greedheads. Lock a customer into a particular software package and the details and exports of data into any other media, even paper, would be a Deep Dark Secret. Because greedheads just
love lock-in.
Finally, incidents where people were actually dying because appropriate information wasn't available because of moving from one doctor's office to another/data in a hospital wasn't available to a specialist/etc., etc. started happening on a more and more frequent basis. Insurance companies couldn't get information in a decent fashion and so would deny claims (they love that) and people died because of that. Finally, the Federal Government and State Governments (in the U.S.) started getting into this whole medical information on Computers business, and
they were getting frustrated.
And, so. There Was A Call By Government and Medical Business Leaders to Make A Standard for Medical Records. All the Software Companies Got Together And, Quickly, In A Calm Manner, Put Together A Standard That Was Open, Published, and allowed for Interoperability.
April Fools. The meetings were unattended, tied up in knots by those who did attend, all while nearly each individual company was promoting its Own Standard That It Offered To The World.. So long as everybody paid that company licensing fees, patent fees, copyright fees, and Any Other Fees They Could Think Of. (Think Adobe only allowing use of .pdf files if each and every one created resulted in $0.50 to Adobe.) And what few nonprofits that
did try to Make The World a Better Place were actively sabotaged by greedheads, their lawyers, and lobbyists far and wide. By this time people in legislatures were being
bribed given campaign donations to support one faction or another, and the whole thing disappeared into a swamp of lock-in attempts.
My current understanding is that there are, now, some 20 or 30 years after all this got started, some standards in existence, so at least diagnostic codes appear to be in some state of, "uniform" (and I wouldn't bet on that, either). Apparently forced into play by medical insurance companies. But transferring electronic records from one doctor's office to another? Don't think so, although I'll stand corrected if somebody knowledgeable says that it's all sweetness and light these days.
So, here come electric cars. The main impetus of the SAE has been, apparently, to do the behest of large, traditional ICE companies and lock out competitors, like Tesla, and to make an electric car connector that attempted to preserve ICE domination by making same low-power and cludgy to use. Tesla did offer its superior technology to the SAE and got turned down, for obvious reasons. The people who
sit on the SAE committees are, you guessed it, in the employ of manufacturers, and, frankly, do their bidding.
But, occasionally, things do work out. I happen to work in Telecom. There are standards, OTN, SONET, SDH, dozens of other alphabet-soup standards, environmental for equipment, boxes on street corners, and it goes on and on. People get together with good will and come up with the best they can. The flakes (and, believe you me, we get them) get shuffled off to the side. But, there's a reason for this: In Big-Scene Telecom, the customers are
big players. Verizon, AT&T. DTAG. British Telecom. France Telecom. There aren't a zillion of those guys, they've got the money, they talk to each other, and equipment manufacturers dance to the tune of the end-customers, not the other way around as it seems with Big Auto. If Big Telecom wants interoperability between different vendors' equipment.. guess what, they get it! And those equipment vendors who try for lock-in die a lonely death on the end of the vine. Not that the occasional value-added new stuff doesn't get in there from time to time, but there are Big Guys who want second sources and Guarantees.
So: Governments can make this happen. They have laws and guns. Hence, the EU's valiant attempt with vehicle charging stations. But part of that scene is that the people on these committees are (you guessed it) from the purveyors of this-and-that who appear to be trying to lock-out one vendor or another.
At least, in the coming meetings, there's going to be arguments made but, this time, it's not going to be in a conference room buried in a hotel somewhere with Nothing But The Enemy surrounding Tesla: There's going to be the administration, which includes the Commerce Department with some independent expertise, so one can hope that the Obvious Lying that infused previous attempts at all this will be toned down somewhat. And, at this point, it may be that the Big Guys (GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, VW, etc., etc.) may be Good And Tired of Playing Poke The Other Guy In The Eye While They Poke At Yours. So, there's hope. Who knows? Maybe Tesla's connector will become an SAE standard? (Don't hold your breath.. but maybe.)
Popcorn time.
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