I bought a Tesla dongle that goes CCS -> NACS in order to use it at Electrify America or EVgo stations, and it's largely been a waste of money. EA stations are usually broken or otherwise frustrating. I tried using one near San Diego a few weeks ago; there was one spot and one cable open. Great! I plugged the cable into the dongle and the dongle into the Tesla, but I couldn't start the charge. A woman who was charging nearby said that, if someone else has already started a charge with the other cable from the same machine, I can't start a charge. WTF? Isn't that why they install two cables?
I tried calling EA's support line and gave up after a few minutes on hold.
EVgo works the same way. They have chademo and ccs cables and only one works at a time.
Chademo is also dying and I think only Nissan continues to use it on HALF their ev line up (only the leaf which is an awesome car otherwise). Kia soul did use it but I think they moved to ccs
Yes, everyone except Tesla was using CCS. They still are, but might switch by 2025 or whatever. I suspect they’ll have both connectors for awhile, similar to have some DCFC had a CCS and Chademo.
Genesis also committed to NACS today. Just need the VW Group (VW, Audi, Porsche), BMW, Toyota and Stellantis (Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat) to adopt NACS and we will have the entire US market (99.9%+) on a single standard. Progress!
Do those remaining brands even sell any appreciable amount of EVs in the North American market? If they don’t get on board with NACS, they’re likely to be completely left behind.
It will be most interesting to see how the rising Chinese brands react to this.
But they all have big EV plans and do somewhat better in Europe.
No Chinese EVs have launched in the US yet. Given the tensions with China, both in trade and Taiwan, they will likely be excluded for the foreseeable future.
What sucks is, Tesla's chargers will only charge Hyundai/Kia vehicles very slowly (50kW) due to a mismatch between their 400V and the 800V of the cars. I was hoping that they'd announce a fix to this, but... nope.
Cynically, this is probably why they're releasing new, NACS-enabled cars (which will presumably charge at full speed on Tesla chargers) before releasing the adapter -- so that when owners of the existing cars realize how bad the experience is, new buyers will already have a better car available to buy, and won't need to worry about how this transition screwed over everyone who already bought a Hyundai/Kia EV.
The v4 superchargers are supposed to support 800V charging. They’re only just starting to be rolled out, unfortunately, but anyone who can hold out will probably end up okay.
It seems that Tesla plans to upgrade their charging network to support higher voltages for charging. This is also needed for their upcoming truck, it seems.
Hyundai suggested in a response to Green Car Reports that Tesla is on board to support its EVs' charge rates: “Tesla’s commitment to expanding its network will enhance customer access to out-of-home charging and fully support the ultra-fast charging speeds on Hyundai’s advanced Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) vehicles, including Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 and the upcoming Ioniq 7.”
Is there any way to use these chargers with some privacy? What information goes over the cable? Car model, license plate, locations, etc? Charging condom?
Payment is a separate issue and I'm mostly interested in the details above.
Not the transaction financial information but certainly the purchase amount and location are not covered by PCI restrictions and if a gas chain can find someone to pay them for that information, then they already have the arrangements and are doing so.
As the owner of a Nissan Leaf: welcome to my world. BTW I don't mind that much. It's a fantastic car for short-to-medium drives. In some ways I like it better than my Mini which I had and loved for 13 years. But for anything longer ... no. The rarity and slowness of ChaDeMo charging makes that a no-go. Fortunately we have my wife's car for longer trips, and in a couple of years might be able to replace that with whatever's the Latest Greatest in EVs by then. Probably go solar (plus wind if the tech is there by then) at the same time.
(Yes, I considered the electric Mini at the time. Thought the range was laughably short. In 20/20 hindsight I now think it would have been just about perfect for me.)
Well, one key difference is that 800V/lower-amps fast charging at DC chargers is one of the major advantages of the E-GMP platform Hyundai uses…10-80% under 20 minutes on an 800V charger.
But on a 400V system like Tesla, those low amps mean especially slow charging. So this guts the specific buying point that made the car special, if Tesla stays at 400V, and severely devalues it. It’ll charge like the famously awful Chevy Bolt.
CHAdeMO has been on its way out long enough that I assume anyone with a Leaf still on the road knew what they were getting into when they bought it. You buy that car to charge at home or work. The Ioniq 5 was supposed to be road trip capable.
I will personally never buy a Kia due to their refusal to fix widespread theft issues. And it’s not just Kia owners who are affected. The thieves steal cars and crash them into other things, making everyone less safe. Whoever made the call to install faulty ignition locks needs to be in prison.
Just because a model is not impacted by the specific issue doesn't mean that it isn't more likely to get broken into and damaged. The issue impacted all KIAs and the insurance for them unfortunately.
I know of several people who sold their EVs to buy Teslas for the fact that they couldn't take them on long trips.