Why is the charge port on the left side when we drive on the right side of the road in North America

[deonb]

I always thought auto makers manufacture an equal number of cars with fuel door on left and right, so that both lanes at the petrol station are roughly evenly used.

That's not so much by design as by evolution.

If 90% of vehicles had fuel doors on one side, a manufacturer of other-sided fuel doors would be able to come out with a marketing push of "buy my vehicle and avoid long lines at gas stations".

 

[David_Cary]

This topic again. Here is my take as a Leaf and an S owner for 6 cumulative years.

Garage - most people pull in first. The front is more flexible. I can't really put a charge port on the left of the car in my garage without some complex ceiling suspension and I have 15 ft ceilings. So I have to walk to the front of the car anyway so garage is better served in front.

Public charging - we have street side here in 1 place I frequent. It is a great spot and you get ticketed if not charging. So even S needs to be plugged in. Point 2 for Leaf.

Work charging is front of spot and backing in is hard - one case has angled spots so it is quite hard. I can do it now in one swoop but it is a high traffic area and angled spots so no question going in front is easier. Point 3 for Leaf

Now - build again. Plan garage exactly to have charging cable right next to port. Perhaps 1/2 point for S.

Supercharging would be easier in the front - another point for Leaf (except it doesn't have supercharging)...

Most people pull front in. I know lots of people don't but they are a minority at least where I live. Garage doors will always be an issue for placing charger at back of garage.

Lastly - the Leaf was first. First set what should have been the standard. Complain all you want about short range non cooled batteries but they were first high volume EV at a reasonable price point. Despite all its shortcomings, globally it is still number one in sales (I think and not for long but still). The 2.0 might be amazing. The Leaf still has some advantages over the 3x priced S - like better heat up, heated seats when pre heated, and can pre heat even when the range is below 50- argh!

 

[Shock-On-T]

Port is closest to the driver

Not on my car!

 

[3s-a-charm]

As one person mentioned, (mostly) German manufacturers began putting gas caps on the right side in case you needed to refuel on a roadside you were doing so away from traffic.

I like the argument that the front crumple zone be free of charging equipment.

As someone who has always found it easier to back in to a parking spot than go head-in - the rear charge port works best for me and I was able to locate my HPWC in the back middle wall of my garage to service both parking bays so I can park in either one and charge.

 

[Chaz]

I think if we want to see the long-term expansion of charging networks (as did gas stations a couple of generations ago) and have charging stations conveniently accessible to all, it would be prudent to have some sort of "standard" among EV manufacturers so that charging station manufacturers/installers can plan to effectively service the maximum number of EVs as possible.

I personally have had issues with trying to back in to a public charger that was on a one-way street, and into others that had "slanted" parking stalls, which made it problematic to get into, especially if there were other cars behind me as I had to pass the spot then back in. If this is going to be the norm for public/destination charging, it makes sense to me to locate the charge port somewhere in the front half of the car (left-side, right-side, or center) so that people can just pull in straight and charge.

Just my two cents....

 

[DarkMatter]

By the way, if you don't like the position because you don't like backing up, it might be worth practicing. You never know when you will need to back in to a tight spot.

 

[HyperMiler]

The current is high and continuous. If the full length of the cord is not pulled out, the part that is left coiled up will overheat. It may also be difficult to make the high current sliding contact needed for a reel like used in a vacuum cleaner.

Now that would be a design issue easily addressed by how the cord is stowed in the car. Could very cheaply be addressed by adjusting load according to how far you pull it out, or charging start depending on pulling out the cable, or the car slowly reeling out the cable by itself. Completely doable! Of course the whole wall box / ICCB aftermarket would be much smaller, and we would not get to crawl around in the mud as much. Maybe some of us could just use industrial grade ANSI / NEMA or CEE outlets at a tenth of the cost? Horrible thought ;o)

It's not the supercharger cable we are talking about:

EV Charging Leads - EV Charging Cables-Plug - Retractable Electric Vehicle Charging Reel

 

[Joe F]

By the way, if you don't like the position because you don't like backing up, it might be worth practicing. You never know when you will need to back in to a tight spot.

