Will Tesla Buildup Superchargers to Accommodate Anticipated Demand from Ford, GM, Rivian, and whoever else, Adopting NACS circa 2024/2025?

[E90alex]

There’s a new V3 station near me that’s setup like this. Haven’t seen any other SC before with the cabinets set up on the sides like that instead of directly behind the car. This design would easily allow other cars with different port locations to charge on V3.

 

[Tom_JS]

Ouch. We live within 15 miles of the Fremont factory, so Tesla vehicles and Superchargers have been here for a long time. It is not unusual to see 10 cars at a stoplight and 7 will be Teslas.

To be fair I have used a Supercharger exactly 1 time this year and only 4 times in the last 12 months. I see more and more Teslas that my wife says there is no longer anything special about them! I love it, the more the merrier I say!

 

[phishphan]

Telsa can build out fast, but there are a lot of moving parts to get a Supercharger on line. In some of the places by me the issue of the Electric utilities and local approval authorities being able to keep up. We have about 7-8 Superchargers sites within 10 miles of my house and within 15 miles 14 or more. So, Tesla can build them pretty quick. However, of those within 10 miles of my home at least one has been done for over 6 months, but still is not operation because of power company has not installed the transformer. The stalls are nicely lined out there and cleaned up, and the charging stands are installed and covered with padlocked canvas bags. The Tesla V3 Transformer is on site, but not the green power company transformer.

I’m not worried about super chargers by my house. I’m worried about super chargers along the interstates in rural parts of the country for commuting long distances.

 

[henderrj]

I think what we're forgetting is the number of third-party charging companies, including the auto manufacturers, who want to get their hands on those juicy funds that all the Tesla people pay at the superchargers. They will build fast chargers that WE can use. In other words, more people will be building what amount to superchargers, that is to say level three chargers, so there will be many more available for us as well as for all the new manufacturers coming online.

So it isn't just Tesla that has to expand up the supercharger network. Everybody else will be too. And it'll be great for us, because competition pushes people to give better prices. People have done it for gas for years, and they'll do it for charging too. "What's the cheapest place to charge?" That'll be a question that people ask in the near future. They won't care whether Tesla made the station or someone else. What am I saying, I won't care who made the station! I don't think we'll have quality issues with the electrons either. Pretty sure one person's electron is about the same as the next.

This is why I'm optimistic, but not for any of the reasons listed.

 

[jboy210]

I’m not worried about super chargers by my house. I’m worried about super chargers along the interstates in rural parts of the country for commuting long distances.

These are along interstates 580 and 680. Very high traffic with a lot of commuters going in and out of more rural/suburban areas in the Central Valley. And the number of Superchargers in the Central Valley is also increasing quickly.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I wonder if Ford, GM and the others will move their charge ports to support left-rear or front-right by 2025 when they say they will have NACS ports. The short charging cables of the Superchargers are one of the best features. No cables laying all over and getting run over.

Some might move to left-rear, but I hope they stick. I prefer left-front for my home charging.

Passenger side charging puts me off getting another HyunKia.

 

[jboy210]

Some might move to left-rear, but I hope they stick. I prefer left-front for my home charging.

Passenger side charging puts me off getting another HyunKia.

Some amount of standardization around the charge port location would be nice. If ends out being left-rear and right-front that allows homeowners to install the NACS charger once and know the next (and the next ...) car they get will work with their charging setup.

Right now, we have a NACS Tesla charger which is attached to a post in the center-rear of the garage. We park the M3 forward and the X backwards to let us charge either car. If we had a car with a right front port, we could park both facing forward.

 

[RTPEV]

Some amount of standardization around the charge port location would be nice. If ends out being left-rear and right-front that allows homeowners to install the NACS charger once and know the next (and the next ...) car they get will work with their charging setup.

Right now, we have a NACS Tesla charger which is attached to a post in the center-rear of the garage. We park the M3 forward and the X backwards to let us charge either car. If we had a car with a right front port, we could park both facing forward.

Unfortunately I don't think there is any right answer as to what charge port location is "best" (what location would you choose to support a charger located at a parallel parking spot? diagonal parking spot? vehicles with bike racks or trailers?). Then there are vehicle architecture considerations as well and the fact that while from a driver convenience point of view a charge port near the front may make more sense, the vehicle design dictates that a rear placement is better (undoubtedly why Tesla went with that).

Hence I don't think the effort should be towards standardizing the charge port location, but rather the chargers themselves to allow more flexible positioning of vehicles. There's a reason that gas pumps are arranged in islands--done correctly they can accommodate many different fuel inlet locations and vehicle types.

Yeah, the home charging scenario you raise is a tough one. Obviously we can't have an island in our garage! But at least there we do have the flexibility of long cables for more flexibility.

