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Welp, a rabbit’s been pulled from a hat

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and now I’ve got egg on my face.

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In a move that very much surprised yours truly,

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many automakers have announced their commitment to adopting the formerly-proprietary Tesla charging connector for their North American Market vehicles -

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a connector which, assuming things keep going
in the direction they appear to be going,

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is on its way to being an honest-to-goodness industry standard 
complete with its own SAE J number,

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J3400.

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And now it’s your turn to be surprised:

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I’m all for it!

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Yes, although I am personally quite annoyed by this outcome,

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that’s only because it’s a hit to my ego.

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I really didn’t think this was going to happen,
which you can definitely tell by some of my past assertions,

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but now that we know more of the details -

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assuming they hold true,
which is a monumentally important caveat to this entire video -

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this is welcome news.

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Ultimately I just want the industry to coalesce around a single charging plug.

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And, well, I was wrong about which one would win the plug wars.

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At least, probably - the dust hasn’t quite settled yet
and things could change but…

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honestly, the Tesla connector is better.

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Take note, Tesla Stans, I said it.

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And with what has recently come to light,

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there really isn’t a downside to the rest of the industry adopting the connector standard hereafter known as the

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North American Charging Standard,
or N.A.C.S. or NACS.

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I have four things I’d like to accomplish in this video:

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First, explain what makes the NACS connector
uniquely suited to use here on this continent.

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And just to lay this out up front,
this is only a North American development and standard -

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if you’re somewhere else, this video doesn’t really apply to you.

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Second, I want to talk about the change to
the standard that’s making me pretty chill about all this.

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Third, I want to address why automakers are making the switch
 and why they probably shouldn’t count their chickens before they hatch.

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And fourthly, I will get a little bit on the spicy side

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and share my broader thoughts and opinions
on the state of the third-party charging industry.

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I will freely admit that on the whole Tesla always had a better plug,

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but I really hope we don’t try and copy everything they do.

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First things first, what is NACS?

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Why is it different from the industry standard known as CCS?

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And why is North America uniquely suited to use it?

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To save time, I’m gonna keep this explanation pretty surface level - there are links to other videos of mine if you want to learn more.

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This is the charging port on my car.

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This connector is generally known as J1772,
and it’s for AC charging.

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It has five pins: three big ones for handling power
(line 1, line 2, and ground),

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plus two small ones for communication and control.

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This connector has been around since 2009,
and it supports a maximum of 19.2 kilowatts of power,

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though few cars actually accept that much.

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Due to practical constraints, charging through this port just isn’t that fast,

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though it doesn’t need to be - the whole idea of AC
charging is that it’s really simple to implement.

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What we call “car chargers” are really just smart power cords which deliver the same AC line voltage that runs through your walls to the port on your car.

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The actual charger module,

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meaning the thing with electronics that converts the AC power into the correct
DC voltage for charging the battery pack,

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is part of the car.

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That makes wiring up a new AC charge point
for an electric car very straightforward and inexpensive,

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and it will work with any car regardless of battery pack size, nominal pack voltage,
cell chemistry, or manufacturer.

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The charge speeds you can get through this port
are more than enough for charging at home or work

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where your car will sit for several hours at a time,

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but they aren’t anywhere near fast enough for taking a road trip.

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Battery packs of the size found in modern
electric cars need something on the order of 150 kilowatts to charge quickly -

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and even more if we want charge times to get down to the 15 minute range.

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Luckily, we thought of a solution.

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Under this little flap lie two gigantic power pins.

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These are there to facilitate high-power direct-current charging,

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and to accomplish this,
we in fact do hook the car up to an external battery charger.

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An offboard DC fast charger will connect through
these pins directly to the car’s battery pack.

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That charger can be figuratively and literally huge,

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with a massive grid connection capable of delivering 350 kilowatts or more.

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Using a defined signaling protocol on the
communication pins of the charge connector,

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the car’s battery management system will
request a specific DC voltage and current from the external charger,

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and that charger does as it's told to juice up the pack.

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With this technology, the only meaningful limit to charge time is, well,

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the state of battery technology.

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The addition of these DC pins give this charge connector its name, CCS,
which stands for Combined Charging System.

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It is a J1772 AC port combined with two DC pins below it.

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In Europe, this same exact augmentation was done
to the IEC 62196 Type 2 connector,

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also known as the Mennekes connector.

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Although the North American CCS1 and the European
CCS2 share a lot of the underlying technologies,

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the AC portion of the connectors are different

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thanks largely to the fact that European homes are often wired for three-phase power,

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which is just not a thing that happens here.

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Every consumer device,
including large electrical appliances like kitchen ranges or, yes,

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electric vehicle charging equipment, is single-phase only,

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so our AC charging connector only supports single-phase power.

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And yes, I know about J3068, but I’m ignoring it for this video
because for all practical purposes it just doesn’t matter.

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Look that up if you want to.

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But then… there’s Tesla.

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When the Model S was getting planned, CCS didn’t exist yet.

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In fact, in the very earliest days, neither did the J1772 connector.

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So Tesla came up with their own thing.

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And this is that.

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Or, at least, one side of it anyway.

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This is an adapter I have to switch between Tesla’s connector and J1772,

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and what you’re seeing here is the inlet side of the connector,
normally found on a car.

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If I managed to make it to a Destination charger
location to get footage of the plug side,

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you’re seeing that now.

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Now, you’ll notice it has the same five pins as the standard J1772 connector,

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they even have identical functions!

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But two of them are a heckuva lot larger than the rest.

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They’re not just girthy, they’re also quite long - about 30 millimeters.

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If you haven’t already guessed what’s going on,

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Tesla did a sneaky and uses the same two power pins
for *both* AC and DC fast charging.

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These power pins are massively oversized for AC charging, as in that case

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line voltage is sent to the car’s onboard charger through these pins,
which does the DC rectification and voltage boosting

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before sending it into the battery pack just
like in a car equipped with J1772.

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But when DC fast charging,

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or as Tesla calls it, Supercharging,

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a contactor in the car closes which shunts these big pins to a set of beefy cables
that go right to the car's battery pack,

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and the external Supercharger now shoves electrons in all on its own.

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It’s a very clever system, I must admit.

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And importantly it only really works
because we only have single-phase AC charging here.

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The NACS connector is conceptually identical to the AC-only J1772 connector.

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In fact for AC charging it even uses the same
signaling protocols on the two communication pins.

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The only difference between these two plugs
is the hilariously large AC pins which do DC double-duty.

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This scheme couldn’t really be done while also supporting three-phase charging,

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at least not without redesigning the Type 2 connector.

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And that’s why the Type 2 connector would get the exact same 
DC-pin augmentation that we see here with CCS1.

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Now, as clever as Tesla’s idea is, it’s not entirely without downsides.

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With CCS, the AC and DC sides of the connector
and thus car are completely isolated.

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The AC pins go to the onboard charger,
and the DC pins go to the battery pack,

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so it’s impossible for the wrong voltage to go to the wrong place.

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Combining them as Tesla did requires a little more consideration
on the car side to make sure wires don’t get crossed.

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But, in fairness, it’s not all that much.

