Why is the charge port in the back?

[father_of_6]

One reason I didn't see mentioned here is... maybe someone just thought it looked better for marketing their vehicles if they were facing out when charging.

Sure, maybe that sounds superficial but does that make it untrue?

 

[father_of_6]

Come to think of it... if I'm sitting in the driver's seat for 20 minutes while charging, I'd rather be facing outward too... instead of whatever wall / shrubbery / garbage cans might be past the curb.

I think Tesla made the right decision.

 

[SalisburySam]

I’ve also noticed that the majority of charging ports on newer cars are front left.

Really? My quick inquiries of manufacturer websites yield:

• Left rear - all Tesla S3XY vehicles (by far the majority of all EVs new or not), Volvos, and Polestars
• Right rear - all Hyundai/Kia/Genesis EVs
• Center front - Nissan LEAFs
• Right front - Nissan Ariyas
• Unknown - Spectre
• Left front - Chevy/Cadillac, Ford, Rivian, and Lucid EVs

There may be many others but I’d posit they in total don’t come anywhere near making up a majority of new EVs. Even if we find out the Spectre’s charging location to be the left front, it will not add more than a handful of cars.

 

[Watts_Up]

Really? My quick inquiries of manufacturer websites yield:

• Left rear - all Tesla S3XY vehicles (by far the majority of all EVs new or not), Volvos, and Polestars
• Right rear - all Hyundai/Kia/Genesis EVs
• Center front - Nissan LEAFs
• Right front - Nissan Ariyas
• Unknown - Spectre
• Left front - Chevy/Cadillac, Ford, Rivian, and Lucid EVs

There may be many others but I’d posit they in total don’t come anywhere near making up a majority of new EVs. Even if we find out the Spectre’s charging location to be the left front, it will not add more than a handful of cars.

Something to think about will be the implementation of future public wireless charging.

One advantage to use wireless charging is to suppress the need to have a post and a cable,
when parking in a street which is the case for most of the cars parked, when you don't have a garage or a driveway.

Suppressing a post and a cable would protect from vandalism, but also would prevent any obstruction
on a pathway where pedestrians, people with wheelchair, and visually impaired or blind people might be affected.

Considering that some cars will have the wireless charging coil located at the front, in the middle, or at the rear of the vehicule,
In the case of parallel parking, for any kind of car to be able to park above the corresponding wireless charging coil,
will require that the parking location uses two regular spots with the coil in the middle to let a car moving forward or backward as needed.

 

[fholbert]

wait - so as reversing out of a parking spot is dangerous, the answer is to reverse into the spot . . .

Any questions?

 

[Electroma]

I think it’s actually more to do with getting in and out of the car easily and minimizing steps. When you are supercharging and have to plug in, you open the door, plug in, get back in car close door. Same when you are unplugging: Open door, unplug, get back in car, close door. Compare this to front left charge port: open door, close door, plug in, open door, close door. When the charger is on the front left your driver door becomes an obstacle to reaching the charger.

I didn’t understand this until having another ev with a front left charge port. It’s super inconvenient to squeeze around the front door and mirror in a tight spot to reach that part of the car.

The downside to left side charge ports is curbside parking but I still think it’s ideal to be able to unplug as fast as possible in an emergency and the back left is the best place for that.

 

[J Neptune]

Now if only new Supercharger stations cools be built with pull-through stalls…

That be cool. But probably never happened.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Boy I touched a nerve here!

 

[bhzmark]

xcept for many/most people, backing out of a parking spot is much easier than backing in. Our driveway is sloped upwards and backing into the garage is definitely more difficult and dangerous than driving straight in, especially in the winter.

For most garages, when pull out of your garage, there is little risk of cross traffic or pedestrians. So the bigger risk is that you run into a bike or lawn power not put away in your garage, so yes, for most people pull in to your garage and back out.

But for most public parking places, with a risk of cross traffic and pedestrian, the safer practice, really evident to anyone who contemplates it for a moment if it isn't immediately obvious to them, is to back in the parking place -- with no risk of cross traffic or pedestrians, enabling you to pull out for a full view of traffic when coming out.

Although even in your own garage, for some people pulling out instead of backing out would have saved lives: the driveway is often an impromptu playground and backing into the driveway from the garage can be catastrophic.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

For most garages, when pull out of your garage, there is little risk of cross traffic or pedestrians. So the bigger risk is that you run into a bike or lawn power not put away in your garage, so yes, for most people pull in to your garage and back out.

But for most public parking places, with a risk of cross traffic and pedestrian, the safer practice, really evident to anyone who contemplates it for a moment if it isn't immediately obvious to them, is to back in the parking place -- with no risk of cross traffic or pedestrians, enabling you to pull out for a full view of traffic when coming out.

Although even in your own garage, for some people pulling out instead of backing out would have saved lives: the driveway is often an impromptu playground and backing into the driveway from the garage can be catastrophic.

New cars have backup cameras.

The fisheye lens and rear alert on our Kona makes backing out easy.

That being said, I often back into parking spaces, or pull through if possible.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I think it’s actually more to do with getting in and out of the car easily and minimizing steps. When you are supercharging and have to plug in, you open the door, plug in, get back in car close door. Same when you are unplugging: Open door, unplug, get back in car, close door. Compare this to front left charge port: open door, close door, plug in, open door, close door. When the charger is on the front left your driver door becomes an obstacle to reaching the charger.

