Dear Tesla,
You have had:
– Plug&Charge protocol support
– 1-phase level 2 AC charging
– Fast DC charging (which you call Supercharging)
– Elegant, smaller, and lighter charging plug for many years.
You deserve a lot of credit for leading the E-Mobility transformation. I am on my 3rd Tesla Model S and enjoy the driving experience.
However, you should have done this opening up 5+ years ago.
– And why did you forget about 3-phase AC?
– And why are you not mentioning Tesla protocol support for V2X(V2G)?
In Europe, you have already adapted your vehicles to CCS-2 standard with 3-phase AC included in the plug.
As I am sure you are aware in North America we already have national standards for charging plugs.
A. SAE J1772
– 1-phase AC up to 19.2 KW with 80 Amps
– Primarily for light-duty vehicles
B. CCS-1
– SAE J1772 with 2 pins added for fast DC to make it a combo
C. SAE J3068
– 3-phase AC up to 133 kW with 160 Amps
– Primarily for Medium- and Heavy-Duly Vehicles (MHDV)
– Covers both AC as well as fast DC charging
– Taking advantage of our grid covering business sites (480V/277V and 208V/120V)
– Plug is based on the same IEC 62196 design (with stronger pins) as is the European CCS-2 plug
Much better would have been if you had put your weight behind the SAE J3068 standard (or at least the CCS-2 standard promoted by CharIN). Then you could also cover fast AC charging at a much lower infrastructure cost than DC charging. This could have led to one single North American standard plug (getting rid of the J1772 limitations – i.e. no 3-Phase AC). At least for sub-megawatt charging.
Oh – did I forget to mention Tesla V2G support?
Now – in my humble opinion – you are just creating unnecessary confusion in an emerging E-Mobility market that already is not easy to understand for the public and businesses considering electrifying their fleets.
We need to converge on a plug standard that takes full advantage of our AC electric grid, lowers the cost of the charging infrastructure, covers as many applications as possible and establishes economies of scale to increase momentum for E-Mobility to accelerate.
We are still in the very early phase of EV adoption but time is precious. We really should be able to agree on one standard plug design for the North American market very soon🥵.