 

[MP3Mike]

Unfortunately I don't think there is any right answer as to what charge port location is "best" (what location would you choose to support a charger located at a parallel parking spot? diagonal parking spot? vehicles with bike racks or trailers?).

Hence I don't think the effort should be towards standardizing the charge port location

It would have been good if it was done at the start. For example, the MCS standard requires the charge port to be on the left side between the rear most door and the front most rear axel.

 

[Jim in Houston]

The biggest problem with Current and future Super Charger network is the Ellectrical infrastructure in most of US does not supply enough support to expand the charging network fast.

 

[RTPEV]

The biggest problem with Current and future Super Charger network is the Ellectrical infrastructure in most of US does not supply enough support to expand the charging network fast.

Do you really mean most of the US? or Texas and California?

 

[Genie]

The biggest problem with Current and future Super Charger network is the Ellectrical infrastructure in most of US does not supply enough support to expand the charging network fast.

What do you mean by “support”? Subsiidies?

 

[jboy210]

Unfortunately I don't think there is any right answer as to what charge port location is "best" (what location would you choose to support a charger located at a parallel parking spot? diagonal parking spot? vehicles with bike racks or trailers?). Then there are vehicle architecture considerations as well and the fact that while from a driver convenience point of view a charge port near the front may make more sense, the vehicle design dictates that a rear placement is better (undoubtedly why Tesla went with that).

Hence I don't think the effort should be towards standardizing the charge port location, but rather the chargers themselves to allow more flexible positioning of vehicles. There's a reason that gas pumps are arranged in islands--done correctly they can accommodate many different fuel inlet locations and vehicle types.

Yeah, the home charging scenario you raise is a tough one. Obviously we can't have an island in our garage! But at least there we do have the flexibility of long cables for more flexibility.

For towing we need to have some spots that are closer to pump drive through at gas stations. They do this at Tesla Superchargers in Norway and other countries because pickup trucks are largely non-existent. So, everyone uses a trailer to haul big things home from the hardware or furniture store. Many cars have trailer ball hitches in Europe and elsewhere.

 

[TomServo]

Enjoyed reading all the comments, nothing I could add to the questions that have been asked and answered. But I’d like to ask how much it costs to build a new Super Charger location today. Sometime ago I read it cost about $250,000 to build an 8 stall V2 site. And las and maybe I’m wrong but I believe the biggest challenge Tesla faces is securing real estate to host all these new sites.

 

[RTPEV]

Enjoyed reading all the comments, nothing I could add to the questions that have been asked and answered. But I’d like to ask how much it costs to build a new Super Charger location today. Sometime ago I read it cost about $250,000 to build an 8 stall V2 site. And las and maybe I’m wrong but I believe the biggest challenge Tesla faces is securing real estate to host all these new sites.

I think it's a whole lot easier for Tesla to secure real estate than it was in the early days...and with the recent NACS announcements, I'm sure it got a whole lot easier. Certain sites (i.e. convenience stores and travel centers) are starting to trip over each other to get access to chargers now, and that's only going to snowball from here on out.

 

[jboy210]

I think it's a whole lot easier for Tesla to secure real estate than it was in the early days...and with the recent NACS announcements, I'm sure it got a whole lot easier. Certain sites (i.e. convenience stores and travel centers) are starting to trip over each other to get access to chargers now, and that's only going to snowball from here on out.

Agree. Tesla Superchargers are a known traffic driver of people (customers) that spend 20-30 minutes at the location. And most of the people that drive Teslas, or any other EV, now are the type of people that have some money to spend.

 

[KJD]

Add Volvo to the list above.

Volvo said today that it would adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), opting to use the connector for its electric vehicles. The announcement makes Volvo the latest major automaker to adopt Tesla’s charging connector.

Volvo adopts Tesla's NACS Connector for EVs

 

[wnholt01]

I think you are going to see an increasing number of automakers adopt Tesla NACS for fear of being left behind. I also think Tesla views this as a large opportunity to increase revenue going forward, enough to easily offset the loss in competitive advantage.

In my opinion this increased demand will eventually lead to longer wait times for existing Tesla owners, offset only to the extent additional supercharger supply is brought online.

 

[jboy210]

I hope this also results in NACS plugs being used in Level 2 chargers along the street, grocery stores, schools, offices, etc. instead of the current CCS.

 

[KJD]

I hope this also results in NACS plugs being used in Level 2 chargers along the street, grocery stores, schools, offices, etc. instead of the current CCS.

It appears to me that this will happen in fairly short order. One of the larger third party providers of public chargers, ChargePoint made this announcement today.

ChargePoint Announces Availability of NACS Solutions for New and Existing EV Charging Deployments Enabling Customers to Continue to Serve Any EV in Any Parking Space | ChargePoint