Tesla engineer urges Rivian to move charge port location on R2, R3, R3X for Supercharger access

[Longreach]

What about street chargers? If you drive on the right side, hence the location should be on that side.

That reasoning is similar to why some European cars had fillers on the passenger side, specifically for old fashioned gas pump forecourts where one would pull over to fill up.

Problem is most people don’t buy fuel that way anymore. They go to larger multi-pump fuel centers, and it seems to be the same way for charging. Any kind of street charging is a corner case that will have to be accommodated by the vehicle owner.

Besides, if you don’t have some form of protected off-street parking with private charging, you might not be the best candidate for an EV anyway (or an ICE for that matter).

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[CharonPDX]

The current R1 location is the best. Having it in the rear is a pain with a hitch mounted bike rack or a trailer.

Tesla can suck it.

That is the big advantage of the current port location - nose-in charging when towing a trailer is easy. There are many RAN locations that the towing spot will be impossible to use when towing a trailer on an R2. A couple I've been at COULD move (or add a second) dispenser at the proper spot for an R2, but some simply can't. An R2 towing will HAVE to disconnect the trailer to charge.

 

[CharonPDX]

Problem is most people don’t buy fuel that way anymore. They go to larger multi-pump fuel centers, and it seems to be the same way for charging. Any kind of street charging is a corner case that will have to be accommodated by the vehicle owner.

Many European cities (and even some US cities now like Portland and Seattle!) have on-street charging for multi-family housing that only have street parking. Having the charge port on the passenger's side makes this feasible.

 

[Longreach]

Is anyone here old enough to remember when many cars had their gas caps in the center of the back of the vehicle? Sometimes even hidden under the license plate? Why can't EVs be made with a charge port dead center above the back bumper? It would solve all kinds of problems with cables reaching and taking up adjacent spots when charging.

And those old enough to remember this will also remember bending over or squatting, then flipping and holding spring loaded dirty plates.

Not pleasant, which is why fillers are now conveniently located high up on the quarter panel. Not to mention better protection from collisions.

For the same reasons, charge ports really are best located on the drivers side front or rear quarter panel. In this regard I have to say (and I‘m absolutely loathe to say it) Ford/GM actually got it right.

 

[Longreach]

Many European cities (and even some US cities now like Portland and Seattle!) have on-street charging for multi-family housing that only have street parking. Having the charge port on the passenger's side makes this feasible.

A very small percentage of the car owning population can ever park on streets.

Besides, potential cable vandalism means many street charging proposals have people bringing their own cables for charging. Owners will have to bring the right cable for their vehicle.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Besides, potential cable vandalism means many street charging proposals have people bringing their own cables for charging. Owners will have to bring the right cable for their vehicle.

Lucky for us this is actually one of the things the SAE NACS accomodates.

 

[carsly]

Tesla accepted government money to expand charging .. that money came with requirements. One being they have to accommodate other vehicles.

Yet again, this is a TESLA problem not a every other car manufacturer problem. Tesla's network is no longer a "private" network. If they don't want to accommodate other vehicles, they can give back the government money they accepted. Tesla is the one that needs to invest to update their stations .. not everyone else.

LOL. Tesla did NOT build the existing Supercharger network with government money. Maybe you should talk to Ford, GM and whatever remains of Chrysler about taking government bailout money due to their inept management while they maximized profits in the subsequent years through flooding the market with high-emissions trucks and V8 monstrosities. Perhaps you can claw back some recompense for the environmental damage they have inflicted on all of us.

Our Federal government decreed that VW, of all organizations, build a nationwide charging network as one of their penalties for Dieselgate. How has that been working out? Government intervention in charging networks was probably needed 20 years ago. Now they are coming way too late to a game that has already been played and with a very short stack of chips.

Yes, Tesla will use some government funds to adopt their inane regulations related to being able to add screens to the chargers (which will hamper reliability) and add payment terminals to the chargers (which will hamper reliability) all in exchange for some small amount of Federal money. Make no mistake, virtually all the Superchargers you see and which are available for use are funded by Tesla investors and Tesla vehicle owners - not the government.

 

[DPT-dad89]

That location has been bugging me since yesterday.

Personally my R1S and Volt have front left. Easy access for driver and my garage setup is optimized for that.

I understand that rear ones allow less wiring inside the vehicle (cheaper) but I hate backing into parking spots. Why do truck drivers appear to prefer that? It beats me.

Because it is safer to back in to an empty spot and then drive out into traffic when you leave the spot vs backing out into traffic and relying on the common sense and kindness of others. MA residents won’t even stop for an ambulance.

 

[RivRyan]

I hate backing into parking spots. Why do truck drivers appear to prefer that? It beats me.