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Adding a contactor to the onboard charger
would allow you to isolate it when DC charging,

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or you could also design the onboard charger
to tolerate having DC pack voltage on its input side when fast charging,

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which is what Tesla currently does if my understanding is correct.

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But combining the two functions also has a lot of upsides.

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The largest one being the smaller connector size

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which makes handling and inserting the plug much easier,
especially on DC charging.

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Making things even easierer is the connector’s shape 
which is somewhat self-aligning,

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helped even further by chamfering on the inlet side.

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The latching mechanism here is also flat out much better.

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If there’s one thing I’ve never liked about J1772,

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it’s the external mechanical latch that floats above
the actual mating surface of the connector.

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It wasn’t much of a problem in the early days,

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but when DC fast charging came along
a means of locking the connector to the car became necessary.

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That was done by way of a simple bodge:

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often a pin will stick out just above the latch,
preventing it from moving.

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I mean, it does work, but it’s never felt all that secure,

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and we have seen plenty of broken latches on public charging equipment

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which is annoying at best and a safety hazard at worst
as it will prevent the connector from actually locking.

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The NACS connector uses a much more elegant system:

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there’s a recess (or hole) on the plug
that a pin on the inlet side will catch.

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It’s a lot more mechanically robust,
and eliminates moving parts from the plug side.

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The car still needs some sort of actuator
to release that pin so you can remove the plug,

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but so does CCS so it’s no worse.

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The only thing that I find a bit unsettling about this latch design

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is that a dead car could potentially become stuck to a charger
if it can’t release the handle.

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But there are ways around that, like the manual release lever
 you’ll find in my car behind this little cover in the cargo area.

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Note to every car designer and engineer ever:

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clearly marked manual overrides for electronic latches are a good thing!

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And for the love of all things holy please do not design them out
to reduce Bill Of Materials.

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Thanks.

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Now, before I move on to the section where I talk about the change
that’s making me pretty chill about the switch to NACS,

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I’m sorry but I do just need to refresh everybody on the timelines here.

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I can't help it.

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I didn’t think other automakers would be interested
in Tesla’s little connector for two related reasons:

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first, this was proprietary and Tesla retained control over it until late last year -

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and yes, people are gonna argue with that in the comments and insist that Tesla offered the use of their connector and indeed charging network

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as far back as 2014,

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but that offer came with many strings attached which is demonstrated most clearly by the fact that nobody ever took them up on it.

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And second, because it was proprietary until last year,

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we didn’t really know anything about its capabilities
other than what Tesla was kind enough to tell us.

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CCS, meanwhile, had published specifications.

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Wild, I know!

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And guess what?

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It was more powerful than Tesla’s connector had demonstrated.

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in fact, in terms of charging stations that are actually on the ground,

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it still is.

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The DC pins of CCS can handle 500 amps,

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and they was designed to support up to 1000 volt charging 
which was crucial for automakers considering 800V battery architectures.

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That high current and high voltage allowed for 350 kilowatt CCS charging stations, and they’ve been on the ground (albeit in small numbers) since 2017.

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Meanwhile, Tesla's V3 supercharger,
which only supports a maximum of 250 kilowatts,

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didn’t come out until 2019.

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So for literally half a decade at this point,

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the choice for other automakers was between a connector 
controlled entirely by one of their competitors

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which had only ever demonstrated 250 kW charging,

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and a connector controlled by an industry standards body
that is specced for 40% higher power output,

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supported 800V battery architectures,

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and all while retaining compatibility with the existing Level 2 AC charging equipment.

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It was perfectly rational, and I’d argue correct,
for other automakers to just ignore Tesla’s connector.

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However, three significant barriers have now fallen:

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first, Tesla actually,

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for realsies,

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released details on their connector's design.

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Last November, they announced that
“today we are opening our EV connector design to the world.

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We invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port,

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now called the North American Charging Standard, on their equipment and vehicles.”

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I will add that whether they’ve actually
released their patents on the connector is unclear -

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I am not a lawyer, and my search was inconclusive,
but given that the SAE is taking on the connector as a standard,

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I will assume in good faith that they have.

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Second, and relatedly,
we now know the connector can support 1,000V charging.

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This was a giant open question for years because to this day 
none of Tesla’s cars have 800V-class battery packs,

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and so we’ve never seen their connector pushed beyond about 500 volts.

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00:15:02,730 --> 00:15:09,724
Through a small and backward-compatible revision to its design which insets the conductors a little further into the connector body,

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it now does indeed support 1,000V.

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Interesting that they had to redesign it, though, isn’t it?

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00:15:15,938 --> 00:15:17,742
But at least they did.

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00:15:17,742 --> 00:15:24,249
I am still very skeptical of Tesla’s claim that the connector can handle 900 amps,

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00:15:24,249 --> 00:15:32,025
but it does seem capable of handling 500 just fine
so it is at least on-par with what CCS can do.

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The third thing that’s changed is what’s making me most at peace
with the push to standardize on NACS.

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Going forward, NACS will speak the same language that CCS does.

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Up 'til now, Tesla Superchargers communicated with Tesla cars 
in an entirely locked-down and proprietary fashion,

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but as they have made moves to turn their plug into a real standard,

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they’ve decided to add support
for the same communication protocols that CCS uses.

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That means that, eventually,

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the only difference between a car with a CCS port and a NACS port will be…

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the port itself.

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And that means simple adapters can be used to switch between connector types.

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As of this writing,

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that’s what the companies that have announced their intention to switch
charging ports will be providing to their customers with CCS-equipped cars;

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once a few things regarding billing and what not get sorted,

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they’ll be able to rock up to a Tesla Supercharger using the adapter and juice up.

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Now, as great as this is, there are some cans of worms here.

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Because CCS separates the AC and DC sides,

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drivers will need to carry two adapters:
one for DC fast charging and the other for AC charging

212
00:16:50,273 --> 00:16:52,339
(like this one).

213
00:16:52,339 --> 00:16:59,809
That is a little confusing, and leads to some potential concerns regarding
what would happen if you use the wrong adapter.

214
00:16:59,809 --> 00:17:06,681
However, there are a lot of checks that happen both on the car side
and the charger side before contactors get closed,

215
00:17:06,681 --> 00:17:10,000
so this may not be a problem at all in practice.

216
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:17,363
But it is something to be aware of and I hope a sensible means of detecting that the wrong adapter is being used is put in-place.

217
00:17:17,363 --> 00:17:23,369
The other can of worms has to do with how much current
such an adapter can safely handle.

218
00:17:23,369 --> 00:17:31,158
They’re gonna have relatively short links inside of them and they could in theory simply be huge aluminum rods or something like that so

219
00:17:31,158 --> 00:17:36,281
I am pretty certain handling 500 amps won’t be too much of an ask,

220
00:17:36,281 --> 00:17:38,857
but that leads us to the other thing:

221
00:17:38,857 --> 00:17:44,098
Tesla has in the past and to this day sort of just...

222
00:17:44,098 --> 00:17:48,943
ignored the conventional current limitations of a given conductor.

223
00:17:48,943 --> 00:17:53,106
Now, I’ve actually come around to agreeing with that practice.

