This week, Tesla started a trial in which electric cars of other brands can be charged at ten Supercharger locations in the Netherlands. Previously, you could only go to the Superchargers with a Tesla. And that creates some awkwardness for both Tesla owners and drivers of foreign brands. The charging stations are very specifically designed for Teslas and that is how cars from foreign brands get into trouble.
At most public charging stations there is only a socket on the pole. Electric drivers must then take their own charging cable from the trunk (or frunk) and connect it. Tesla’s Superchargers already have a cable attached to the pole, but that cable is a bit on the short side. This is no problem with a Tesla, because the tailgate is always on the left rear, so if you park backwards and drive far enough back, you’re always in the right place.
The CCS cable on the Superchargers is too short
On cars with the tail lift on the right, the cable that belongs to the parking space is just too short to reach the back of the car. Parking ahead also makes no sense, because the cable doesn’t get that far either. A solution is to take the charging cable to the right of the car, but then you actually take the cable from another parking space. As a result, electric drivers effectively occupy two charging stations. The driver of the Audi e-tron below took it even more rigorously.
@elonmusk can you remove supercharger access for #audit drivers? They cannot read and their chargeport is located in a stupid spot. pic.twitter.com/2tfHht9Twp
— Professor Tournesol (@sjoerd87777991) Nov 2, 2021
A small nuance is of course that in the case of the Audi driver there was more than enough space to park him so easily. So while EVs can technically charge with the right-hand charging slot (and a CCS socket), they can’t tap electricity without blocking someone. A solution would be to install a second CCS cable on the Superchargers or to offer extension cables.
I sense there was a certain lack of planning when Tesla decided to open the network.
maybe @elonmusk should’ve consulted with his engineers before calling out his brag pic.twitter.com/l6s2ZL07LY
— Marco (@MarcoRPTesla) Nov 3, 2021
Which foreign brands suffer from this?
Tesla driver Fabian Laasch made an overview on Twitter which cars have the cable on the right. The Hyundai Ioniq5, Ford Mustang Mach E, Volkswagen ID.3 (and all cars on the same platform) and the BMW iX3 would block a charging point. Or they have to go up the sidewalk as above. The Porsche Taycan, Honda E, Polestar 2 and Opel Corsa-e should be able to charge without any problems at this point.
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