Supercharging of non-Tesla electric vehicles in the United States might be closer than ever before, as some kind of preparations were indicated in recent media reports.
A few days ago, Twitter user Hayden Sawyer (@haydensawyer14) noted that one of the Tesla Supercharging stations, located in Hawthorne, California - West 120th Street (see Tesla's info here), besides the standard info about the number of stalls, has also an additional note of "CCS Compatibility."
That's an interesting finding, considering that Tesla intends to open its fast charging network to other electric vehicles in the US, similarly to in Europe under the Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot program.
Unfortunately, we don't know what happened, because the note about CCS Compatibility disappeared soon afterward, while Tesla enthusiasts who visited the station confirmed that there is no CCS charging solution at the site.
In other words, it might be some accidental leak of a note, ahead of the upcoming launch of the non-Tesla Supercharging pilot program in the US (at select stations).
The news is related to another thing - the "Magic Dock", which appears to be some kind of retrofit for the existing Tesla Supercharging stalls to charge both Tesla cars (using the company's proprietary standard, recently named NACS) as well as non-Tesla cars (using CCS Combo 1 aka CCS1.
This is actually the crucial obstacle to launching the non-Tesla Supercharging in North America because there must be a different plug for the CCS1-compatible cars, or at least some kind of adapter. In Europe, it was simpler because new Tesla cars are natively compatible with the CCS2 connector, used currently in almost all electric cars on the market in Europe.
An image of a Supercharging stall, with a mystery "Magic Dock" for CCS1 charging, was recently discovered in the Tesla's mobile app, according to Drive Tesla Canada:
"Along with adding the filter to the map on their website, Tesla also added Hawthorne as an option under the ‘Charge your Non-Tesla’ menu in the mobile app. Going through the process to the point where you select the stall, Tesla shared an image the Magic Dock for the first time, as seen in the image below saved and shared by Branden Flasch. (@brandenflasch). The image is a little dark in the app but we edited it to make the Magic Dock more visible, and it matches the design that was shared with us last year."
We don't know how the "Magic Dock" works, but it seems that it's noticeably bigger, probably to accommodate the larger CCS1 plug/adapter.
If you spot anything like this, there might be a good chance that the non-Tesla EV Supercharging is coming to your area.
