Adapting Superchargers
A new design of Tesla’s Supercharging stations that appears to be CCS compatible was leaked on Tesla’s mobile app on January 20th!
The design of what’s being called the “Magic Dock” made an appearance, along with a filter to allow drivers to search for CCS-capable Tesla locations, and the location of the first of these stations: Hawthorne, California.
The image shows a bulkier charger head - likely CCS compatible so vehicles other than Teslas can utilise the more than 40,000 charge stations run by the EV giant - and also so Tesla can meet the requirements for upcoming government grants meant to encourage the investment in green infrastructure.
The image is a little dark, but the folks at DriveTesla lightened it up a bit, and there it is: that bulkier charge head is very clear - and looks a lot like the European CCS2-capable versions.
While the image could have been updated in the app by mistake - it has already been taken down - it’s not a secret that Tesla was working on solutions to this issue - promising the White House that they would work to adapt their Superchargers to be able to service vehicles made by competitors.
In July 2022, the White House made mention that Tesla had committed to adapting their tech in this way - which seems to be what this “Magic Dock” is going to be.
Which makes sense, as North America isn’t the only continent forcing Tesla to make these sorts of changes. Europe has also made this demand, and the adoption of non-Tesla-specific Superchargers by the company mirrored what we’re seeing with this leak: The image updates and also the addition of a filter in the Tesla app that allows drivers to search for CCS-compatible stations.
The Combined Charging System (CCS) is the current standard for North American electric vehicles, and while Tesla has been making a push to replace that standard with their own charger design, that particular effort is likely going to take time - if it ever happens at all.
For now it seems that Tesla is preparing to do what they did in Europe by introducing CCS-compatible charging stations, and opening their service stations up to all EV drivers. And even though the changes were removed from the app quickly, they appeared to be more or less finished, so it’s likely the official announcement is just around the corner.