With the electric vehicle industry slowly transitioning to the use of Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, there's sure to be some unintentional anxiety for the millions of EV drivers who depend on the currently standard Combined Charging System (CCS) plug. Will there be plug confusion for people looking to charge, and will there be enough of the right plugs out there for everyone? ChargePoint has a solution that seems right on the money: a DC fast charger that can support either kind of vehicle.
The California-based charging giant today introduced a new integrated adapter system for its electric vehicle charging equipment. It's called the Omni Port, and it's designed to allow any electric vehicle to access ChargePoint's chargers without an adapter.
Get Fully Charged
The EV charging format wars
In order to jumpstart EV adoption, Ford pushed to have its cars be able to access Tesla's vast Supercharger network, and even to use Tesla's plug type from the factory. Soon, every other automaker joined the bandwagon. The switch to Tesla's NACS plug is taking longer than expected, but the slimmer, sleeker plug may be the future of charging in America.
Tesla launched its version of the same type of technology last year and called it the Magic Dock. Since then, the company has opened Magic Dock Supercharger locations across the U.S. and has nearly 100 Magic Dock sites to date.
But 100 Magic Dock locations won't be enough, especially as the NACS plug now takes greater prominence across the landscape—eventually becoming standard on EVs from Ford, Hyundai, General Motors and more. So ChargePoint is stepping up to create a system that can serve all types of EVs.
Is This Needed?
I believe almost everyone agrees that the electric vehicle industry in North America will benefit from the decision automakers made last year to switch from the current charging connector standards of J1772 and CCS1, to Tesla's North American Charging Standard, commonly referred to as NACS.
But those are the long-term effects of the switch. What about the short-term issues brought on by this transition? There are millions of electric vehicles on the roads in the U.S., and more than a million new EVs are introduced yearly. About half of all new EVs are Teslas with a native NACS charging port, while the other half use a J1772 connector for AC charging and a CCS1 port for DC charging.
(No, I didn't forget the fact that the Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid still use a CHAdeMO port for DC charging. While those vehicles are still available, they sell in very low numbers, and CHAdeMO is largely being phased out. The vast majority of non-Tesla EVs have a CCS1 inlet for DC charging.)
As the industry transitions to NACS, there will be a need for NACS-equipped vehicles to use J1772 and CCS1 charging stations, as well as J1772 and CCS1-equipped EVs to use NACS-equipped chargers.
As such, many third-party suppliers have begun selling adapters for every need. There are NACS to J1772 adapters and the opposite, CCS1 to NACS and the opposite, and recently a few companies have begun offering CCS1 to CHAdeMO adapters.
All of those adapters require the customer to buy and carry around the device in case they need to use it at a public charging station.
Of course, if you drive an EV with a CCS1 inlet, you won't need an adapter if you want to charge at a Tesla Supercharger with the Magic Dock hardware, and now Tesla drivers with a NACS inlet won't need one when charging on a ChargePoint charger with the Omni Port.
Starting in 2025, most manufacturers will begin installing NACS inlets on new EV models and over the next 3-5 years, phase out J1772 and CCS1. But there will still be many millions of EVs that use J1772 and CCS1 that will need to use public chargers for at least the next decade.
With ChargePoint's Omni Port, customers can enter the year, make, and model of their EV in the ChargePoint app, and when they use an Omni Port-equipped ChargePoint station, the unit will automatically unlock the correct connector for their vehicle.
If they don't have a ChargePoint account and pay with a credit card, they will be required to select the connector their EV uses on the charger's touchscreen.
All EV Types Welcome
I spoke with ChargePoint's CEO, Rick Wilmer. He explained that current ChargePoint stations, both AC- and DC-powered, can be upgraded with the Omni Port integrated adapter system, and customers now have the option of ordering new chargers with the Omni Port included at no extra cost.
“Across hardware and software, ChargePoint is bringing to market innovative solutions that ensure all drivers who need to charge are able to do so,” Wilmer said in a statement. “With Omni port, ChargePoint solved the challenges associated with a multiple connector environment, ensuring Tesla and non-Tesla drivers can continue to expect a world-class driver experience. We are giving drivers and site hosts assurance that ChargePoint will continue to meet all their charging needs now and in the future.”
Additionally, ChargePoint will soon introduce a home charger with the Omni Port to compete with the very popular Tesla Universal Wall Connector.
Personally, I prefer these systems (Tesla's Magic Dock and Omni Port) over having the customer buy and use a third-party adapter. There are a lot of low-quality, unsafe EV charging adapters flooding the market (just do a quick Amazon search), which is why most of the charging networks have banned their use. The adapters used in these systems by ChargePoint and Tesla have been thoroughly tested and engineered for safety and long life.
Is this the kind of solution we need for the future of EV charging? Let us know your thoughts on ChargePoint's new Omni Port in the comments.
