Shouldn’t the Federal government compel all manufacturers of electric cars to standardize their charging systems to accept charging from the same charger?

Sounds logical to me.

I was not aware that there is no standard.
Do they provide adapters for such things?

Give it time. Sooner or later, it will have to happen.

They have common plugs for Level 1 and 2 but not Level 3

Good idea! Yes, they should.

No. There is too much innovation in this space. If a manufacturer is capable of improving charge times dramatically, but requires a specific plug geometry to do so, I don’t want them crippling their innovation to accommodate manufacturers who are dragging their feet (and don’t really want EVs to succeed anyways). Adaptors are easy to design and make. If there is demand, they will be made.

I also disagree with the premise that the biggest hinderance is the lack of compatible charging stations. I’ve had a Model 3 for nearly 3 years. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used the supercharger network. And I’ve only used a 3rd party charge once in that time. The reality is that most people don’t drive for 300+ miles in a day. You do your thing and come home and plug in at night. It’s super-easy and more convenient than having to fill up at a gas station.

So commuters are ok. And long distance drivers?

Yepper, those short-range EV commuter drivers have it good but the long distance out-of-towners are screwed. Give me the freedom of a gas engine any day!

@kritiper ”...long distance out-of-towners are screwed”

I don’t think that’s an accurate statement. I COULD do long distance if I wanted to, I (and 99.9% of Americans) simply aren’t driving more than 300 miles in a day on a regular basis (maybe a handful of times per year at most). Supercharging makes it possible to drive anywhere. The range anxiety is mostly ridiculous. It’s like people worried whether their SUV can ford a river crossing, that they’ll only ever drive to the grocery store and the soccer field.

I would say the biggest challenge is for people who can’t charge at home/work because they live in an apartment complex that doesn’t have the charging infrastructure or have to park on the street. That WOULD be an EV deal-breaker for me.

There should be a standard.

Innovation might update the standard, but I think that part of the technology should be shared. In America we initially had iPhones only compatible with AT&T, pissed me off. Don’t we still have problems that certain cell networks don’t work with certain phones? Or, is that finally solved. I’m pretty sure Europe doesn’t have that problem.

I believe in innovators having a competitive advantage, but not to the point that it inhibits overall progress for technology and society.

Europe has set standards and the manufacturers have adopted them. Real improvements can be made and inventors rewarded with a percentage of licensing fees. Clearly the incentives for traditional service stations to install chargers increases exponentially if a single design can charge everything.

I hate when the government has to intervene in matters that would be simply business decisions.

Some decisions exceed the interests of commerce and turning a profit.

So what’s the problem with an adapter?

Eventually, absolutely.
Imagine if every home had a different wall plug system with different voltages and amperages.
Plus every device you wanted to use had different plugs, too. You would be drowning in, and spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for adapters and transformers for every conceivable plug combination.

@gorillapaws Hey, you and I have been down this road before on another thread and the jury is STILL out! State your stances on this subject as you may but don’t address them to me because I don’t buy it. Not yet, at least. Maybe in twenty or thirty years, but not now. The technology is still too new.

@ragingloli But we’ve had EVs for over a decade now and there aren’t an insane number of different plug systems, there are only a few. There are industry standards, and EV manufacturers already have every incentive to make their vehicles compatible with the existing infrastructure (via adapters in some cases). If company x can build a system that charges a vehicle in 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes, how is that helpful if they have to wait for years to get the standards approved before they can get them into production? Madness.