224
00:17:53,106 --> 00:18:01,478
A hard-and-fast current limit makes sense for the wiring in your home that runs within walls and may span dozens of meters.

225
00:18:01,478 --> 00:18:10,540
But you can safely exceed a current limit for short periods of time,
and often by rather large margins when the conductors are relatively short.

226
00:18:10,540 --> 00:18:18,149
Tesla’s approach has been to put temperature sensors in strategic places
and monitor how hot those conductors are getting.

227
00:18:18,149 --> 00:18:22,405
And so long as they’re not getting too hot, then they go ham.

228
00:18:22,405 --> 00:18:26,880
I used to think this was pretty haphazard but I’m no longer bothered by it.

229
00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,563
Again, Tesla stans, mark that down.

230
00:18:29,563 --> 00:18:35,945
But in a land of adapters, I can see that strategy becoming problematic.

231
00:18:35,945 --> 00:18:39,535
Maybe the thermal conductivity of the links within the adapter body

232
00:18:39,535 --> 00:18:43,957
will be sufficient for sensors in the handle and car to detect overheating,

233
00:18:43,957 --> 00:18:46,358
and thus I have no reason to worry.

234
00:18:46,358 --> 00:18:52,880
But maybe it would be smarter to know whether
an adapter is in use and limit the current to some safe number.

235
00:18:53,383 --> 00:18:56,118
Won’t really matter to me since I have an 800V car

236
00:18:56,118 --> 00:19:00,962
which peaks at about 300 amps despite sucking down 240 kilowatts,

237
00:19:00,962 --> 00:19:04,119
but I figured I’d bring this up in case nobody’s thought of it.

238
00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:09,114
Anyway, with a reiteration of the monumentally important caveat from the beginning,

239
00:19:09,114 --> 00:19:15,880
so long as the communications remain the same and
passive adapters will allow people to charge on either plug,

240
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,993
there’s really not much of a reason to be upset, here.

241
00:19:18,993 --> 00:19:21,489
And I’m genuinely not!

242
00:19:21,489 --> 00:19:29,049
Eventually I’ll grab one of those adapters if I need to
and having a CCS-equipped car will be nothing but a minor inconvenience.

243
00:19:29,049 --> 00:19:36,323
Assuming, that is, CCS is in fact going away
which is likely but by no means certain quite yet.

244
00:19:36,323 --> 00:19:41,020
So now, why are automakers suddenly itching to make this switch?

245
00:19:41,487 --> 00:19:43,656
Well, there’s a pretty simple answer:

246
00:19:43,656 --> 00:19:48,820
the CCS charging networks available here in the US all kinda suck.

247
00:19:48,820 --> 00:19:52,770
There’s only one complete network which lets you travel anywhere in the country

248
00:19:52,770 --> 00:19:55,523
(which isn’t even that complete, sorry the Dakotas)

249
00:19:55,523 --> 00:19:59,702
and, uh, that network doesn’t have a great track record.

250
00:19:59,702 --> 00:20:02,712
I’ve personally never been stranded by it,

251
00:20:02,712 --> 00:20:11,276
but back in April I went on a trip in which, to start the chargers,
I had to sign out of the Electrify America app and sign back in

252
00:20:11,276 --> 00:20:14,189
at Every Single Stop,

253
00:20:14,189 --> 00:20:21,010
and more than half of those stations had broken NFC readers 
so I couldn’t just activate the chargers by tapping my phone.

254
00:20:22,661 --> 00:20:28,309
It wasn’t great,
and that experience is happening to far too many owners of new EVs.

255
00:20:28,668 --> 00:20:32,330
Meanwhile, the Tesla Supercharger network largely…

256
00:20:32,330 --> 00:20:33,791
just works!

257
00:20:33,791 --> 00:20:43,730
It’s not perfect, no, but most locations have far more redundancy
than any EA station does, and the overall experience is excellent.

258
00:20:43,730 --> 00:20:48,995
However, I think automakers are in for a surprise if they’re not careful, here.

259
00:20:48,995 --> 00:20:57,790
The problems that the CCS networks have experienced
have almost *nothing* to do with the connector itself.

260
00:20:57,790 --> 00:21:03,151
In my travels with my Hyundai,
I have experienced almost no charging issues…

261
00:21:03,151 --> 00:21:06,169
once I manage to activate the charger, that is.

262
00:21:06,169 --> 00:21:10,434
So long as I can get to that point,
which is often a lot harder than it needs to be,

263
00:21:10,434 --> 00:21:14,128
I simply plug it in and it has worked with only a few exceptions -

264
00:21:14,128 --> 00:21:22,371
and every one of those was due to the haphazard way that CCS stations are configured which led to a poorly-aligned plug which didn’t latch correctly.

265
00:21:22,371 --> 00:21:27,690
While that itself is a problem, it’s the least of issues we see.

266
00:21:27,690 --> 00:21:31,198
The main problems with the CCS networks are poor maintenance,

267
00:21:31,198 --> 00:21:32,460
horrible up-time,

268
00:21:32,460 --> 00:21:36,686
largely terrible apps which are often the only way to start charging,

269
00:21:36,686 --> 00:21:45,127
and last but definitely not least, a lack of interoperability testing
and certification when new car models get released.

270
00:21:45,127 --> 00:21:47,031
Let me go through those one by one.

271
00:21:47,031 --> 00:21:48,702
Starting with maintenance.

272
00:21:48,702 --> 00:21:52,867
The fastest DC fast chargers have liquid-cooled cables.

273
00:21:52,867 --> 00:21:59,990
That allows those cables to have thinner-than-normal
conductors which in turns allows them to be lighter and easier to handle.

274
00:21:59,990 --> 00:22:04,664
This is really neat, but loads and loads of chargers are out there

275
00:22:04,664 --> 00:22:08,780
in which the liquid cooling part is broken.

276
00:22:08,780 --> 00:22:14,386
When that happens, the charger will de-rate itself
to stay within the safe limits of the conductors,

277
00:22:14,386 --> 00:22:18,594
which tends to result in abysmally slow charging speeds.

278
00:22:18,594 --> 00:22:27,245
Making this even worse, until quite recently some networks didn’t even warn you
that the charger you were about to plug into had cable cooling issues,

279
00:22:27,245 --> 00:22:32,670
so it was a fun guessing game
whether you would get the advertised charging speeds or not.

280
00:22:32,670 --> 00:22:38,360
Electrify America has finally begun indicating
which chargers might be power-limited in the app,

281
00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:42,202
but I can attest to this not being entirely accurate.

282
00:22:42,202 --> 00:22:48,110
That’s certainly the most common maintenance issue that I’ve experienced,
but it is by no means the only one.

283
00:22:48,110 --> 00:22:52,294
There’s a lot of equipment out there with power modules that are starting to fail,

284
00:22:52,294 --> 00:22:59,079
leading to reduced output, weird surging behavior,
or entirely knocked off chargers.

285
00:22:59,079 --> 00:23:03,809
Cables will cut by vandals and the response can be far too slow.

286
00:23:03,809 --> 00:23:08,235
As mentioned before, latches on the connector can fail,
which I’ve seen several times.

287
00:23:08,235 --> 00:23:16,719
And insulation breakdown can lead to failed
isolation tests which takes individual cables or entire chargers offline.