But that's not their point on a one-way street with diagonal parking. Try backing into this.
Difficult to do with ASCII though:

..........chg...chg....chg
.........o.......o....... o.......o
..........o........o.......o.......o
...........o.........o.......o.......o
------------ --------------------------
<------- one way street ------
---------------------------------------------------------

 

[HyperMiler]

Seems to be available in the US.

Products - Evocharge

 

[DarkMatter]

But that's not their point on a one-way street with diagonal parking. -

At least one poster was talking about Superchargers, which are perpendicular spots. I have seen the situation you are talking about before, and I agree backing in there makes no sense. At least around here all the ones I can think of also have long cords in those spots.

 

[McRat]

Being in the front center or rear center simply gives you more options.

Draw these three configurations with a single charging machine and 5 parking stalls 10' wide. Assume the max cord length is 25'.
You can see how a center configuration can perhaps use all 5 stalls on the first two styles, and is not beaten by side ports in parallel parking.

There are many different situations with individual owners EVSEs at their home, but all must deal with remote location charging.

Often we have 3 cars that need access to charging. At home, we have an inside EVSE that is left rear, but the cord is 25' so it can service most cars. I did this in case a car outside the garage needs to be charged. We have an outside EVSE that is front center w/16' of cord and a long driveway. Certain cars would have to back up the driveway to use it. At work, we have perpendicular parking stalls and an inside warehouse EVSE that would service 1,2, or 3 stalls with a front center car port, or 2 stalls with other ports.

Note that one problem with remote charging is getting 'iced', so the car with center location will sometimes be able to charge when side configurations cannot depending on which parking stalls are open.

 

[mrElbe]

Don't know if anyone remembers, in the 50's manufacturers played a game of where to hide the fuel input - behind tail lights, license plates etc. The hilarious fueling episode in the Chevy Chase film Vacation comes to mind.

 

[boaterva]

I seem to recall the point of the 'european gas fills being on the right' was so that if you needed to add gas on the highway, you didn't get run over, as you might if the filler was on the left. (Assumes driving on the right, etc., and may have been a 'back-fill' story like back-cronyms...).

I vote for the reason they are on the back left in the current Teslas being (1) 'closer to the driver' and 'like' a 'normal' domestic gas filler placement. But that's just my opinion.

 

[SMAlset]

But that's not their point on a one-way street with diagonal parking. Try backing into this.
Difficult to do with ASCII though:

..........chg...chg....chg
.........o.......o....... o.......o
..........o........o.......o.......o
...........o.........o.......o.......o
------------ --------------------------
<------- one way street ------
---------------------------------------------------------

That does not look like it was intended for backing in. Sure the assumption would be to pull in front forward and back out to the street. Not unlike diagonal parking on the street in some towns. The hoses on those stations would have to run the full length of the car though.

 

[SMAlset]

Don't know if anyone remembers, in the 50's manufacturers played a game of where to hide the fuel input - behind tail lights, license plates etc. The hilarious fueling episode in the Chevy Chase film Vacation comes to mind.

LOL I had completely forgotten there were gas caps under the fold down license plates way back when. I can picture my dad pulling the plate down to fill up.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Same reason gas caps are also located on the driver's side?

 

[Shaggy]

I like Ford's option better (left 'shoulder') than the Teslas (left back) and agree for a vast majority of public charging (perhaps not a few homes) is the Nissan front center. I feel saddest for i3's back right.

 

[McRat]

Same reason gas caps are also located on the driver's side?

Some cars. I would constantly pull our CTS-V to the wrong side of the pumps, and another car I forget right now until I learned the trick.

The gas gauge on modern cars has a triangle that points to left or right next to the fuel pump icon. This is the filler side.

 

[tga]

American car manufacturers of gas powered cars seem to use the right hand side whereas Japanese manufacturers opt for the left.

Not necessarily. My Chevy pickup has it on the driver's (left) side. My wife's (American made) outback had it on the right. GM used to be mostly left side, be seems to be a mix now. I had a Chevy Cruze rental recently that had it on the wrong (IE, passenger) side.

 

[DarkMatter]

And the fuel filler is always on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe, when it's on a rear panel and when there is a single exhaust.