Rivian is making a lot of progress, even though it has yet to make a profit since going public. One company that makes electric vehicles (EVs) uses shared owner data to let other EV owners know about bad charging sites and to get trucks out of deep holes. The most recent thing it wants to do—no one asked, but we’ll do something nice anyway—is move the charging ports for cars so they work better with Tesla Supercharger stations. The North American Charging System (NACS) charger connector was created by Tesla and will be used by almost all EV-selling cars by 2025. It’s a big change from the Combined Charging System (CCS), which is the current industry standard and the connection that most Tesla cars use around the world. However, the US’s infrastructure for charging electric vehicles (EVs) needs to be better outside of the Supercharger network. Automakers likely think that adjusting to the current huge, fast, and surprisingly reliable NACS-based Supercharger network is a faster way to deal with unhappy customers and slowing sales growth than waiting for a federally backed infrastructure that moves slowly to catch up. The trouble is that there need to be approved places to put charging ports for cars. It never was. For this part, Tesla has put all of its charge ports on the back left side of the car. Rivian, like other cars that use the NACS switch, sells an adaptor for its CCS-pronged connector, which will soon be removed. R1 models will be able to connect directly to NACS in 2025, and R2 models will be able to do the same in 2026. That’s only sometimes the case with changes. Rivian also changed where the charge ports were located. When the next R2 and R3X models were shown off at the Rivian Space in Pasadena, California, Green Car Reports says the plug-in point was moved to the left back. When the cars first came out, these kinds of holes were on the right back. This is especially clear in official Rivian pictures, which you can still find on their website. Rivian has said before that the right rear is perfect for charging at the curb or by connecting to its charge network. Even though the change was made with care, there were some problems. The new port position doesn’t help owners of equipment racks, tow trucks, and trailers. This problem is also real because the charge ports for the R1T and R1S are on the front left side of the car. Pull-through charges are available in more than just a few public places. Also, keep in mind that RVs and cars that are easy to tow, like pickups and SUVs, are becoming electric. Gridserve says that the majority of electric cars have charge ports in the back. The right side wins the chicken dinner and gets 37% of the EVs, while the left side only gets 28%. Even though these numbers are based on EV sales in the UK, they show that EV OEMs are sometimes different. Even within, disagreements can happen. Kia EVs have charging ports in the middle front, the left front, and the right back. But this crazy behavior could be planned and depend on many things, such as where the car’s electronics are located, where it is sold, and even how it is used (for example, towing). We can’t call the EV market a young business right now. It’s still going through a lot of growing pains. Also, the auto industry wants to see a future with only electric cars. In that case, it needs to focus on everyone: business tourists, road trippers, haulers, weekend warriors, and people who live in the suburbs and Invoice Pricing 42 miles to work every day because taking a trailer off of its hooks to connect it to a charging station is a pain.