288
00:23:16,719 --> 00:23:19,523
This sort of wear-and-tear is to be expected,

289
00:23:19,523 --> 00:23:27,680
but apparently most charging providers just don’t have the maintenance teams or infrastructure to actually take care of it in a timely fashion.

290
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,230
Relatedly, there’s the whole uptime thing.

291
00:23:31,230 --> 00:23:32,778
As I write this, two -

292
00:23:32,778 --> 00:23:37,744
no, wait, three stations around Chicago are entirely offline.

293
00:23:37,744 --> 00:23:39,111
That’s not great!

294
00:23:39,111 --> 00:23:43,195
And plenty more locations have at least one charger that is dead.

295
00:23:43,195 --> 00:23:50,419
That’s not a big deal when your site has 8 or more chargers,
but most of Electrify America’s locations have only 4.

296
00:23:50,419 --> 00:23:58,530
A single charger going down in one of those locations results in a 25%
loss in capacity which is just not acceptable.

297
00:23:59,140 --> 00:24:01,211
Now, in fairness to EA,

298
00:24:01,211 --> 00:24:07,469
they started their infrastructure rollout back when charging equipment manufacturers were just getting started themselves,

299
00:24:07,469 --> 00:24:12,449
so they have a whole bunch of legacy hardware
from various different companies out there,

300
00:24:12,449 --> 00:24:15,698
and that makes their operations uniquely challenging.

301
00:24:15,698 --> 00:24:19,976
But that by no means is reason to give them a pass.

302
00:24:19,976 --> 00:24:22,468
Then we have the apps.

303
00:24:22,468 --> 00:24:26,577
Whether they refuse to keep you signed in or just flat out don’t work,

304
00:24:26,577 --> 00:24:34,708
it’s not a great feeling to be relying on a Jenga-tower of an IT stack
and working cell service to make it to your next location.

305
00:24:34,708 --> 00:24:40,000
Electrify America does at least include credit card readers on their fast chargers,

306
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,508
but they didn’t pick the most robust of units

307
00:24:42,508 --> 00:24:47,140
which was brave considering the chargers are largely just out in the elements.

308
00:24:47,140 --> 00:24:52,098
App-activation might be a necessary evil for banks of level 2 chargers,

309
00:24:52,098 --> 00:24:57,109
but given how monumentally expensive DC fast charging equipment is,

310
00:24:57,109 --> 00:25:05,940
in my opinion a robust credit card reader (or at the very least an actually-working NFC reader for contactless payments or Apple pay or whatever)

311
00:25:05,940 --> 00:25:07,940
is a must.

312
00:25:07,940 --> 00:25:14,120
And if you’re thinking plug-and-charge is a great solution,
well I have differing thoughts which I’ll get to later.

313
00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:16,823
And then we have the interoperability testing.

314
00:25:16,823 --> 00:25:18,785
Or lack of it.

315
00:25:18,785 --> 00:25:23,258
In part because the CCS protocol is a hodgepodge of weirdness,

316
00:25:23,258 --> 00:25:31,720
there are many opportunities for bugs to show up in the back-and-forth
between car and charger which can lead to a failed charging session.

317
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:38,855
And for whatever reason, automakers have largely just left third-party charging providers to find those bugs all on their own.

318
00:25:39,752 --> 00:25:42,016
Which is very dumb. And bad!

319
00:25:42,016 --> 00:25:49,066
Everybody should be loaning their latest models
to the likes of Electrify America, EVgo, Chargepoint, etc.

320
00:25:49,066 --> 00:25:51,239
before they even make it to customers.

321
00:25:51,239 --> 00:25:56,982
But apparently this rarely happens, and those charging providers have to find somebody with the latest cars

322
00:25:56,982 --> 00:26:00,132
and hope they’ll be kind enough swing by for testing.

323
00:26:00,132 --> 00:26:03,633
So, great job, automakers, you did this to yourself!

324
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,500
At least in part.

325
00:26:05,500 --> 00:26:12,951
I know I’m repeating myself here but the CCS connector itself 
had nothing to do with these issues.

326
00:26:12,951 --> 00:26:16,487
Simply putting a NACS plug on the end of the same cable

327
00:26:16,487 --> 00:26:21,580
won’t magically fix the charger on the other end
or the company that runs it.

328
00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:26,909
The woes of CCS are almost entirely due to bad management on all sides

329
00:26:26,909 --> 00:26:33,740
that doesn’t seem to understand the importance of providing
a reliable and good charging experience.

330
00:26:33,740 --> 00:26:35,895
That’s what Tesla gets right,

331
00:26:35,895 --> 00:26:43,028
and Tesla does indeed deserve massive kudos for sidestepping this problem
and building out their own charging infrastructure.

332
00:26:43,028 --> 00:26:51,340
But that’s the reason I’m cautioning automakers and, well, really everyone
hoping the NACS connector will be some sort of panacea.

333
00:26:51,340 --> 00:26:53,990
It will be nice to have a better connector, sure,

334
00:26:53,990 --> 00:26:58,442
but the connector is not what’s wrong with the third-party charging industry,

335
00:26:58,442 --> 00:27:00,460
not by a long shot.

336
00:27:00,819 --> 00:27:05,980
Still, I welcome the switch
and think it presents a true best-of-both-worlds situation.

337
00:27:06,698 --> 00:27:11,038
My beef with the Tesla connector and their whole charging ecosystem

338
00:27:11,038 --> 00:27:14,411
was always that it was a proprietary connector which functioned —

339
00:27:14,411 --> 00:27:16,608
intentionally or not, doesn't matter

340
00:27:16,608 --> 00:27:21,168
— to lock-out any other vehicles from using their infrastructure.

341
00:27:21,168 --> 00:27:28,149
I also didn’t exactly like the idea of the same company that sells you the car
being the one to sell you its fuel to use it

342
00:27:28,149 --> 00:27:36,440
and was super concerned that a landscape of Tesla-only, 
Ford-only, and Volkwagen-only charging spots would become the norm.

343
00:27:36,835 --> 00:27:43,196
I was honestly pretty disturbed by how few people seemed to realize
what a dark place we’d be in if we allowed that to happen,

344
00:27:43,196 --> 00:27:50,402
and that’s why I was totally cool with letting charging networks grow organically
and compete with one another.

345
00:27:50,402 --> 00:27:55,057
Regrettably, that just didn’t happen fast or well enough.

346
00:27:55,057 --> 00:28:00,909
When we get right down to it, the CCS rollout was botched and way too slow.

347
00:28:00,909 --> 00:28:09,116
And since there really aren’t that many CCS chargers in the wild yet,
if there’s a time to abandon that connector it’s now.

348
00:28:09,116 --> 00:28:18,160
I mean, I was saying that about Tesla’s connector back in 2018 because I figured
CCS station rollout would accelerate beyond the pace at which Tesla could go.

349
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,620
But… it just didn’t happen.

350
00:28:20,620 --> 00:28:23,360
I was wrong, and here we are.

