Quote:
Originally Posted by sittingmongoose
The problem is not major city coverage, it’s suburbs and rural areas. And you can bet your ass that this new venture isn’t racing to build ev chargers in the middle of Iowa. They will be building out in cities that already have coverage from everyone else.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jmack123
You do realize the vast majority (80%) of people live in big cities?
So we have to figure out how to solve for the other 20%? Doesn’t sound like a huge problem...
Companies are adopting Tesla’s NACS as the de-facto standard. They’ll therefore have to integrate with Tesla’s software suite which will be native to GM, Ford, Volvo etc. vehicles starting 2025. Problem solved. In the meantime (around mid-2024), all those companies will have access to ALL Superchargers for vehicles without the native plug.
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There are a couple different dynamics getting thrown around here... The first is that the NACS de-facto standardization is only the plug. It is not the infrastructure for handling authorization, payments, etc. - not even the stations.
Next, the DC fast charging thing is mostly solving for road trips. Stations in urban, suburban, and rural areas would not adding a lot of value. Owners would mostly be charging at home, work, or the gym on L2 chargers in daily driving and almost never need a DC fast charger.
The need is along major thoroughfares. They are likely to be rural and urban, but not suburban. The idea is that major driving routes have enough stops along the way that people can do extended trips in an EV.
This JV, even if it uses NACS, would not have to integrate with Tesla's back end and APIs in any way. They can all do their own thing. The only integration necessary is for the Tesla Superchargers to recognize your non-Tesla VIN for charging at one of their stations. You can do that right now at any of the Magic Dock stations.
So...
- BMW and this JV could adopt NACS any time without any agreement with Tesla. SAE is set to standardize it as the J3400 connector. That would mean that they could put the connectors on their cars and JV charging stations whenever.
- NACS just improves the connector and gets us away from the CSS/J1772 debacle.
- This JV puts $1B of DC fast chargers in the wild. They can be CCS/J1772, or NACS, or both. Doesn't matter.
- These new JV DCFCs don't need to talk to Tesla at all. Drivers just need to have an account with the JV like you do now on any other charging network.
- The bigger issue that this does not explicitly address are dumb things like:
- Cars with ports in poor locations
- Unreliable stations in general (cords, physical equipment, 800V charging, high-current charging at 400V, etc.)
- Unreliable authorization and payments systems in everything but Superchargers
- Chargers that put out super low charge rates for no known reason
- Incorrect charger availability status integrated with route planning apps