Charge Port Placement – Should Tesla Dictate the Terms?
By Edward A. Sanchez — March 11, 2024
The coming near-universal adoption of Tesla’s NACS (or J3400, if you will) charging plug and port standard has already manifested itself in controversy over charging etiquette, and what will likely be ample social media fodder for EV fans and detractors alike. As Tesla’s V4 Superchargers with longer charging cables designed to accommodate non-Teslas are gradually rolled out, this will become less of an issue, but we’re looking at a years or decades-long process for the entirety of the North American Supercharger network to be this new standard.
The latest manifestation of this controversy has arisen after the debut of the Rivian R2 and R3, two new models which will have a native NACS port, but not in the usual location (at least for Teslas). The port is located on the right rear fender. In an interview with InsideEVs, Rivian design chief Jeff Hammoud said that location was chosen to facilitate curbside charging, a common scenario in Europe, and one that looks poised to become a much bigger trend in North America with companies like itselectric and others entering the space.
Rivian’s R2 (shown) and R3 vehicles have their charge ports on the “wrong” side.
All production Teslas since the Model S have had their charge port at the rear left, usually hidden under an access panel integrated into the taillight. This works perfectly with the Superchargers when backing in, with the cable length being exactly long enough to reach the port.
Models that don’t have this port location are having to resort to straddling spaces between Supercharger stalls, even on the recommendation of Tesla itself. In somewhat of a bizarre workaround, Tesla is even reportedly working on a NACS extension cord. Tesla is still officially recommending charging port placement in the left rear for those companies adopting NACS/J3400. But that’s going under the assumption that the current Supercharger configuration is the predominant L3 standard (which, let’s face it, it kind of is.) As noted above per Hammoud’s observation, this ignores the use case of curbside charging, whether L2 or L3 DCFC.
I anticipate in the next few years, as more NACS to CCS adapters make their way to consumers, and NACS-native non-Tesla vehicles start coming into the market, that verbal arguments or confrontations will arise between Tesla owners and newcomers attempting to use the Supercharger network. While this will undoubtedly make for entertaining social media fodder, it is a real-world example of how varying implementations of charger port placement and charging station cable length and management can have real-world consequences.
One could argue that as the large scale first-mover in the DCFC space, Tesla is within its right to dictate the de facto terms. Others say it’s giving the company an unfair advantage over its competitors. A rational argument could be made for both.
To be fair, the industry’s near-universal adoption of NACS for the North American market is forcing this issue. Neither Tesla nor the government forced anyone’s hand. It was the realization that NACS was an objectively superior design in terms of form factor and ease-of-use. From that standpoint, these transitional hiccups should have been expected from the start. The bigger question is, in the short term, will the adoptees of NACS end up having buyer’s remorse, or will the left-rear port location become the de facto standard going forward.
(Image courtesy Rivian)