351
00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:28,522
Now that the SAE is taking NACS on and Tesla
has apparently relinquished control of it,

352
00:28:28,522 --> 00:28:33,223
combined with the fact that they’re inviting
other drivers to use the Supercharger network,

353
00:28:33,223 --> 00:28:35,559
well my beefs are gone.

354
00:28:35,559 --> 00:28:37,659
Mostly, anyway.

355
00:28:37,659 --> 00:28:40,735
[voiceover]
I realize I’ve left a pretty big hole in the script

356
00:28:40,735 --> 00:28:44,700
when it comes to competition among third-party charging providers.

357
00:28:44,700 --> 00:28:45,652
To make up for that,

358
00:28:45,652 --> 00:28:47,953
here’s some footage of puppies!

359
00:28:47,953 --> 00:28:55,809
I might have made it sound as though switching connector types
means other automakers are handing a charging monopoly to Tesla.

360
00:28:55,809 --> 00:28:59,580
However, that’s definitely not what’s happening.

361
00:28:59,580 --> 00:29:04,503
In the short term,
I imagine Tesla’s gonna be a very popular charging network,

362
00:29:04,503 --> 00:29:09,750
but in the long-run,
this is ultimately *good* for competition and consumers.

363
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:17,159
CCS networks have been so terrible precisely because
they don’t compete with Tesla.

364
00:29:17,159 --> 00:29:22,038
The drivers they provide charging to
cannot access Tesla’s more reliable network,

365
00:29:22,038 --> 00:29:28,390
so up ‘til now CCS drivers just had to put up with
how terrible the other networks are.

366
00:29:28,390 --> 00:29:31,110
They literally don’t have a choice.

367
00:29:31,110 --> 00:29:33,093
But soon they will.

368
00:29:33,093 --> 00:29:36,351
Once CCS drivers can choose Tesla’s network,

369
00:29:36,351 --> 00:29:42,949
every other charging provider will need to get their act together 
or no one will use them and they will die.

370
00:29:42,949 --> 00:29:45,367
To be clear, I don’t want them to die -

371
00:29:45,367 --> 00:29:53,356
and so long as they have half a brain somewhere in the C-suite,
they’ll grab hold of the lifeline Tesla just threw them.

372
00:29:53,356 --> 00:29:58,577
Making NACS a real standard,
and making it speak the same protocols as CCS,

373
00:29:58,577 --> 00:30:06,715
means a simple cable swap will allow Electrify America
or whoever else to sell their services to Tesla drivers

374
00:30:06,715 --> 00:30:14,130
(at least most Tesla drivers… I won’t get into the fiasco that is the
Tesla cars that can’t speak CCS).

375
00:30:14,130 --> 00:30:21,675
Honestly, releasing their connector to the wild is without a doubt
the most altruistic thing Tesla has ever done,

376
00:30:21,675 --> 00:30:29,535
and I applaud them for following through on their stated goal
of accelerating electrification and not just their own sales.

377
00:30:29,535 --> 00:30:32,543
But now, back to what I had already scripted.

378
00:30:32,543 --> 00:30:35,277
Let me tee up the next sentence.

379
00:30:35,277 --> 00:30:38,345
While the transition to NACS might be pretty seamless,

380
00:30:38,345 --> 00:30:43,710
there is still a pretty big wrinkle, though, and that’s cars like mine.

381
00:30:43,710 --> 00:30:50,429
Hyundai and Kia decided to develop an 800V battery architecture
for the E-GMP platform.

382
00:30:50,429 --> 00:30:53,737
It’s an amazing battery pack, and

383
00:30:53,737 --> 00:31:01,927
(at least when I’m on the right charger)
I have repeatedly experienced real-world charge times of less than 20 minutes.

384
00:31:01,927 --> 00:31:08,023
And while we now know that Tesla’s
*connector* can support charging at that voltage,

385
00:31:08,023 --> 00:31:16,908
literally none of Tesla’s chargers in the US
actually support battery pack voltages above 500 volts.

386
00:31:16,908 --> 00:31:19,641
This will slowly be changing, though -

387
00:31:19,641 --> 00:31:23,478
V4 superchargers are able to output that voltage.

388
00:31:23,478 --> 00:31:27,985
However, as of now, none have been deployed in the US.

389
00:31:27,985 --> 00:31:35,080
Accordingly, companies that have invested in 800V architectures,
mainly Hyundai/Kia, Porsche, and Lucid,

390
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:41,205
aren’t exactly in a rush to sign onto the NACS standard
because even once adapters are available,

391
00:31:41,205 --> 00:31:48,973
trips to a Tesla Supercharger will be either painfully slow
or just won’t work at all for those cars.

392
00:31:48,973 --> 00:31:55,225
Many 800V cars have some provision
to charge on 400V-class DC fast chargers,

393
00:31:55,225 --> 00:31:57,821
but it’s usually only a trickle.

394
00:31:57,821 --> 00:32:03,129
Until Tesla actually rolls out 1000V capable charging sites in large numbers,

395
00:32:03,129 --> 00:32:09,675
having support for NACS charging just doesn’t matter
for cars with 800V battery packs.

396
00:32:09,675 --> 00:32:12,841
That is, of course, only in the immediate term.

397
00:32:12,841 --> 00:32:15,210
And there’s been some interesting news!

398
00:32:15,210 --> 00:32:19,386
A new as-yet-unnamed joint venture was recently announced between

399
00:32:19,386 --> 00:32:24,879
BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis

400
00:32:24,879 --> 00:32:29,253
which aims for a pretty ambitious charging network in the US.

401
00:32:29,253 --> 00:32:36,589
This network is going to support both CCS and NACS, 
presumably with each dispenser having two cables.

402
00:32:36,589 --> 00:32:39,909
And honestly, this is something that’s important to touch on.

403
00:32:39,909 --> 00:32:45,510
The cable and plug are a small fraction of the expense in building a charging station.

404
00:32:45,725 --> 00:32:51,839
Adding support for both standards,
especially since the comms will be the same, is therefore trivial -

405
00:32:51,839 --> 00:32:57,762
and in fact, Electrify America has already announced their intention
to add the NACS connector to their chargers

406
00:32:57,762 --> 00:33:00,737
since it is literally just a cable swap.

407
00:33:00,737 --> 00:33:07,355
The newly-announced charging joint venture may wish to continue supporting CCS
for their members’ existing vehicles,

408
00:33:07,355 --> 00:33:13,299
or perhaps because it’s currently a requirement to obtain government funding
under the NEVI program.

409
00:33:13,299 --> 00:33:18,579
Regardless, the reason for CCS support on this new network doesn’t really matter,

410
00:33:18,579 --> 00:33:23,861
but since supporting both plug types on the
same charger is pretty easy,

411
00:33:23,861 --> 00:33:28,770
I’m not quite ready to say the death knell of CCS has rung.

412
00:33:28,770 --> 00:33:37,624
But again, NACS is certainly a nicer charging experience, 
so how long support for CCS continues is an open question.

413
00:33:37,624 --> 00:33:45,459
Once there truly is no downside to choosing to support NACS,
then that’s probably where most automakers will go.

414
00:33:45,459 --> 00:33:48,605
The future, as ever, is TBD.

415
00:33:48,605 --> 00:33:52,542
And now, the final section where I get a little bit spicy.