I didn’t understand this until having another ev with a front left charge port. It’s super inconvenient to squeeze around the front door and mirror in a tight spot to reach that part of the car.

The downside to left side charge ports is curbside parking but I still think it’s ideal to be able to unplug as fast as possible in an emergency and the back left is the best place for that.

Most of my charging is at home. We pull forward into the garage and walk out the garage door so driver side front is very clearly best for us.

 

[zoomer0056]

So... car snobs will tell you [snip]

Ha . It's hard to tell if the text is from one who identifies as a car snob or not. Just teasing.

 

[howardnj]

Most of my charging is at home. We pull forward into the garage and walk out the garage door so driver side front is very clearly best for us.

Mine too!

 

[Watts_Up]

Mine too!

When parking in a home garage, I wish the Tesla plug was more inserted inside the door panel,
or that the plug was more flatter, because the space between the wall and the car is often small
especially for older garages, when you already have to park the passenger side close to the wall.

So when carrying items to or from the trunk or carry outside the trash, I often it the charging plug.
In my case, having the cable coming from above and suspended above the charging door,
provided more room and less risk of hitting the cable on the floor, especially for younger kids.

See what plug shape would have been less intrusive when parked in a narrow garage.
Maybe someone like EVSE could make an adapter extension with such shape?

 

[father_of_6]

See what plug shape would have been less intrusive when parked in a narrow garage.
Maybe someone like EVSE could make an adapter extension with such shape?

View attachment 982367

This would encourage the cord to drag across the car though. The existing plug almost seems like it was designed to prevent the cord from touching the car.

I would imagine with this type of plug we'd see very common wear patterns on the paint below the charge port on a vast number of cars.

 

[howardnj]

When parking in a home garage, I wish the Tesla plug was more inserted inside the door panel,
or that the plug was more flatter, because the space between the wall and the car is often small
especially for older garages, when you already have to park the passenger side close to the wall.

So when carrying items to or from the trunk or carry outside the trash, I often it the charging plug.
In my case, having the cable coming from above and suspended above the charging door,
provided more room and less risk of hitting the cable on the floor, especially for younger kids.

See what plug shape would have been less intrusive when parked in a narrow garage.
Maybe someone like EVSE could make an adapter extension with such shape?

View attachment 982367 View attachment 982368

In a very narrow older garage the Tesla charger can be installed outside on a pedestal with a 24ft cord

 

[sleepydoc]

In a very narrow older garage the Tesla charger can be installed outside on a pedestal with a 24ft cord

That doesn’t solve the issue - you’re essentially saying “just don’t charge in your garage”

I have a similar issue - we have a 2 car garage and I have to park on the right side. If I have my car plugged in my wife can’t safely pull in to the garage.

Our garage als leaves 3 poor options for charging - put the charger to the right of the car and run the cord behind my car to charge. Put it on the left garage wall and run it behind my wife’s car or put it on the back wall and run it all the way back to the charge port. We ended up putting it on the back wall but it means dragging it on the floor, subjecting it to salt, grime and increased wear and having a trip hazard.

 

[notmeguv]

Don’t know if this will interest anyone but in the UK, reversing in to parking spaces and driveways is generally encouraged.

The Highway Code which is basically the UKs driving rule book, recommends to reverse in to driveways.

Driving lessons now include teaching learner drivers how to reverse park into spaces and this can be included in the actual driving test (although forward parking is also taught).

Most driving associations recommend reversing in as the safest option.

And perhaps the most interesting… a company I previously worked for has reverse parking in to spaces as a company core value. You can be disciplined for parking forwards. (One of their other core values is “hold the handrail when walking up/down stairs”. They’re big on safety issues).

Energy giant orders staff to always reverse into parking spaces under 'draconian' health and safety rules

The decree is the top ‘golden rule’ that the 20,000 staff of Scottish and Southern Energy must follow under threat of disciplinary action.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Wattsisname]

Tesla vehicles have no blind spot warning system with cross-traffic alert. Backing into a parking space or garage overcomes the need for a cross-traffic alert warning capability when exiting. Tesla could have placed the charging port on the right side instead of the left (US driver side) of the rear of the Tesla vehicle. (Does anyone know, for UK Tesla vehicles with right hand drive, did Tesla move the charge port to the right side of the Tesla vehicle?)

It can be argued that having the charge port on the right side of the vehicle would be safer when plugging in to charge when parked in a parallel parking space. The distance from the charging port to the on-board charger would not appreciably change (might even be slightly shorter.) (Admittedly parallel parking is not the norm in most urban settings anymore. Nose in parking has replaced parallel parking in many locations.)

RH drive cars have the port on the left side as per LH drive cars. Perhaps the designers may have thought it good to have the port located such that it would be familiar for ICE drivers.

 

[Wattsisname]

That doesn’t solve the issue - you’re essentially saying “just don’t charge in your garage”

I have a similar issue - we have a 2 car garage and I have to park on the right side. If I have my car plugged in my wife can’t safely pull in to the garage.

Our garage als leaves 3 poor options for charging - put the charger to the right of the car and run the cord behind my car to charge. Put it on the left garage wall and run it behind my wife’s car or put it on the back wall and run it all the way back to the charge port. We ended up putting it on the back wall but it means dragging it on the floor, subjecting it to salt, grime and increased wear and having a trip hazard.

Would it be difficult to have two wall points? Probably technical issues prevent this. It can't be the cost ... surely!