Any updates on receiving the Tesla charging adapter?

[Dark-Fx]

You would think Rivian would evaluate/test some of the A2Z and Lectron adapters, issue some statement of suitability for use with a bunch of CYA legalese. Unless there is something in the agreement with Tesla that prohibits this activity.

Rivian can say it's okay but Tesla's language will still say it has to be provided either by Tesla or another automaker, and not a third party.

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[Autolycus]

At best, Rivian could "approve" other adapters as not voiding warranties on the vehicle side, but they have no say in whether Tesla is ok with an adapter being put on their supercharger. They will likely be very cautious about doing anything official because they don't want to be blamed by Tesla if something happens to on the station side in connection with an adapter Rivian told its customers was ok.

The point is we don't know why there is a shortage of adapters. Yet, the claim was made that Tesla is purposefully limiting the rate of manufacture to slow down the transition to NACS.

Yet others claim that Tesla invited N. America to switch to NACS because Elon is greedy, and wants as much DC fast charging business as he can get.

The two narratives are not compatible with one another.

My personal belief if that Elon decided to open the network to bring in extra revenue and fund continued expansion and support. Then he did his usual type of nutty thing and fired the whole team, which has caused the delay in shipping the adapters and in implementing the software/firmware changes required to allow additional manufacturers to charge.

Ford and Rivian have now both publicly said they ordered adapters for all of their customers and that there's a supply shortage. I don't know how anybody can reasonably think that's anything other than a delay on Tesla's side. It's probably not nefarious. It's just incompetence by Elon.

 

[Autolycus]

@Dark-Fx beat me by a minute because I decided to respond to the other thing.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Anyone feeling lucky?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806213584165.html

 

[RivianRunner]

My personal belief if that Elon decided to open the network to bring in extra revenue and fund continued expansion and support. Then he did his usual type of nutty thing and fired the whole team, which has caused the delay in shipping the adapters and in implementing the software/firmware changes required to allow additional manufacturers to charge.

That makes zero sense that firing the Supercharger Team resulted in delays shipping the adapters. Thae adapters are manufactured in the manufacturing facility in New York, the Supercharger Team was based out of California.

The delay is more likely due to the speed of the injection molding machines. Once every EV equipped with the old CCS charge ports have an adapter, demand for CCS to NACS adapters will crater. Tesla probably decided to just churn them out of one machine, at a steady and continuous pace, to keep costs down and not end up with a bunch of unneeded production capacity.

Injection molding machines are expensive. Every machine to produce such adapters requires its own molds, molds are expensive. The cost per CCS to NACS adapter will be far lower if they don't have to ramp multiple machines up, and then down, and then decommission them.

Acting like Tesla is purposefully restricting access to Superchargers by throttling production of adapters is a ridiculous conspiracy theory, with zero supporting evidence. All that would achieve is a higher ratio of unapproved, cheap, Made in China, adapters being used on Tesla's Superchargers around N. America. That's something Telsa doesn't want.

 

[Autolycus]

That makes zero sense that firing the Supercharger Team resulted in delays shipping the adapters. Thae adapters are manufactured in the manufacturing facility in New York, the Supercharger Team was based out of California.

They also laid off a couple hundred employees at that manufacturing facility.

The delay is more likely due to the speed of the injection molding machines. Once every EV equipped with the old CCS charge ports have an adapter, demand for CCS to NACS adapters will crater. Tesla probably decided to just churn them out of one machine, at a steady and continuous pace, to keep costs down and not end up with a bunch of unneeded production capacity.

Injection molding machines are expensive. Every machine to produce such adapters requires its own molds, molds are expensive. The cost per CCS to NACS adapter will be far lower if they don't have to ramp multiple machines up, and then down, and then decommission them.

Acting like Tesla is purposefully restricting access to Superchargers by throttling production of adapters is a ridiculous conspiracy theory, with zero supporting evidence. All that would achieve is a higher ratio of unapproved, cheap, Made in China, adapters being used on Tesla's Superchargers around N. America. That's something Telsa doesn't want.

First, I didn't say it was purposeful. Most of us in this thread haven't said that. A few have wondered but aren't suggesting it outright. Most of us just think Elon's an idiot and made rash decisions that have caused the delays.

If it's in Tesla's interest to make sure only approved adapters are used, then why didn't they contract this out to a qualified manufacturer who can actually ramp up quickly and affordably? If Tesla is selling the adapters at cost, they shouldn't care at all if an OEM product that meets spec and QA requirements is a few cents or even dollars more per adapter.

Your defense of Tesla on this one is clearly biased toward defending Tesla and Elon. Tesla is the bottleneck here. Period. You can justify it all you want, but that is a fact that is obvious to everyone else. Tesla isn't even trying to say it's not their fault. The only people doing that are internet fanboys.

 

[neocyn]

Low VIN R1T owner (~6k) who’s eagerly awaiting the adapter:

I think all this speculation over where the bottleneck may be is pointless. For all we know the layoffs haven’t affected the roll out at all. They may have planned a staged roll out that will scale:

• Start with 1% of adoption and measure the user experience before proceeding to 10%
• Do the same at 10% before proceeding etc.
  

Maybe they’re not meeting their success criteria required for proceeding. My point is: we have no idea. Oh, and I promise you I’m no Elon fanboi. The best thing we can all do is remain patient.

Side note: I would hate to be the first owner to experience a major problem with a 3rd party adapter. Not only will it cause a ton of finger pointing, you may force Rivian’s hand in locking down access.

 

[Riviaenz]

Rivian can't have both ways on this adapter issue. Either they can get us the "authorized" adapter within a reasonable time frame or they can authorize the A2Z or other high quality adapter.

If it is true that they are only sending out a thousand adapters a month, some of us won't get ours for eight or ten years. Many of us won't even have the vehicle in ten years.

Rivian needs to awaken from their slumber and get this show on the road one way or another.

Brian

You’re forgetting the gorilla in the room. The problem is Tesla. The Superchargers belong to Tesla - “Tesla Superchargers” not “Rivian Superchargers” and definitely not “SAE Superchargers”. Tesla have the say of what is authorized to be used with their Superchargers, not Rivian.

 

[Cycliste]

NACS is now a non-Tesla controlled standard
Tesla charging network is controlled by Tesla with undisclosed terms of contracts with Ford and Rivian, etc
Matt Levine (Bloomberg) “Everything is securities fraud”
Lawyers:

It’s complicated now

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