EVsquatch
Registered Member
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2023
- Messages
- 467
- Reaction score
- 342
- Points
- 63
- Genesis Model Year
- 2023
- Genesis Model Type
- Genesis GV60
The easiest solution would have been for Tesla to release a universal adapter certified for use on their network. I'm of the mindset that a slow rollout was intentional to reduce the congestion at SC locations and ease the transition of opening the network.IMO, the industry made a mistake having each EV manufacturer release their own unique NACS adapter (which needs to be approved by Tesla, further adding to the delays).
One of the EV manufacturers, Rivian, released a NACS adapter, and approved by Tesla, which would work with any CCS1 EV without any issues. Instead of having this design become the universal adapter, the industry chose that each EV manufacturer would come out with their own design, then go through the approval cycle with Tesla before releasing it to the public. IMO, this just added costs and delays to the process, with no value added. The Rivian adapter would have worked just fine with any other CCS1 EV, be it a 400V battery architecture or the 800V battery architecture that Hyundai/Kia/Genesis uses.
When one considers that one of the biggest complaints potential EV buyers have is the lack of charging stations, the industry could have solved this a lot quicker with a single universal adapter, approved by Tesla, rather than the slow rollout from each EV manufacturer of their own unique design. This approach just added costs and delays, with no value added.
I decided to purchase the Ford adapter co designed with Lectron. Lectron already makes a robust and well reviewed adapter and their partnership with Ford took their design and made it even more robust. It is approved by Tesla and certified by an OEM which is something no third party adapter has. As a reminder, Tesla does not approve of ANY third party adapters being used on the SC network.
All of us have Ford to thank for even being in a position to use the network. Tesla, despite claiming the environmental ethos card for some time had no plans to open their network which offered a huge competitive edge over any other brand. They were taking advantage of Biden era NEVI funding by outfitting some chargers with "Magic Docks" to allow charging on CCS vehicles.
The only reason Tesla opened the network is because Ford did what no other OEM was willing to do. Go to EM and negotiate to accept the NACS design as the standard for their vehicles moving forward. This was both shocking and brilliant given CCS was the global standard and at the core of the investments under the Biden era nationwide DCFC infrastructure investments.
This put EM in an impossible position. His Trump card to keep the network closed had been to fall back on NACS being the true standard and that everyone needed to adopt it which nobody was willing to do because it put Tesla in the driver's seat.
Ford, and CEO Jim Farley, seeing an opportunity to solve one of the biggest problems holding back EV adoption, reliable and ubiquitous charging networks, swallowed his pride and went to Tesla with his tail between his legs and said what do we need to do to make this work?
EM was now boxed in and had no excuses. Brilliant. This setoff a chain reaction of OEMs fearing Ford would have a huge advantage and started negotiating their own deals. Ford then did the right thing and worked on a design of a certified adapter with a production partner (Lectron) that had high volume manufacturing capabilities and decided to make it free for their customers. It is incredibly robust and rated for 500 amps and 1000 volts. Ford set the standard here.
Tom from State of Charge did an interview on his YouTube channel with executives from Ford and Lectron about the partnership. The Ford adapter and the Lectron partnership should have been the standard or at the very least the blueprint for other OEMs to follow.
Instead many have chosen the route of internally producing the chargers or looking for cheap alternatives for production partners which has slowed down rollout. That means the networks keep opening up to different brands and owners of those brands don't have a certified adapter on hand to actually use the network. Sound familiar?
Nothing was stopping Genesis/Hyundai/Kia from reaching out to Lectron or A2Z or any other high volume partner and working on a certification process when the NACs adoption was announced. This would have likely led to much higher output of adapters that would be in hand when the network access was turned on but it would have meant higher cost.
I'm still waiting for my Genesis adapter but in the meantime I don't have a problem giving Ford my $$ to purchase their certified adapter given they are the reason we are even waiting for ours from Genesis.
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