How not to suck at Supercharging
28 Dec 2023A recent trip to the U.K. showed me the reality of opening the Supercharger network to non-Tesla cars. I hadn’t really seen much of that in Belgium yet, but then I don’t use the Superchargers a lot when I’m close to home. The occupation rate of the stations I tried in the U.K. was higher than before (2021-2022), with anywhere from 25% to 75% of the stalls occupied by other brands. And that is not without its challenges.
The problem
The Supercharger network was designed for Tesla cars. All Tesla cars have their charge port on the Rear Left (RL) position of the car. There is no doubt how the car is best positioned to charge, since there’s only one that works. So there’s also no confusion about which charging station to use. It’s the only one that’s close enough to the charge port, since the Supercharger cables are typically short.
Other brands have not followed the same logic. There are five common positions for the charge port on other brands: rear left & right, front left & right, and front center. Only three of those work well with the design of a typical Supercharger. Two of them don’t.
| Charge Port Position | 🙂 Supercharger |
|---|---|
| Rear Left (RL) | ✅ Yes |
| Rear Right (RR) | ❌ No |
| Front Center (FC) | ✅ Yes (if the cable is long enough) |
| Front Left (FL) | ❌ No |
| Front Right (FR) | ✅ Yes |
Now check out this list of common EV vehicles. Can you spot the problem?
source: gridserve.com – missing from this list: Chinese brands like BYD, Lynk&Co (Geely), HiPhi, Zeekr
That’s right. Lots of popular EV cars from BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen have their charge port on the wrong side for correct usage at a Supercharger. If they park their car on slot #1 to charge, they will not use the charger of slot #1, they will use that of slot #2. If a Tesla then arrives into slot #2 to charge, they will have no charge cable for slot #2 available, so they cannot charge.
The solution
Here are some possible solutions to this problem.
Change Supercharger layout
- change all Superchargers to have the charger in the middle of the slot (so no more confusion about which one to use) and a cable long enough to reach any L/C/R position. → 👎 (installed base: >50K Superchargers – too expensive)
- add extra charging RR/FL-only slots to every Supercharger station, and force RR/FL cars to charge there → 👎 (installed base: >50K Superchargers – too expensive)
- longer charge cables and a clear indication on what charger to use → 👍 (not cheap, but realistic)
Reconsider the open-for-all policy
- only allow FR/FC/RL electric cars to charge at Superchargers → 👎 (cheapest and easiest solution, but oh my the consumer backlash)
- obligatory training for all new non-Tesla EV owners on how to use a Supercharger → 😏 (cheapest fix, but traumatising)
- force all EV vendors to only use FR/FC/RL charge port position → 👎 (never going to happen)
Do nothing
This seems to be the strategy followed at the moment. Just let the drivers fight it out. Strictly speaking this is a bait-and-switch strategy. Part of the appeal of buying a Tesla was the abundant, affordable and excellent Supercharging network. The ‘excellent’ aspect will now be diluted by excessive and potentially anti-social charging by other brands.
Conclusion
I’m aware it’s a first world problem. But this is the situation as it is today:
- Tesla, Polestar, Volvo, Renault: you’re always welcome at the Superchargers. We’re all equals here. The Tesla drivers, of course, are like … superior equals, but still equals.
- BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Škoda, Volkswagen, Porsche, Jaguar, Ford Mustang …: you can charge at the Superchargers, but you might be yelled at. It’s maybe not entirely your fault, but still a little bit. You should have asked if your car was Supercharger-compatible. You should have asked yourself at least “but where will I charge my car?”.
Elsewhere on the web
“It looks like Tesla is already aware of the situation because it is working on a new generation of its charging station, Supercharger V4, which appears to have a much longer cable.”
electrek.co via reddit.com/r/teslamotors
“Serious investments and a new Supercharging layout appear to be the only cure if the network were to be open for all.”
via insideevs.com
“Practically speaking, us being plugged in on the “wrong side” with our EV6 makes one of the charging spaces useless for a Tesla owner who may come along”
via autoblog.com
