Aptera wants Tesla Supercharger as standard in the United States > teslamag.de

When manufacturing the Supercharger network for the Model S began in 2012, Tesla chose a thinner connector that didn’t conform to any standard—not stubbornly, but because there was no such thing in a usable form at the time, As CEO Elon Musk later explained. In Europe, Tesla launched the Model 3. CCS standard is relied on since, which in the meantime has become stronger. A variant of this is being seen in the US as well, and Tesla is on the verge of opening up for it. But a small electric car maker is now campaigning for the supercharger to become the American standard instead.

Super Efficient Electric Car on 3 Wheels

Aptera Motors is a California startup founded in 2005 and revived after liquidation with the goal of making the most efficient electric car in the world. Among other things, it omits a second row of seats and a rear wheel and has a teardrop-shaped upper body clad in solar cells (see photo above). Reservations are already possible for an affordable solar electric carBut production is coming a long time.

There were initially rumors that Aptera would be one of the first foreign electric car makers to be able to use the Tesla Supercharger. Meanwhile, the opening of the grid has begun, but only in Europe, where Tesla adopted the CCS standard with the Model 3. In America, it also seems imminent – ​​according to the White House, it’s just the beginning Production of supercharger technology for charging third-party electric cars in 2022,

It should also be equivalent to CCS, only in US form, and one in most recently revealed documents. The new supercharger generation is of a “dual” solution speech. But maybe because there wasn’t enough room for the bulky CCS charging socket on their slim electric tricycles, Aptera’s founders have now launched a petition: The US Congress should declare the charging protocol and connections used by Tesla the standard .

Tesla’s cost and benefits

in a picture in the beginning petition See change.org for a schematic comparison of connectors for the US-CCS, home charging standard J1772, and the Tesla format, which (also the owner) is used to charge on both AC wallboxes and superchargers. The Tesla connector is clearly the smallest and simplest. According to the founders of Aptera, a recent study has shown that superchargers offer the best charging experience. According to information from a program in Texas, they are very cheap to install. Thus, the necessary expansion of electric car infrastructure with Tesla technology in the United States would save billions of dollars.

Two days later, Thursday’s petition already had nearly 8,000 signatures, and according to change.org, 10,000 signatures are likely to elicit a response from politicians. But the result is certainly highly non-binding, and even Tesla doesn’t believe its Supercharger format will become standard in the United States — their customers there are already importing fast CCS adapters from Korea, to be able to use a growing number of other operators and often cheaper charging stations. If Aptera really doesn’t see any place for CCS technology in its electric car, the company may soon be forced to come up with an adapter solution.