[jbay808]

I've wondered this too. You could set the gear in neutral, connect the AC power directly to the motor terminals, and then basically run the inverter in regenerative mode.

It looks elegant on paper, at least, but I'm sure there are reasons why it's not done. Maybe due to safety considerations, maybe because the inverter can't handle that much continuous power, or maybe it's just cheaper to have a few big supercharger inverters than to slightly increase the cost of connectors on every car.

[xattt]

It seems like thermal dissipation is the issue based on the grandparent post. An EV duty cycle using the built-in inverter won’t drain the battery in the same amount of time as high-speed charging would charge the battery.

Perhaps there are also weight optimizations being made that limit bidirectionality of the inverter.