The geometry actually makes it easier to get in and out of spots.

Our ID4 has a rear passenger side charge point. I seriously doubt VW is changing that when they get access. I think Tesla needs to rethink this or they're going to see a lot of vehicles taking up two spots (if that's really what happens when your port is in the "wrong" spot.)

 

[Watty]

I'm confused as to all the fuss here. We should ALL be backing in whenever possible as it is safer and less accident prone for most situations.

I personally find the R2 charging location perfect as I back into my garage and the port is right where my charger is installed so I don't even need to spool it out. And, if I had two vehicles in my garage, I would be able to easily run the cord behind the one closer to it to reach the other charge port were it in the same spot.

Someone else started down the right path IMO by working on that diagram, but it should really be expanded to prove any kind of a point. Say you have four charger locations (near each "corner" of the two car garage on the sides parallel to the vehicles) and then you could have four potential charger locations on each of the two vehicles. Accounting for cord length, I'd assume there will be an answer for location that makes the most sense and I wouldn't be surprised if it lined up with where they put it, not to mention the cost considerations that have been made so far.

And that's not even taking into consideration public charging infrastructure, whether it be stations or street side, but even that shouldn't really matter as the VAST majority of charging takes place at home an they should be designing for the primary use case and not the edge case....ESPECIALLY when that edge case is fostered by one of Elon's engineers or someone who is unwilling to learn how to back up properly.

If your argument is "I don't like backing up" or "I don't like walking around my car and bending over," I'm going to argue your concerns have very little weight here. It's really funny, at least in my opinion, that especially the latter was even mentioned here as I'd think having to drive to a gas station and stop there for several minutes while filling up was the alternative you entertained for DECADES and now, all of the sudden, walking around your car at home in the garage is somehow too difficult to put up with for the insane convenience of "fueling" at home overnight.

Tesla took government money to expand their network and make it compatible for everyone's vehicles, so the original comment from their engineer is bunk. Full stop.

Lastly, if you have a bike rack, you should be taking it off because most garages aren't long enough to accommodate it remaining on the vehicle, and therefore it isn't a great argument to use here. And if you are driving with a trailer, very few charging stations are set up well for you anyway, so complaining about port location on that basis seems....inappropriate.

tl;dr - If you take nothing else from this comment, suck it up and back in whenever possible. It's not that difficult, especially with all the cameras most vehicles have these days.

 

[DrinkMonkey]

The current R1 location is the best. Having it in the rear is a pain with a hitch mounted bike rack or a trailer.

Tesla can suck it.

I have a Thule Arcos box attached to a Stealth Hitch for road trips in my Model 3 (saves the range hit from a roof box, and efficiency is actually better with the Arcos!), and we have to park across multiple stalls, or at a right angle at the end of the line because of the V3 cables being short, and the position of the bollards that keep us from backing in close enough.

Interestingly, we found V2 Superchargers worked fine, whether because of the location of the bollards or length of the cable.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Stickboy46]

LOL. Tesla did NOT build the existing Supercharger network with government money. Maybe you should talk to Ford, GM and whatever remains of Chrysler about taking government bailout money due to their inept management while they maximized profits in the subsequent years through flooding the market with high-emissions trucks and V8 monstrosities. Perhaps you can claw back some recompense for the environmental damage they have inflicted on all of us.

Our Federal government decreed that VW, of all organizations, build a nationwide charging network as one of their penalties for Dieselgate. How has that been working out? Government intervention in charging networks was probably needed 20 years ago. Now they are coming way too late to a game that has already been played and with a very short stack of chips.

Yes, Tesla will use some government funds to adopt their inane regulations related to being able to add screens to the chargers (which will hamper reliability) and add payment terminals to the chargers (which will hamper reliability) all in exchange for some small amount of Federal money. Make no mistake, virtually all the Superchargers you see and which are available for use are funded by Tesla investors and Tesla vehicle owners - not the government.

They took government money in exchange for opening the chargers to other manufacturers. That's not debatable.. it's a fact. So yet again, it's a Tesla problem to fix.

 

[Surferdude]

How has someone not posted a poll on this yet? It would be interesting to see what everyone here prefers.

 

[HaveBlue]

Why on the side???
Just put it in the middle front?
Then you can access RAN and Tesla, no?

Sorry that's too practical.

 

[carsly]

They took government money in exchange for opening the chargers to other manufacturers. That's not debatable.. it's a fact. So yet again, it's a Tesla problem to fix.

You should complete your pedantry...

...they accepted government funds to help deploy NEW chargers that are compliant with Federal guidelines attached to the funding. This necessitates adding payment terminals and screens. If you review the legislation the funding does NOT provide for retrofitting existing stalls. So if you want to use the new stalls only have at it.

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