By Umar Shakir , a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.
The state of electric vehicle charging in North America is shaping up like the smartphone charging wars — but focused on much more expensive hardware. Right now, like USB-C and Android phones, the Combined Charging System (CCS, Type 1) plug is on a greater variety of cars. Meanwhile, Tesla’s plug was long compared to Apple and Lightning. Home Dc Fast Charger
But while Apple eventually adopted USB-C, Tesla is opening up its connector, renaming it the North American Charging Standard (NACS), and trying to shove CCS out of the way.
And it’s working: the new NACS port is being standardized by SAE International, and today, largely every automaker, including Ford, GM, Toyota, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Fisker, Hyundai, Stellantis, Volkswagen, and BMW, has signed on. New cars equipped with NACS are on the way but likely won’t start rolling out until 2026.
Meanwhile, Europe already dealt with its standards issue by settling on CCS2. For now, EV drivers in their Tesla Model Ys, Kia EV6s, and Nissan Leafs (with the ailing CHAdeMO connector) in the US are still stuck looking for the right station or adapter and hoping everything’s operational — but things should get easier soon.
To help solve these issues, the federal government has established a pool of $7.5 billion to fund charging network operators in building reliable EV infrastructure.
North America can become a great and convenient place to own an electric vehicle, but how long will that take? You can find out by reading all the news about electric vehicle charging right here, so come back and plug in often.
South Korea’s LG Electronics is teaming up with ChargePoint to install more electric vehicle charging stations in the US, the companies announced today.
As part of the deal, ChargePoint will provide software to operate LG’s EV chargers, and LG will supply ChargePoint with hardware to bolster its network of 306,000 charge ports. The companies say they plan coming together to jointly install “commercial charging solutions,” with the first deliveries expected later this summer.
After opening its first charging hub in Atlanta, which features 400kW chargers by ChargePoint, the automaker will now install Alphitronic HYC400 models at new locations later this year. It has two plugs, supports CCS and Tesla’s NACS, and features dynamic load sharing, i.e. one car can charge at 150kW while the other at 250kW. It’s part of Mercedez-Benz’s $1 billion investment to build 400 EV charging hubs.
Porsche EV and PHEV owners can soon use the My Porsche app to pay and charge at ChargePoint stations in North America. Unfortunately, it’s not a plug and charge system, but soon the Porsche Charging Service will include “more than 100,000” stations when the collaboration goes live in Q4 2024 — after the launch of the new 2025 Porsche Taycan and Macan Electric SUV.
Late last year, seven automakers — BMW, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis — announced plans for a joint venture to build easy-to-access public DC fast charging infrastructure in the US and Canada.
The resulting company, Ionna, announced today that its headquarters will be in Durham, North Carolina and feature what the company is calling a “Quarterback Lab,” designed to help each participating car company address charging issues following software updates, tackle customer issues closer to the source, and offer interoperability testing. It was a sign that the new venture was thinking critically about how to fix EV charging in the US.
New AI tools could give utilities real-time data to make the power grid and EV charging more reliable, a very small study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and startup Utilidata suggests.
The researchers are using AI to analyze EV charging behavior, hoping those insights might improve the experience for drivers and help utilities prepare for the spike in electricity demand. So far, they’ve found that EV charging can draw power inconsistently and lower power quality, which can wear out charging equipment.
Airbnb is partnering with ChargePoint to provide hosts a discounted option to buy, install, and manage a home EV charger that can help attract EV owners as guests.
Airbnb hosts can purchase these special EV charging packages through a new dedicated online store that offers the charging hardware, installation services, and support services, all in one place. Hosts will get up to 36 percent off the cost of select ChargePoint hardware models, with prices starting at $399. There’s also discounts on other stations, and $100 off on installation services through the site.
The charging network operator says the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) standard is coming to its Power Link 2000 stations. It’ll support 1.2 megawatts now and 3 megawatts in the future. There aren’t a lot of supported commercial electric vehicles yet, although early Tesla Semi units were on board.
After Tesla CEO Elon Musk fired the entire 500 Supercharger team, a TikTok user noticed that all the cables at this Vallejo, Calif. station had been severed, rendering it useless. Vandalism? Or thieves looking to extract the valuable copper from inside the cables?
After laying off 500 members of the Tesla Supercharger team and sending the EV charging world into turmoil, Tesla is looking to rehire some of the personnel. As Bloomberg reports, one of the major returns is director for charging for North America Max De Zegher, who apparently worked right under ousted director Rebecca Tinucci.
Android phones are reportedly getting a Google Maps update that finally lets EV drivers filter for charging stations, making them easier to find. Last month, Maps gained an AI-powered station locator assistant. Will we see the features soon on other Maps screens like on cars with Google built-in or ones with Android Automotive?
Republican lawmakers are attempting to overturn the twin pillars of the Biden administration’s climate platform: tax credits for electric vehicles and the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to curb tailpipe emissions.
The effort involves new bills introduced by members of Congress, as well as lawsuits filed by state attorneys general, all with the goal of rolling back the minimal progress made by the Biden administration to reduce the share of planet-warming carbon emissions produced by the automotive sector.