416
00:33:53,045 --> 00:33:55,762
As if I successfully hid that before.

417
00:33:55,762 --> 00:34:00,957
So, Tesla definitely has the most reliable charging network right now,

418
00:34:00,957 --> 00:34:04,080
and for Tesla owners, it’s a great experience.

419
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:09,770
Tesla wrote the software on both sides of the equation,
which not only ensures reliability,

420
00:34:09,770 --> 00:34:16,208
but also allows them to do stuff like use
the car’s infotainment screen for all charger-related needs.

421
00:34:16,208 --> 00:34:18,940
Like, for instance, paying for charging.

422
00:34:18,940 --> 00:34:23,384
You can put your credit or debit cards into your Tesla Wallet
(or whatever they call it)

423
00:34:23,384 --> 00:34:28,990
and then pick which one you want to use for the charging session
all from the comfort of the driver’s seat.

424
00:34:28,990 --> 00:34:31,940
Since that’s all handled by the hardware in the car,

425
00:34:31,940 --> 00:34:36,260
the chargers themselves don’t need any sort of user interface.

426
00:34:36,260 --> 00:34:38,867
They just have the plug, and when you stick it in your car,

427
00:34:38,867 --> 00:34:43,146
the charger knows which car it’s plugged into,
whether and how billing gets sorted,

428
00:34:43,146 --> 00:34:45,750
and then starts the charging session automatically.

429
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:50,000
That is… neat, I guess.

430
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,713
But, and this might very well be an unpopular opinion,

431
00:34:53,713 --> 00:34:55,320
I don’t care about that!

432
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:57,516
Like, at all.

433
00:34:57,516 --> 00:35:05,433
In fact, I’m kind of actively against that becoming the norm
and vehemently disagree with people who think this sort of technology,

434
00:35:05,433 --> 00:35:07,886
more generically known as plug-and-charge,

435
00:35:07,886 --> 00:35:11,998
is something every car and charging provider needs to support and embrace.

436
00:35:11,998 --> 00:35:14,699
And ya wanna know why I feel that way?

437
00:35:14,699 --> 00:35:20,750
Because, perhaps it escaped your notice,
but we’ve had payment solved for decades now.

438
00:35:20,750 --> 00:35:26,786
Call me a caveman if you will but I still carry around this thing
and it has these little plastic rectangles in it,

439
00:35:26,786 --> 00:35:29,828
and when I have to pay for things, I insert - or sometimes,

440
00:35:29,828 --> 00:35:35,164
sometimes I even just tap - those little rectangles
on a payment terminal and golly gee it works!

441
00:35:35,415 --> 00:35:36,804
Every time!

442
00:35:37,342 --> 00:35:40,909
A thing that seems to happen a lot in the electric car world,

443
00:35:40,909 --> 00:35:44,338
and specifically the Tesla world if I’m being honest,

444
00:35:44,338 --> 00:35:49,938
is the presumption that new and different always equals better.

445
00:35:49,938 --> 00:35:55,095
Meanwhile, outsiders are often more puzzled than they are enthused.

446
00:35:55,095 --> 00:36:01,743
To hopefully elucidate what I mean here,
if I were to approach someone with a gas-powered car and say,

447
00:36:01,743 --> 00:36:04,968
“Hey there, I see you like fueling at Shell.

448
00:36:04,968 --> 00:36:08,325
Are you tired of having to use your payment card at every fill-up?

449
00:36:08,325 --> 00:36:13,436
Well, simply make an account with us
and with this little chip next to your car’s fill hole,

450
00:36:13,436 --> 00:36:17,076
our pumps will automatically authorize payment and start filling!”

451
00:36:17,901 --> 00:36:20,366
… do you think they’d be all that excited?

452
00:36:20,366 --> 00:36:25,250
Actually, ExxonMobile tried that back in the late ‘90s
with Speedpass - remember that?

453
00:36:25,250 --> 00:36:30,572
It was a fob thing you’d stick on your key ring,
so not quite the same thing as plug-and-charge,

454
00:36:30,572 --> 00:36:35,405
but since it only worked at certain gas stations
and didn’t really solve any problems,

455
00:36:35,405 --> 00:36:37,219
it wasn’t all that popular.

456
00:36:37,219 --> 00:36:41,000
Plus it ended up having some security vulnerabilities,
imagine that.

457
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,772
And that’s the key to my curmudgeonly take:

458
00:36:44,772 --> 00:36:48,552
does plug-and-charge actually solve any problems?

459
00:36:48,552 --> 00:36:53,264
To someone who is used to the Tesla ecosystem,
it sure looks like it does.

460
00:36:53,264 --> 00:37:03,996
Everybody agrees, including me, that plug-and-charge is miles better than the kludgy app experience we are often forced to deal with on other charging networks.

461
00:37:03,996 --> 00:37:09,501
And to lay my cards out on the line, I’ve used EVgo’s Autocharge system

462
00:37:09,501 --> 00:37:14,414
(which is technically different in weedsy ways
that aren’t worth getting into here but is basically the same)

463
00:37:14,414 --> 00:37:22,208
and, yeah, I’ll agree it’s pretty neat to experience just plugging the car in
and having the charge session start automagically.

464
00:37:22,208 --> 00:37:24,626
I get why you like that.

465
00:37:24,626 --> 00:37:27,551
But is that something I actually need?

466
00:37:27,551 --> 00:37:30,578
No! At most it saves maybe 10 seconds.

467
00:37:30,578 --> 00:37:35,437
At least, not if normal payments were actually an option that worked.

468
00:37:35,437 --> 00:37:40,567
Today’s landscape, where Tesla’s deep integration
between vehicle and charging network

469
00:37:40,567 --> 00:37:49,640
stands against third-party networks that often rely on annoying and broken apps
and might have a flaky payment card reader if you’re lucky

470
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:53,275
presents us with an obviously a false choice.

471
00:37:53,275 --> 00:37:56,373
But for some reason, a lot of folks don’t see it that way.

472
00:37:56,373 --> 00:38:00,868
For example, I’ve run across countless people both online and in person

473
00:38:00,868 --> 00:38:06,833
who strongly believe Tesla’s approach of
removing as many points of failure as possible on their chargers,

474
00:38:06,833 --> 00:38:09,975
to the point of removing the user interface entirely,

475
00:38:09,975 --> 00:38:13,052
is the reason their network is so reliable.

476
00:38:13,052 --> 00:38:17,301
And thus, support for plug-and-charge is the way every other network has to go.

477
00:38:18,450 --> 00:38:21,115
I think this is a reasonable position in a vacuum,

478
00:38:21,115 --> 00:38:28,888
but consider, if you will, just how incredibly weird and bonkers
 the current charging landscape actually is.

479
00:38:28,888 --> 00:38:37,391
Pretty much every public charging location,
Tesla or otherwise, exists in the outskirts of some parking lot somewhere.

480
00:38:37,391 --> 00:38:41,218
They rarely have canopies protecting the equipment from the elements.

481
00:38:41,218 --> 00:38:45,720
They’re almost always unattended which makes them susceptible to vandalism.

