Aptera asks Congress to make Tesla’s plug and Superchargers the standard for EVs in the US: A petition has been started by Aptera to request that Congress make Tesla Superchargers and its connector the norm for charging electric vehicles in the United States.
When Tesla first began manufacturing electric cars, there was no prevailing charging standard; so, the company devised its own. Since then, a great deal has changed, and now the CCS system is recognized throughout as the gold standard.
Aptera is of the opinion that despite the fact that CCS has at this point achieved global adoption, this does not necessarily make it the most effective charging standard currently available.
Aptera is in the process of developing a battery- and solar-powered three-wheeled electric vehicle that is extremely efficient. It has three wheels, a drag coefficient (Cd) of only 0.13, and a claim that it can travel up to 1,000 miles on a single charge. It accomplishes this by keeping the vehicle as light as possible.
Even down to the connector, every little bit of volume and weight improvement is vital when you are constructing a super-efficient vehicle like that, and as we have previously reported, Apetra has already stated that it wants to integrate Tesla’s connector in its vehicle.
In the same study, we also indicated that Aptera seems to wish to encourage wider use of the Tesla connector, but it was not obvious how it wants to go about doing so. This was because the report did not specify how Aptera intends to go about doing so.
Now, Chris Anthony and Steve Fambro, co-founders of Aptera, have started a petition on Change.org to push Congress to make Tesla Superchargers and its plug the norm for electric vehicles in the United States:
Help is needed if you believe electric vehicles and the United States will benefit from Tesla’s proposed charging standards. Please take a moment to sign this petition and push members of Congress to make Tesla’s charging standards and connectors the industry standard in the United States. In light of the District of Columbia’s aim of achieving a 50 percent share of the electric vehicle market by the year 2030, our nation has to adopt the Tesla Supercharger and Plug standards as soon as possible, lest any more money is squandered on inferior technology.
They mention that the current CCS and SAE J1772 standards are “clunky, heavy, and expensive” in comparison to “Tesla’s lightweight, tremendously efficient, elegant connector.” This is a part of their argument.
cost around one-fifth as much as the stations that other charging network owners have planned.
The petition was written by the two founders as follows:
If our nation were to start supporting Tesla’s charging standards right now, we could start developing our infrastructure at a far lower cost, which would save us $4 billion dollars on estimated investment in charging infrastructure through 2027. Imagine all of the other electric vehicle (EV) initiatives we could fund with savings of $4 billion.
After only a few hours of being available online, the petition has already garnered the support of more than a thousand people.
Electrek’s Point of View
When Aptera mentioned that it might try to do that, I expressed my regrettable belief that this endeavor is certain to fail in my most recent report. I believe that this is a lost cause.
I share your sentiment in this regard. Having used both standards at a variety of charging stations across North America for years, there is no question in my mind that Tesla Superchargers are the gold standard. However, imposing the standard on all other automakers at this point in time would be an extremely difficult task due to the fact that the standard is still being developed.
I can see why they might entertain the idea as a possibility. Because Tesla accounts for the vast majority of electric vehicle (EV) sales in the United States market, the company’s connector is the de facto standard. They made their patents available in a sense of open source so that others might use them.
However, there are now a great number of other electric vehicle models and thousands of CCS fast-charging stations in the United States, and changing connectors would be difficult and expensive for them to do.
At this point, Tesla does not even bother to advocate for it because it appears to recognize that CCS has already won. Even further, the car manufacturer is mulling over the possibility of installing CCS adapters at its Supercharger stations in the United States by the end of the year.
I want to reiterate that I appreciate the sentiment, but I believe that this cause is hopeless, petition or no petition.
