Ford, Basic Motors, Rivian, and Volvo have all struck a take care of Tesla to make use of its huge Supercharger community of DC quick chargers throughout america and Canada beginning subsequent yr, which can result in the alleviation of the most important ache factors for EV customers: availability and reliability of public charging.
Based on J.D. Energy’s E-Imaginative and prescient Intelligence Report from June 2023, Tesla’s Supercharger community is just the most important and most dependable quick charging community in america, with nearly 19,500 ports accessible countrywide, adopted by EVgo, which presently has round 2,250 quick charging ports within the nation.
Moreover, based on Tesla, its Supercharger community has consistently seen almost-perfect uptime stats within the final three years, which is much better than any competitor. J.D. Energy studies that within the first quarter of 2023, 21.6 % of EV drivers visiting non-Tesla public charging stations had been unable to cost their automobiles, whereas solely 3.9 % of Tesla drivers utilizing the Supercharger community skilled the identical factor.
General public charging buyer satisfaction can also be considerably increased amongst Tesla homeowners in comparison with different car producers, with the Austin-based marque scoring 734 factors (on a 1,000-point scale), adopted by Basic Motors with 586 factors, Ford with 544 factors, and Rivian with 542 factors.
With this being mentioned, the way forward for the CCS connector, in addition to the huge $7.5 billion in funding launched by the federal government is in query now. After GM’s announcement that it will be a part of Ford on the Tesla NACS connector wagon, with new automobiles scheduled to get the completely different port from 2025, the White Home mentioned that EV charging stations utilizing the NACS normal can be eligible for federal subsidies so long as they embody a CCS connector as effectively.
However after Ford and GM got here Rivian and Volvo with an identical offers with Tesla, and a few studies are saying that Stellantis is contemplating adopting the NACS plug as effectively.
Volkswagen, Porsche, Toyota, Hyundai, and BMW are nonetheless sticking with CCS (at the very least in the intervening time), so possibly having public charging stations with each NACS and CCS wouldn’t be such a nasty thought, however J.D. Energy says that programming and equipping automobiles to help each protocols (by way of adapters the place wanted) isn’t so simple as it sounds.
What’s extra, attainable interoperability and compatibility points might spur client confusion and frustration within the brief time period, the information analytics firm suggests.
With this being mentioned, nonetheless, it will likely be a matter of schooling and data, which is nothing new on this planet of recent EVs. That is the place automakers might want to placed on their big-boy hats and pull all of the stops to make it possible for potential EV prospects perceive what they’re stepping into and know what to anticipate within the following years.