482
00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:49,183
And even when they’re co-located with another business,

483
00:38:49,183 --> 00:38:56,660
tending to the chargers is not something the employees of the Walmart
are going to care about or even have the time for.

484
00:38:56,660 --> 00:38:58,200
Why is this important?

485
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:07,039
Because I think we need to recognize that charging locations of today
put the user-facing equipment in uniquely hostile environments.

486
00:39:07,039 --> 00:39:12,212
Tesla has done a good job of making charging reliable under such conditions.

487
00:39:12,212 --> 00:39:20,954
But in my opinion, those conditions are a result of the transitional period we are in
and not something I would expect to remain the norm.

488
00:39:20,954 --> 00:39:23,790
In fact, I really hope it doesn’t.

489
00:39:24,436 --> 00:39:28,340
You know what I really miss when taking road trips in my electric car?

490
00:39:28,771 --> 00:39:31,080
Those little buckets with windshield squeegees.

491
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:35,400
I still have to swing by gas stations just to clean my windows!

492
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:39,274
And sure, having a Walmart near the chargers is often quite handy,

493
00:39:39,274 --> 00:39:47,113
but it’s usually a pretty long walk to the entrance to ensure shoppers don’t take charging spots for normal parking spots.

494
00:39:47,113 --> 00:39:52,611
And boy do I wish I could plug my car in
while protected from rain and snow like, y’know,

495
00:39:52,611 --> 00:39:55,569
gas stations do almost as a rule.

496
00:39:55,569 --> 00:39:56,569
Canopies.

497
00:39:56,569 --> 00:39:59,149
It's like a roof over your head!

498
00:39:59,149 --> 00:40:06,560
And I also hope that drivers with disabilities will be able to expect
an attendant to help them plug their car in when they need it,

499
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,044
just like gas stations have today.

500
00:40:09,044 --> 00:40:12,220
Oh, and pull-through charging might be handy.

501
00:40:12,220 --> 00:40:15,963
Tesla wouldn’t be dealing with Cablegate if they thought that one through.

502
00:40:15,963 --> 00:40:24,066
While I know some EV drivers loathe the idea
that charging locations might start resembling gas stations,

503
00:40:24,066 --> 00:40:29,352
I am certain that that is going to happen eventually - at least along major highways.

504
00:40:29,352 --> 00:40:34,793
They'll probably look a little different, maybe they’ll have lounges and restaurants rather than convenience stores

505
00:40:34,793 --> 00:40:37,878
(though what exactly is wrong with a convenience store I don’t know),

506
00:40:37,878 --> 00:40:44,637
but people (including me) want a dedicated,
well-lit, and staffed placed to charge their cars,

507
00:40:44,637 --> 00:40:47,724
a place where they’re protected from the elements while they plug-in,

508
00:40:47,724 --> 00:40:50,694
a place where they can use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat,

509
00:40:50,694 --> 00:40:54,719
and a place where they can wash their dang windshields.

510
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:59,012
If that sounds like a gas station but with chargers rather than pumps,

511
00:40:59,012 --> 00:41:01,304
that’s because that’s exactly what that is.

512
00:41:01,304 --> 00:41:04,432
Why do you think gas stations look like that?

513
00:41:04,432 --> 00:41:09,538
It’s because they have amenities that drivers need and want on-site.

514
00:41:09,538 --> 00:41:11,658
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,

515
00:41:11,658 --> 00:41:19,891
truck stop chains like Love’s, Pilot, and TravelCenters of America
are uniquely well-positioned for cross-country EV charging.

516
00:41:19,891 --> 00:41:23,076
Luckily some of them are starting to take advantage of that.

517
00:41:23,076 --> 00:41:30,642
And funnily enough, gas stations have never needed
to resort to weird ways to pay for the gas they sell.

518
00:41:30,642 --> 00:41:35,630
Self-service pumps have robust payment card readers that rarely fail.

519
00:41:35,630 --> 00:41:41,290
And even if they do, the attendant on duty can attempt
basic troubleshooting or at least flag it for repair.

520
00:41:41,685 --> 00:41:45,967
Heck, you can even go inside and talk to that attendant and pay for your gas...

521
00:41:45,967 --> 00:41:47,516
with cash!

522
00:41:47,516 --> 00:41:49,318
Remember that stuff?

523
00:41:49,318 --> 00:41:54,561
Sure, if you’d like to sign up for whatever loyalty program
that particular brand of fueling station offers,

524
00:41:54,561 --> 00:41:59,053
that’s by all means an option, but it's not necessary.

525
00:41:59,053 --> 00:42:03,691
If every car charger out there just accepted payments like a gas pump does,

526
00:42:03,691 --> 00:42:06,203
this whole discussion wouldn’t even be happening!

527
00:42:06,203 --> 00:42:14,539
And personally, I don’t want to sign up for yet another service 
that has my payment details and personal information.

528
00:42:14,539 --> 00:42:18,010
If you like the idea of plug-and-charge, cool.

529
00:42:18,010 --> 00:42:21,460
But I see it as a nice-to-have option, not a requirement.

530
00:42:21,460 --> 00:42:28,020
And I will actively avoid using charging networks
which require me to sign up for something just to use it.

531
00:42:28,020 --> 00:42:30,264
Knowing that I'm repeating myself,

532
00:42:30,264 --> 00:42:38,417
a choice between chargers that support plug-and-charge
and those which just accept normal payments is a false choice.

533
00:42:38,417 --> 00:42:41,628
If you’re really that worried about charger reliability,

534
00:42:41,628 --> 00:42:49,930
then I suppose you can limit it to contactless payments on the dispenser and use, like, one of those little payment island like you often find in parking lots

535
00:42:49,930 --> 00:42:51,559
for other payment methods.

536
00:42:51,559 --> 00:42:54,055
Or, y’know, have an attendant.

537
00:42:54,055 --> 00:42:56,359
Like a gas station.

538
00:42:56,359 --> 00:42:59,480
If you’re establishing a business which sells vehicle charging,

539
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:01,119
don’t make it weird,

540
00:43:01,119 --> 00:43:02,867
don’t make people jump through hoops,

541
00:43:02,867 --> 00:43:05,984
just be a normal business, please.

542
00:43:05,984 --> 00:43:12,104
And I know there are costs to accepting card payments on-site, 
please don’t assume I’m ignorant of that.

543
00:43:12,104 --> 00:43:18,750
I just view that as a basic cost of doing business,
and trying to get around that is hostile to your customers.

544
00:43:18,750 --> 00:43:22,369
I do not want to normalize that reality.

545
00:43:22,369 --> 00:43:28,265
Where I think plug-and-charge actually has more merit is for public AC charging.

546
00:43:28,265 --> 00:43:31,511
Solving the charging problem for those who can’t charge at home

547
00:43:31,511 --> 00:43:35,164
has always been the biggest barrier to EV adoption,

548
00:43:35,164 --> 00:43:41,441
and I’m personally pretty worried that we’re gonna view
urban DC fast chargers as the solution.

549
00:43:42,087 --> 00:43:44,106
That is certainly an option,

550
00:43:44,106 --> 00:43:48,836
and there are a surprising number of people who are making that work, but...

551
00:43:48,836 --> 00:43:51,438
it’s not a smart use of resources.

