What We’re Reading
Tesla opens its EV charge connector in the hope of making it the new standard (Electrek, November 11, 2022)
Tesla announced that it has renamed its electric car charge connector—now calling it the “North American Charging Standard (NACS)”—and has opened up the design to other manufacturers. Tesla explained the move in a public statement, saying “[w]e invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port … on their equipment and vehicles. NACS is the most common charging standard in North America: NACS vehicles outnumber CCS two-to-one, and Tesla’s Supercharging network has 60% more NACS posts than all the CCS-equipped networks combined.”
Whether Tesla will get buy-in from the industry remains to be seen. As of now, CCS is the dominant standard not just in North America but also in Europe, and most EVs on the market are delivered with CCS connectors.
Why is Tesla making this move? One explanation, according to this article, is that Tesla charging stations currently do not qualify for federal incentives. “[T]he US government recently unlocked billions of dollars in funding for EV charging stations, and while the government didn’t require those stations to work with the CCS connector, it did require that the charging stations receiving funding work with EVs ‘from more than one automaker.’” If even one automaker adopted Tesla’s design, incentives would become available for Tesla’s Supercharger network.
Read Tesla’s full announcement and find the charger design specs here.
Driver of Tesla blames company for deadly crash caught on video in China (Yahoo News, November 14, 2022)
Harrowing footage captured earlier this month by surveillance cameras throughout Chaozhou, Guangdong province in China show a Tesla Model Y careening through the streets at speeds up to 123 mph, crashing into or nearly missing pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles before slamming into a building. A motorcyclist and student were killed; three others were injured. The driver, a 55-year-old former truck driver, survived.
According to his family, the driver tried to slow the Tesla but neither the brakes nor park button would respond. Reports suggest the vehicle was operating in Autopilot. Tesla denies that the driver made any effort to apply the brakes, relying on crash data from the vehicle and the fact that no brake lights appear in the video. Tesla has committed to “actively providing ‘any necessary aid’ to the local police.”
The surveillance video is available on YouTube and linked through this article. We warn that it is graphic.
Volvo reveals new $80,000 electric SUV with Luminar lidar (CNBC, November 9, 2022)
Volvo’s new “flagship” vehicle is a seven-passenger all-electric SUV branded as the EX90. The first in Volvo’s planned all-electric lineup, the EX90 will start at $80,000 and is expected to get up to 300 miles/charge. It will begin delivery in 2024.
“The car also marks the introduction of Luminar Technologies’ lidar system as standard equipment in a commercially built vehicle. Many in the automotive industry believe lidar is the next-generation of safety technology and a step closer to more highly-automated or autonomous vehicles.” As noted in our November 2 newsletter, Luminar’s CEO, Austin Russell, has been an outspoken critic of Elon Musk’s view that LiDAR is unnecessary for full self-driving. Volvo’s decision to incorporate Luminar’s technology as standard on the EX90 is seen as validation for Russell’s view and its “longtime strategy—supporting driver-assist technologies that seek to assist a human driver, not replace the driver.”