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Rivian Follows Tesla’s Lead, Opens Charging Network to Other Brands (discuss.online)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

According to shareholder letters, Rivian plans to allow charging of electric vehicles of other brands in the second half of the year.

all 22 comments

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[–] NarrativeBear 102 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Could you imagine having to fill up on gas driving to a specific gas station designed for your make/brand of car.

Hey honey, going out to fill up the car at the local Subaru Gas Station.

[–] CosmicTurtle 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Car companies have definitely imagined this. And if they could, they 100% would.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago

Exactly. They know it inconveniences you, and if it was possible and would make them an extra dollar, they would do it.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago (1 children)

this is why leaving infrastructure to private manufacturers is insane.

standardize this shit.

[–] gaifux 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well that's ironic, because it is being left to private manufacturers, and they are moving towards interoperability anyways

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

the are allowing it because they dragged us along until they noticed they don't have a choice now. its important to realize they can always rescind it when they feel like enshittifying.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right. Occasionally, regulation can speed up an industry by preventing this kind of thing. If that had happened, however, we would likely be stuck with the bulkier CCS chargers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

its about interoperability and fairness. speeding it up is a nice bonus.

how bulky chargers are is irrelevant. forcing manufactirers to standardize and interoperate is the point.

i said nothing about how it should be regulated, only who should be managing the system. letting corpos do whatever they want is never the answer.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

The elitism between the Chevy, RAM, and Ford gas stations would be hilarious though. Meanwhile the Toyotabros would be dunkin on them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Any kind of vertical integration is harmful to competitive markets.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Well you see Mercedes has a star-shaped nozzle and Ford has a square shaped nozzle and...

[–] MeekerThanBeaker 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Do they use NACS or a different style connection?

[–] halcyoncmdr 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They're moving to NACS going forwards, but the current fleet and network uses the J1772 plug and CCS like basically everyone else up until now.

[–] GlitzyArmrest 7 points 9 months ago

Rivian hasn't yet adopted NACS, these are CCS.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

This is why we pay the CEOs the big bucks; to make the most obvious decisions out there.

[+] [email protected] -15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What, something good comming from a elon brand? 😂 I guess Tesla has recognized, that it is gas vs EV not EV vs EV 😌 but good news nonetheless.

[–] halcyoncmdr 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Tesla has always been about the expansion of EV, regardless of EV competition. Fact is, until recently there wasn't much RV competition worth looking at. Most alternatives were either expensively niche, like Tesla started, or extremely range limited so they ended up being niche urban vehicles. There hasn't been much competition in the middle until the last few years.

Most people don't actually need long range for their daily driver, but they look at the one longer range trip they make a year (maybe) and base their vehicle purchase on that, rather than something like renting a suitable vehicle for the single exception instead of the other 99% of the year. There's a reason shorter range plug-in EVs like the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt sold fairly well despite a nearly complete lack of marketing, they do what most people actually need their daily vehicle for.

Tesla has been willing to have other brands use their network for years, no one took them up on it until recently, and notably really only after Tesla's connector design became the US standard.

Hate Elon all you want, and hate the Tesla position towards things like workers rights and unions, it is well deserved, but they have stuck to their mission statement pretty darn well. "Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

[–] jqubed 11 points 9 months ago

No one (except Aptera) took Tesla up on the offer to use Tesla’s plug for years because as part of the “open” agreement Musk wanted, the companies would agree not to sue each other for patent infringement. This was obviously a non-starter for most brands; while Tesla was developing some valuable patents around electric vehicles and autonomous driving, the legacy car manufacturers had a lot more patents around everything else related to making a car (and most also had some EV and autonomous driving patents).

The only change really came when the Inflation Recovery Act passed, with a billion dollars earmarked for charging station construction. There were requirements that the stations had to use standardized plugs and allow credit cards (without needing accounts). Suddenly it became more valuable to own the leading Network that everyone could use. Tesla submitted their design to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for release as a standard and started calling it the North American Charging Standard (NACS). I’ve read there’s been grumbling from some SAE members since the “standard” didn’t come from one of their committees, but as automakers have signed deals with Tesla (that presumably don’t include the old patent restriction) it seems like that ship has sailed. Fortunately NACS and J1772/CCS (the standard from SAE) use the same communication protocol, so the difference is largely electrical/physical.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

😄 I agree, as long as you can charge at home with about 3.7kw you should be able to live without charging network for the most parts, well, I do with my 200km range car.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago

dot let the elon circlejerk get to your head. Tesla/spacex etc have still done incredible things