552
00:43:51,438 --> 00:43:56,701
If people aren’t able to charge where they keep their cars,
that’s the problem we need to solve

553
00:43:56,701 --> 00:44:00,989
because that infrastructure is much cheaper and easier to deploy.

554
00:44:01,240 --> 00:44:06,837
The issue has always been one of how to pay for that infrastructure and charging.

555
00:44:06,837 --> 00:44:12,027
Landlords are never that excited to spend money
in service of making their tenant’s lives easier,

556
00:44:12,027 --> 00:44:15,892
so they’re not exactly champing at the bit to install chargers.

557
00:44:15,892 --> 00:44:20,536
And that problem is even harder
in neighborhoods with on-street parking.

558
00:44:20,536 --> 00:44:27,495
Personally, I wish power utilities would just step-in
and create their own low-power charging networks for these situations,

559
00:44:27,495 --> 00:44:31,221
and I think plug-and-charge is a great fit there.

560
00:44:31,221 --> 00:44:35,788
A bank of on-street level 2 chargers
that know which vehicles are plugged into them

561
00:44:35,788 --> 00:44:41,917
could simply direct the cost of a vehicle’s charge session
onto the electric bill of that vehicle owner.

562
00:44:41,917 --> 00:44:43,936
And with smart electric meters,

563
00:44:43,936 --> 00:44:51,264
those chargers could tap into the electrical supply of existing buildings
without impacting the power bill of that building’s occupants.

564
00:44:51,264 --> 00:44:54,970
Governments and electric utilities, you are free to use this idea!

565
00:44:54,970 --> 00:44:57,104
In fact, please do.

566
00:44:57,104 --> 00:45:04,112
Of course there are other ways to make that scheme work - RFID tags on key fobs would be another way to start a charge session,

567
00:45:04,112 --> 00:45:08,325
and that might even be cheaper and easier to implement than plug-and-charge.

568
00:45:08,325 --> 00:45:09,146
I don’t know.

569
00:45:09,146 --> 00:45:15,816
All I’m hoping to get across here is that I actually think plug-and-charge
makes more sense for slow, AC charging

570
00:45:15,816 --> 00:45:19,859
than it does DC fast charging locations along highways.

571
00:45:19,859 --> 00:45:25,822
I am all but certain DC fast charging locations
are going to mimic gas stations before too long,

572
00:45:25,822 --> 00:45:30,893
and with the amenities and services they will likely provide
in addition to charging cars,

573
00:45:30,893 --> 00:45:34,323
they’re gonna need to accept normal card payments anyway.

574
00:45:34,574 --> 00:45:37,017
But, that’s the end of that rant.

575
00:45:37,017 --> 00:45:41,392
Again, if you like plug-and-charge, by all means have at it.

576
00:45:41,392 --> 00:45:46,383
I just don’t want us careening to a place where that’s the only way to start a charge.

577
00:45:46,383 --> 00:45:48,337
I’d rather just do it on my own, please.

578
00:45:48,337 --> 00:45:50,131
No signing up for anything extra.

579
00:45:50,131 --> 00:45:55,359
No fiddling with my car’s infotainment screen
when I want to use my work card for a work trip.

580
00:45:55,359 --> 00:45:57,391
Just normal payments.

581
00:45:57,391 --> 00:45:58,212
Figure it out!

582
00:45:58,212 --> 00:46:02,444
Literally every other industry has, and I do not buy your excuses.

583
00:46:03,054 --> 00:46:05,003
Uh, to summarize this video,

584
00:46:05,003 --> 00:46:10,000
it sure looks like NACS is the charging port of the future,
and I think that’s perfectly fine.

585
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:16,070
It has always been a nicer plug,
and now that we know it does match the capabilities of CCS,

586
00:46:16,070 --> 00:46:18,890
there’s no reason not to use it here in North America.

587
00:46:18,890 --> 00:46:23,692
And nobody with a CCS-equipped car has reason to fear being left behind.

588
00:46:23,979 --> 00:46:26,800
Adapters will come one way or another.

589
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:33,254
I really really, really hope we don’t continue down
the road we’re on of weird charger activation methods -

590
00:46:33,254 --> 00:46:35,708
please just accept normal payments!

591
00:46:35,708 --> 00:46:40,210
Even vending machines now take cards almost as a rule.

592
00:46:40,210 --> 00:46:42,930
And in general, things are looking up!

593
00:46:42,930 --> 00:46:47,039
We still have plenty of problems to sort with electric vehicles,

594
00:46:47,039 --> 00:46:49,765
but the plug wars look to be at an end.

595
00:46:49,765 --> 00:46:51,075
Speaking of ends,

596
00:46:51,075 --> 00:46:52,258
this is the end.

597
00:46:53,514 --> 00:46:54,766
OK I lied.

598
00:46:54,766 --> 00:47:00,137
One footnote I want to throw in and almost forgot about
is vehicle-to-X technology.

599
00:47:00,137 --> 00:47:04,278
A feature that has so far never been implemented on a Tesla vehicle,

600
00:47:04,278 --> 00:47:09,142
despite how amazingly high-tech and ahead-of-the-curve
their vehicles purpotedly are,

601
00:47:09,142 --> 00:47:17,534
is a way to conveniently get the energy stored in their battery packs
out of the car for purposes other than driving.

602
00:47:17,534 --> 00:47:20,941
For instance, my car offers vehicle-to-load,

603
00:47:20,941 --> 00:47:28,177
and this adapter will allow you to power anything that uses
a standard household outlet through the vehicle's charge port.

604
00:47:28,177 --> 00:47:37,699
This is fantastic for emergencies, and I determined in a test that I could run my essentials for about a week from my car should I need to.

605
00:47:37,699 --> 00:47:43,150
We may never know why exactly Tesla hasn’t bothered
to implement this feature in their vehicles.

606
00:47:43,150 --> 00:47:45,493
But at least they’ll sell you a Powerwall.

607
00:47:45,816 --> 00:47:47,985
[pregnant pause so you can chew on that]

608
00:47:48,344 --> 00:47:56,367
Anyway, there is no technical reason Vehicle to Load or Vehicle to Grid
technologies couldn’t be implemented through the NACS connector.

609
00:47:56,367 --> 00:48:01,771
Which is pretty much why I didn’t talk about it,
but I figure some folks would like me to speak to that.

610
00:48:02,130 --> 00:48:06,218
I have… mixed feelings on vehicle-to-grid,

611
00:48:06,218 --> 00:48:09,997
as I think it’s pretty tricky when it comes to battery wear and tear,

612
00:48:09,997 --> 00:48:14,720
but I certainly think vehicle-to-load is a must-have feature.

613
00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:18,904
Whether that’s AC power backfeeding through the charge port like my car does,

614
00:48:18,904 --> 00:48:26,910
or connecting an external inverter to the car’s battery pack through the DC pins like Ford does with their Intelligent Backup Power system,

615
00:48:26,910 --> 00:48:29,858
the NACS port is certainly capable.

616
00:48:29,858 --> 00:48:35,067
It just has to actually be put into practice
by an automaker daring enough to do so.

617
00:48:36,036 --> 00:48:38,709
OK now this is the end.