[simonjgreen]

Fantastic tech. However, why do they insist on doing it in a closed proprietary way? Teslas growth is coupled to general EV growth. They can't possibly be arrogant enough to believe they will be the sole supplier of EVs if they win can they? Charging is the number 1 thing holding back adoption right now.

[kjksf]

Business-wise it's clearly a big advantage for Tesla. A superior supercharging network can very well be the thing that makes someone buy Tesla over a competing electric car.

That being said, Tesla has said from the beginning that they are open to sharing the supercharging network with other car makers as long as they share the cost of building it.

No car company took them up on that offer but it's hardly Tesla's fault.

[natch]

Tesla has repeatedly offered access to their supercharging network to any car company that wants to use it, but nobody has taken them up on it.

[kristofferR]

They claim that, but nobody knows the details.

The deal they offer other car companies may be completely unreasonable, who knows. They would still be correct that they "offered access" though, so it doesn't mean anything.

[xedeon]

They have. From what I know, other companies that they had talks with want to change the spec instead of just adopting it.

Which is pretty absurd since they are already getting the tech without spending resources on R&D. Yet, they want more control.

[Reason077]

I agree. In the long term, it doesn’t seem sustainable to keep using a proprietary plug design when the rest of the industry is standardising. It will eventually be a disincentive to buy a Tesla if they aren’t compatible with most of the future charging infrastructure. Adapters can be used, but that’s not an elegant or convenient solution.

In Europe, Tesla is already moving to the industry-standard CCS charging system. The EU Model 3 comes with the same CCS charge port as almost all other EVs, and EU superchargers are being retrofitted with CCS cables.

This is a win both for Tesla owners, who can charge at any charger without adapters; and for the charging providers who increase their customer base, encouraging the expansion of their networks.

In North America, the transition would be a bit more painful due to the current plug design. But I think it would be the right move for the long term.

[greglindahl]

Welcome to the world of standards, where the standards committee isn't interested in adopting the most common existing technology, despite the technology being offered for free.

[URSpider94]

Negotiating with other vendors to support a shared standard is S-L-O-W. By maintaining their own standard, Tesla can move at their own speed. Also, at the moment, Tesla has more long range EV’s on the road in the US than all other companies put together, as well as more Tesla supercharging stalls than all other fast charge stations combined.

[gamblor956]

Tesla's (new) charging technology is now far behind the (newest) EV charging standards, so it's a double-edged sword.

[lazyjones]

> Charging is the number 1 thing holding back adoption right now.

Even if we could charge in 1 minute, ICE fans would argue that they have to charge 3 times more often than with their ICEs at highway speeds and that they have to choose longer routes because of charger coverage. It's only part of the solution to increase charging speeds and fast charger coverage, EV also need 2-3 times the current range (i.e. 200-300 KWh batteries) to convince most people.

[adrianN]

They can be arrogant enough to think that other manufacturers will license their stuff.

[greglindahl]

I think you missed the part where Tesla offered a free license in exchange for a patent truce... in 2014.

[adrianN]

I did!