ChargePoint
Last year, a remarkable thing happened in the car world. Just as it looked like everyone other than Tesla had settled on an industry-standard charging plug, the industry moved en masse to the smaller, more elegant plug designed by Tesla.
But native ports won’t start showing up in non-Tesla EVs until next year, and more than half of the EVs already on North American roads use J1776 (for AC) and CCS1 (for DC) charge ports. For many drivers, the future will probably involve keeping an adapter in the trunk. ChargePoint’s Omni Port, which debuted this morning, will let drivers forget about their dongles.
“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,” said Rick Wilmer, ChargePoint CEO.
ChargePoint didn’t create a new plug that fits into J1772, CCS1, and J3400 (originally NACS) sockets. Instead, like Tesla’s Magic Dock Superchargers, the Omni Port features a pair of cables. When a driver wants to charge, they’ll use the ChargePoint app or the charger’s touchscreen to select the right connector type, which is then released for use. The cables are long enough to reach any vehicle’s charger port, ChargePoint says.
The company says the Omni Port will begin shipping by the end of this year, and it can be retrofitted to some models of ChargePoint charger (the CP6000 and Express Plus Power Link 2000) models for “a nominal cost,” so existing customers can start welcoming new EVs without having to install all new chargers.
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