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birkin/ok_to_buy_non_tesla_EVs_again.md

Last active June 12, 2023 02:55
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recent email to some friends, sparked by GM's recent announcement that it'll adopt the NACS fast-charger plug.
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ok_to_buy_non_tesla_EVs_again.md

Go Forth and Purchase a non-Tesla EV!

2023-June-11

Hi all,

With the announcement by General Motors this past Thursday that it will adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) fast-charger -- giving it access to Tesla's fast-chargers -- I can officially once again whole-heartedly evangelize non-Tesla EVs! (From Ford & GM; Ford announced the same two weeks ago.)

Some of you may remember that a few months ago I had said that I was terribly disappointed that I could no longer freely recommend buying a non-Tesla EV if...

  • it was going to be one's only car, and...
  • one wanted to be able to even occasionally take long trips.

The reason for my dampened non-Tesla EV enthusiasm was two-fold:

  • The non-Tesla fast-charging network, though slowly growing, has real reliability issues. (This is in contrast to Tesla's fast-charging network, which is extremely reliable.)
  • The number of fantastic non-Tesla EVs has significantly increased, greatly exacerbating the frequency of terrible fast-charging experiences for non-Tesla EVs.

The non-Tesla fast-charging system is comprised of a bunch of different companies not directly related to the main auto-companies. It uses a fast-charge plug and standard called CCS-1; Tesla's fast-charge plug and standard, NACS, is different. For a while, Tesla tried to get its fast-charger adopted to be a standard, but was unsuccessful.

Last Fall Tesla released its fast-charger as an open standard -- with no takers. Though Tesla claimed it was open to other companies using its fast-chargers, most observers assessed that other auto-companies didn't want to be seen as in any way supporting upstart Tesla that has so disrupted their business-model. Second, many were suspicious that Tesla was serious. It's a huge competitive advantage for Tesla not to allow others to use its network.

But apparently Tesla was serious. Further, in addition to allowing Ford and GM to use its fast-chargers, it committed to fully opening its fast-charger-APIs to allow Ford and GM to completely integrate all fast-charger-availability and payment-processing through Ford's and GM's apps (not the Tesla app). Tesla fans aren't convinced that this is good for Tesla as a company, because even though Tesla will make some money from charging for electricity, it'll completely lose a major competitive advantage (this post is an example of that). Still, the vast majority of Telsa fans are excited about this, because it will help advance EV adoption -- a core Tesla mission.

Already some of the big third-party charging companies have stated that they'll add NACS 'hoses' to their chargers. Most analysts believe it's just a matter of time before remaining auto-companies selling EVs in the U.S. make similar announcements. (Tesla makes up some two-thirds of the U.S. EV market; Tesla, Ford and GM together make up about three-fourths.)

The wonderful icing on the cake is that the Tesla-NACS charger-plug is much, much better than the non-Tesla-CCS charger-plug. This is acknowledged even by folk who dislike Tesla. Look at the picture linked below[*]. The NACS plug (in black) is smaller and much easier to use, and the receiver port in the car works for both fast-charging and at-home-slow-charging.

This is a real win for consumers.

-Birkin

[*] links...

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