Electric Vehicles: General topics


Add Volvo to the list. Writing is on the wall. 2025 will be the year we’ll see most U.S. ev’s with the port built-in. Sounds like 2024 will be a year of cars coming with adapters. I assume Hyundai/Kia, VW and BMW will announce something soon.
 

Add Volvo to the list. Writing is on the wall. 2025 will be the year we’ll see most U.S. ev’s with the port built-in. Sounds like 2024 will be a year of cars coming with adapters. I assume Hyundai/Kia, VW and BMW will announce something soon.

Never know. It only takes a couple of holdouts to make a mess. While Tesla’s gambit won, they were on the other side of the stick not 12 months ago.
 
Never know. It only takes a couple of holdouts to make a mess. While Tesla’s gambit won, they were on the other side of the stick not 12 months ago.

Hyundai is “considering” it.


It helps that there isn’t a real technical advantage to CCS, and that customers who hold each in their hand are going to prefer NACS to CCS.
 
Hyundai is “considering” it.


Yup, they are probably more on the fence because of how they implemented their 800V platform and V2L.

VWAG is the big one that I think will be the final domino.

It helps that there isn’t a real technical advantage to CCS, and that customers who hold each in their hand are going to prefer NACS to CCS.

Not when NACS and CCS1 is really about the plug at this point. It really does look like CCS (the protocol) wins either way.
 
Electrify America and Blink are now on board with NACS. Volkswagen owns EA, and BMW comes with free EA charging (with limits), so I suspect the Germans will soon be following suit.
 
I think I spoke of this before. The place we stayed in the middle of nowhere had a SC station with about 10 bays in the parking lot. I know (have heard) that fast DC charging puts more stress on the battery than trickle or L2, and it seemed to me that it would be handy to stay in the hotel and overnight the car at L2, but SCs do not offer L2 (and man are those things noisy charging). But, given the NACS pinout, it seems like chargers that offer a charge mode choice would be fairly easy to implement as well as very appealing. Perhaps variable rate chargers will start to appear as charge points become more widespread.
 
Electrify America and Blink are now on board with NACS. Volkswagen owns EA, and BMW comes with free EA charging (with limits), so I suspect the Germans will soon be following suit.

Yeah, and VW has said they are discussing it.

Color me surprised. This has been a fairly fast redirect, and a pretty big coup for Tesla.
 
Yeah, and VW has said they are discussing it.

Color me surprised. This has been a fairly fast redirect, and a pretty big coup for Tesla.
Guess my 80A tesla wall charger will retain its usefulness for the foreseeable future.
 
I think I spoke of this before. The place we stayed in the middle of nowhere had a SC station with about 10 bays in the parking lot. I know (have heard) that fast DC charging puts more stress on the battery than trickle or L2, and it seemed to me that it would be handy to stay in the hotel and overnight the car at L2, but SCs do not offer L2 (and man are those things noisy charging). But, given the NACS pinout, it seems like chargers that offer a charge mode choice would be fairly easy to implement as well as very appealing. Perhaps variable rate chargers will start to appear as charge points become more widespread.

It's possible, but generally the benefit of L2 on the EVSE side is much simpler requirements for power delivery/etc. This would complicate the handshake between the EVSE and the car, and as the CCS handshake isn't well documented, I can't say how well it will work. You could technically do it today, so long as the mode is picked before plugging in, but it does complicate the cabinet as it adds switching electronics to be able to pull from the big DC transformers or the AC from the grid (assuming it's not pulling in a feed from the grid at higher than 240V). I mostly want to see more L2 chargers at places because they are much cheaper to install and operate, and at places like hotels, are all you really need.

With the size of EV batteries, L2 as implemented is effectively trickle charging. In Europe they don't even have the L1/L2 distinction. Split-phase is fun.

Guess my 80A tesla wall charger will retain its usefulness for the foreseeable future.

Eh, even if Tesla lost, I would have just gotten an adapter and kept a working EVSE. *shrug*

Either way, I don't have to worry about things for a while. Just give me a NACS->CCS adapter once they are available and I'll chug along.

My portable charger setup is a Tesla charger + TeslaTap because it opens up the ability to buy adapters that Webasto doesn't currently offer for 30A circuits that I'm more likely to run into in RV parks and the like. And it was about the same price, but now I have a way to plug into Destination chargers that aren't locked down.
 
Eh, even if Tesla lost, I would have just gotten an adapter and kept a working EVSE. *shrug*
I have a couple Tesla->J1772 AC adapters. I’ve only tested them by connecting them, and then connecting the J1772->tesla connector to the end of that contraption and charging my tesla with it (that much worked). One supposedly will work at 80A, though I didn’t test that (Not sure the J1772->tesla adapter can handle that anyway). So I was okay either way. I just prefer zero adapters.
 
I have a couple Tesla->J1772 AC adapters. I’ve only tested them by connecting them, and then connecting the J1772->tesla connector to the end of that contraption and charging my tesla with it (that much worked). One supposedly will work at 80A, though I didn’t test that (Not sure the J1772->tesla adapter can handle that anyway). So I was okay either way. I just prefer zero adapters.

Don't disagree, just that I'm pragmatic (to a point). I only swapped out my dumb EVSE with a smart one because the sale + utility rebate made it something like 50$ before tax. And it was a model where they took the commercial L2 unit and removed the LCD from it, calling it a home unit.
 
Now Mercedes Benz is on board with NACS.


2025 seems to be when all these companies will support NACS without adapters.
 
So now Nissan is onboard with NACS, and there’s a competitor to EA and Tesla on the horizon. Will have both CCS and NACS connectors.

GM was one of the first to commit to NACS, and is one of the big guns behind the new charging network. Interesting. Hyundai being involved is also interesting as they are rolling out a charging network in South Korea. South Korea being another CCS1 country is interesting and may be part of their hesitance to switch.

Not a bad idea to pounce while EA is fumbling the ball.
 
This is the EV to get. The Rimac Nevera. By VW/Bugatti. 0 to 60 MPH in 1.74 seconds. 0 to 200 MPH in 10 seconds.

The reviewer's expression after his quarter mile run says it all - having a cigarette may have been in order. :)

 
Looks like a planned master community (AKA Sprawl) in Glendale AZ is going to incorporate a 240 EV charger in every new build. Brilliant marketing move as it won't cost them $100 to add it, yet they will probably make sales because of it.

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Looks like a planned master community (AKA Sprawl) in Glendale AZ is going to incorporate a 240 EV charger in every new build. Brilliant marketing move as it won't cost them $100 to add it, yet they will probably make sales because of it.

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I applaud you sir! You went old school with a copy of an actual newspaper. 👏👏👏
 
I was reading a review of a Solterra in which they said that they were driving west on I-70 (from Denver) and at one point the range gauge dropped more than 50 miles over a distance of less than 8. This would have been while approaching the Eisenhower tunnel – in other words, climbing a significant grade at freeway speeds.

This got me to wondering, if one goes up the hill at a slower clip, will you get better range than at freeway speeds? Because, the idea of your battery giving out in the tunnel seems like it could be less fun. If you are making an ascent, is there a particular speed that will get you over, such that slightly faster would not?
 
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