Bounced emails. Stalled projects. Delayed adapters. These are the immediate effects of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “absolutely hard core” approach to cost cutting, which has resulted in at least 500 layoffs from the company’s Supercharger business, including the division’s top executive, Rebecca Tinucci.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Tesla was on the verge of making its vehicle charging plug the de facto standard in North America, and its competitors and stakeholders are counting on a smooth ride. But Musk claims the leaner team will focus less on deploying new Supercharger locations and instead focus on “100 percent uptime.” How that will translate into reality is unclear, with laid-off employees telling InsideEVs that reduced manpower will affect their ability to respond to outages.
In the wake of more “absolutely hard core” layoffs at Tesla that were especially hard on the charging division, Elon Musk is saying the company still plans to grow its Supercharger network “at a slower pace.”
Compare that to the message he sent internally, as reported by The Information: “We will continue to build out some new Supercharger locations, where critical, and finish those currently under construction.”
Tesla was on the cusp of taking over electric vehicle charging in the US — then, the layoffs came.
Today, multiple outlets reported that the company has laid off hundreds of employees, just weeks after cutting 10 percent (approximately 14,000 people) of its global workforce. Tesla’s Supercharger division was said to be particularly hard hit, with several soon-to-be-former employees saying that close to the entire team had been cut.
The prototype Polestar 5 uses an “Extreme Fast Charging” 77kWh EV pack, created in conjunction with company StoreDot, that can add 200 miles of range in 10 minutes. A Tesla would take about 15 minutes at many convenient Supercharger locations.
Polestar noted charging rates rose from 310kW at 10 percent charge to a blistering 370kW at 80 percent, and no special cooling equipment is needed.
No need for a Kill-A-Watt — fleet management companies can deploy ChargePoint’s Home Flex residential charging stations to keep track, which can tap into cheaper residential electric rates, as well as save time and money on stops at chargers.
ChargePoint says its software can handle reimbursement at public charging stations, and integrate with other fleet management software thanks to an open API.
Almost 600 public fast-charging stations were switched on for US drivers in the first three months of the year, a 7.6% increase over the end of 2023, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis of federal data. There are now almost 8,200 quick-turn EV stations across the country, or one for every 15 gas stations. Tesla is responsible for slightly more than one quarter of them.
EV charging is still a bit more complicated than a fill-up, what with different charging speeds, competing standards, and rival networks, but alignment is underway.
Google Maps is rolling out some new updates designed to make locating an electric vehicle charging station less stressful. And to accomplish this, it will (of course) lean heavily on artificial intelligence.
Google says it will use AI to summarize customer reviews of EV chargers to display more specific directions to certain chargers, such as those located in parking garages or more hard-to-find places. And there will be more prompts in the app to encourage users to submit their feedback after using an EV charger — which will then be fed into the algorithm for future AI-powered summaries.
Rivian is pushing a new software update that will give its customers better insight into which EV chargers to visit — and which to avoid.
EV charging reliability remains a serious sore spot for a lot of owners of plug-in vehicles, leaving the companies selling the cars scrambling to boost their confidence. Rivian’s solution is to use their vehicle fleet to gather data about broken chargers, which then get downranked in the company’s software algorithm.
Rivian owners will be able to charge their electric trucks and SUVs at Tesla Supercharger stations starting today at 9AM PT / 12 PM ET, the company tells The Verge. The news comes after several Rivian owners noticed a software update allowing Supercharger access over the weekend.
Rivian was one of the first automakers to announce plans to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its future EVs. For current owners, Rivian will send out a Tesla-made adapter free of charge, much like Ford started doing last month.
In addition to discounts for eligible Uber Pro drivers, Revel will use anonymized Uber data to decide on future EV charging station locations to address “charging deserts,” according to a press release shared with The Verge by Uber spokesperson Conor Ferguson.
Revel CEO Frank Reig says this will help it grow its charging business in NYC and, eventually, other cities. Revel plans to add 48 public fast-charging stations near the rideshare waiting area of New York’s La Guardia Airport.
Ford EV owners are the first to get access, with the company opening up orders for complimentary NACS-to-CCS adapters starting today. And (as noticed by Electrek) next in line will be GM, Rivian, Polestar, and Volvo. The companies will also need to roll out software updates to allow Tesla’s chargers to automatically recognize their vehicles for billing purposes.
Starting today, people who own electric vehicles from Ford can reserve an adapter that will enable them to charge at Tesla’s vastly superior Supercharger network.
The company is the first to distribute adapters to customers, after announcing last year its plans to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector for its EVs. Other automakers soon followed Ford’s lead, leading to a massive shift toward Tesla’s standardized version of its proprietary charging system.
If you have one of Rivian’s electric trucks and an iPhone, you can keep an eye on the status of your charging progress a little easier with the version 2.7.0 update.
As 9to5Mac points out, support for the Live Activities feature added in iOS 16 keeps the charging information pinned on your lock screen or in the Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 and 15 Pro models.
Ford CEO Jim Farley showed off the charging adapter in a post on Threads and said the company will share “more info very soon.” The CCS to NACS charging adapter is expected to start shipping to Ford EV owners free of charge this spring.
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