it was so annoying to suffer the fools who loudly complained about tesla roadblocking a universal charger while ignoring the fact that NACS was way better than the alternatives
Tesla's charger was proprietary so other manufacturers couldn't use it. Meanwhile CCS is an open standard that anyone can use.
What's changed is that last year Tesla decided to publish an open standard. Now that other manufacturers can use the plug, they gave agreed to use Tesla's physical plug design, but with the CCS signaling protocol.
So NACS going forward is more of a new hybrid of the two rather than a switch to Tesla's existing charger. One of the outcomes is that cars equipped with CCS will be able to use NACS with a simple adapter.
Why not use Tesla's signaling protocol? I don't know the details. Maybe Tesla isn't ready or able to create an open standard for that part. Or maybe other manufacturers want to keep the signalling they have to keep adapters simple. In any case only one vehicle and charging station manufacturer (Tesla) will have to make updates on the software side, and to people who don't know the difference between the plug and the software it'll look like Tesla won the charger war.
Oh, interesting! I'm not the most up-to-date on this, but I don't think I was all wrong about what I said. My understanding is that cars with CCS adapters currently cannot use Tesla chargers (except the Magic Dock ones), but Tesla now says they will change the signaling so that soon CCS cars will be able to use Tesla chargers with an adapter.
AFAICT "NACS" is a new thing as of November 2022. Maybe it's basically a renaming of Tesla's existing thing. But the shift to NACS includes important details around published specs and interoperability.
Sure, when it became an accesible standard it was better. A better technical solution that couldn't actually be used by other manufacturers is not an actual solution, so until Tesla actually put up people were right to complain (similarly about Tesla's chargers not supporting other vehicles). For a long time Tesla talked a big talk about pushing EVs as a whole forward while doing their very best to fragment the charging ecosystem as much as they could. It was very right to complain about that, it's probably part of why they have actually brought their actions in line with their words.
The only way this would constitute a "blocker" is if they actively prevented every one else from using the same connector due to patents etc... I don't know whether that was the case, but simply "not wanting to change their connector" doesn't mean they are blocking progress. They were the first to roll out massive charging infrastructure. I would say it was silly of the other manufacturers to not standardize on what was already there.
Their patent sharing terms say that they get rights beyond patents or copyright: if you use their patents you agree not to copy any of their "designs," a vague term that no one can really be sure of how expansive it is.
> I would say it was silly of the other manufacturers to not standardize on what was already there.
it seems silly right now, but letting your competitor own a platform for which your business depends is folly, unless there's regulation on that platform.
The car also has certificates from the manufacturer, and those certificates have a maximum 90 day validity. The charger has to verify the certificates before providing power. Some but not all chargers let the car have internet access to renew the certificates from a manufacturer server.
Effectively, that means if your car manufacturer goes bankrupt, you lose charging ability 90 days later. Same if you only charge in places without internet connectivity.
What's changed is that last year Tesla decided to publish an open standard. Now that other manufacturers can use the plug, they gave agreed to use Tesla's physical plug design, but with the CCS signaling protocol.
So NACS going forward is more of a new hybrid of the two rather than a switch to Tesla's existing charger. One of the outcomes is that cars equipped with CCS will be able to use NACS with a simple adapter.
Why not use Tesla's signaling protocol? I don't know the details. Maybe Tesla isn't ready or able to create an open standard for that part. Or maybe other manufacturers want to keep the signalling they have to keep adapters simple. In any case only one vehicle and charging station manufacturer (Tesla) will have to make updates on the software side, and to people who don't know the difference between the plug and the software it'll look like Tesla won the charger war.