Why major automakers embrace Tesla's previously proprietary charging tech

For a long time Tesla used its own kind of charger plug and had its own supercharger network. That once-exclusive network is opening up to other EV manufacturers.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Perhaps you remember the epic videotape format wars that was between Betamax and VHS. If you don't, it was a business competition decades ago between two incompatible ways to watch movies at home. VHS won - Betamax faded away. A similar contest played out recently over electric vehicle chargers. The winner? Tesla. As NPR's Camila Domonoske reports, the automaker's once-exclusive network of superchargers and plugs is opening up.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: I recently took an electric Rivian SUV on a long drive through Pennsylvania. And at my first charger stop, not on the Tesla network, there was a charger repair guy working as I pulled up. He didn't want to go on mic because he wasn't authorized by his company to talk to the press, but I taped a voice memo after our chat.

He called these chargers a little finicky. One of them was totally out of commission. Another one was overheating. One of them worked for a few minutes but then stopped. So (laughter) there was another charger, one charger left that did seem to be working.

In fairness, these open-to-anyone charger networks are better than they used to be. But later I tried another one.

Four chargers, three occupied, one out of order. Less than a mile down the road, there's a supercharger.

That is, a Tesla supercharger with a dozen ports, tons of them open. And when I got there?

Yes, charging.

And that, in a nutshell, is why every major automaker has embraced Tesla's previously proprietary charging tech. It means access to Tesla's charging network, far and away the biggest and most reliable in the country. You know how they use a different-shaped wall outlet in, say, Europe, and travelers need an adapter to make a U.S. hair dryer work? The big transition the auto industry is making, it's kind of like that. Qiong Sun, a charging expert at TE Connectivity, hopped on Zoom to show me where that adapter goes.

QIONG SUN: Can you see it, first of all?

DOMONOSKE: She held up a chunk of black plastic with round holes in it.

SUN: OK, so this is the charging inlet, what's in the vehicle.

DOMONOSKE: This is what the charger plugs into in a car, like a socket, in a car that's not a Tesla. There's a top and a bottom section. One's used for slower everyday charging, like at home or work, another added for fast charging, like on road trips. Tesla's system has just one shape for both kinds of charging. And unlike a hair dryer, just an adapter isn't enough. There need to be software tweaks, too.

SUN: So not only does the hardware need to be changed, but also now the software needs to be able to distinguish which mode it is at.

DOMONOSKE: Future cars will be built with Tesla's tech. Today's non-Tesla drivers need that adapter. Now, charging a Tesla at a supercharger is pretty seamless. My borrowed Rivian, not quite.

I think that was a click. Sounded like a click.

But it worked, and having that adapter instantly tripled the number of superfast chargers available on a seven-hour drive. Ford, Rivian and GM are the first companies to get widespread access to Tesla superchargers. Eventually, every EV maker is pivoting to Tesla's tech. So that means rival charging networks, they're pivoting, too. Rick Wilmer, the CEO of charging company ChargePoint, says this is a good thing for the industry. Just like the whole VHS versus Betamax battle in the '80s, having one standard is just more efficient.

RICK WILMER: However many years it takes from now, when all the cars on the road are all the same and all the chargers are the same, that's going to be a better place.

DOMONOSKE: How many years do you think it will take?

WILMER: A long time.

DOMONOSKE: New cars are still being made with the old charger port design. And rival technologies have a history of sticking around. Fun trivia fact - the last Betamax tape was produced in 2016.

Camila Domonoske, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF DIIV'S "(DRUUN)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.