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The real mistake was the standards group that looked at Tesla's connector in the US and CCS Combo 2 in Europe and decided the best connector for North America w

The real mistake was the standards group that looked at Tesla's connector in the US and CCS Combo 2 in Europe and decided the best connector for North America was CCS Combo 1 with an external latching mechanism to be backwards compatible with the handful of J-1772 low power chargers that existed at the time. In order to avoid separate ports for AC and DC charging, or a simple adapter that only needed to handle low power AC charging, they designed a giant franken-plug with a fragile latching mechanism. Given the lack of regulatory standardization on this plug in the years since, the majority of EVs and DC chargers in the US continued to use Tesla's plug, which remained proprietary to Tesla. When we finally started apply regulatory pressure via federal funding for EV chargers to try to force CCS1, everyone (including Tesla) finally caved and switched to Tesla's connector.

thiago_fm 3y ago
I believe your story is probably missing some lobbyists, but true!
- stetrain 3y ago
  Probably. The only point at which the US really tried to standardize was with the NEVI charger funding from the 2021 infrastructure bill. At the time most automakers in the US market supported CCS, so the NEVI rules were written by the NHWA to require CCS Combo 1 connectors, but also allow secondary connectors if they were non-proprietary. That seemed to push Tesla to actually publish their connector as a standard and try to get other automakers to adopt it, probably so that their own chargers could be eligible for the NEVI funding. Once that started rolling, and given the choice between sticking with CCS1 or adopting NACS and gaining access to Tesla's charger network, all of the significant North American EV manufacturers have now committed to switch over. The NHWA has said it will publish a Request for Information to determine how to incorporate NACS into the NEVI rules going forward.
maxdo 3y ago
That plug was never proprietary.
- stetrain 3y ago
  Tesla did not actually provide real specs to use their plug or interoperate with their vehicles and chargers until Nov 2022. The CEO made statements about anyone being able to use it, but that's not the same as actually offering it up as a standard in a way that others can use it. It was officially published as an SAE standard this week (SAE J3400).

thiago_fm 3y ago

I believe your story is probably missing some lobbyists, but true!

stetrain 3y ago
Probably. The only point at which the US really tried to standardize was with the NEVI charger funding from the 2021 infrastructure bill. At the time most automakers in the US market supported CCS, so the NEVI rules were written by the NHWA to require CCS Combo 1 connectors, but also allow secondary connectors if they were non-proprietary. That seemed to push Tesla to actually publish their connector as a standard and try to get other automakers to adopt it, probably so that their own chargers could be eligible for the NEVI funding. Once that started rolling, and given the choice between sticking with CCS1 or adopting NACS and gaining access to Tesla's charger network, all of the significant North American EV manufacturers have now committed to switch over. The NHWA has said it will publish a Request for Information to determine how to incorporate NACS into the NEVI rules going forward.

maxdo 3y ago

That plug was never proprietary.

stetrain 3y ago
Tesla did not actually provide real specs to use their plug or interoperate with their vehicles and chargers until Nov 2022. The CEO made statements about anyone being able to use it, but that's not the same as actually offering it up as a standard in a way that others can use it. It was officially published as an SAE standard this week (SAE J3400).