Charging station
Last year, something remarkable happened in the automotive world. Just when it seemed like everyone except Tesla had found an industry-standard charging plug, the industry went ahead and massively to the smaller, more elegant plug designed by Tesla.
But native ports won’t appear in non-Tesla EVs until next year, and more than half of the EVs on North American roads today use J1776 (for AC) and CCS1 (for DC) charging ports. For many drivers, the future likely involves keeping an adapter in the trunk. ChargePoint’s Omni Port, which debuted this morning, is making it a no-brainer for drivers to forget their dongles.
“With Omni Port, ChargePoint has solved the challenges of a multi-connector environment, ensuring Tesla and non-Tesla drivers can continue to expect a world-class driving experience. We give drivers and site hosts the assurance that ChargePoint will continue to meet all of their charging needs now and in the future,” said Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint.
ChargePoint didn’t create a new connector that would fit into J1772, CCS1 and J3400 (originally NACS) ports. Instead, like Tesla’s Magic Dock Superchargers, the Omni Port has a pair of cables. When a driver wants to charge, they use the ChargePoint app or the charger’s touchscreen to select the appropriate connector type, which is then unlocked for use. The cables are long enough to reach any vehicle’s charging port, ChargePoint says.
The company says the Omni Port will be available later this year and can be retrofitted to certain models of ChargePoint chargers (the CP6000 and Express Plus Power Link 2000) for “a nominal price,” allowing existing customers to welcome their new electric vehicles without having to install a whole bunch of new chargers.
