Originally published at: The US will pay Tesla to open its charging network | Boing Boing
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For a Randian titan, Musk sure makes a lot of money from the government.
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While this may be true, it is difficult to argue that one single charging standard and a significant increase in available charging infrastructure is anything but a huge net-win for EV adoption and the environment.
If anything, I expect that Tesla’s customers are probably most annoyed by this, as they will have to compete with other brands of cars for charging spots now. 
They’re also about to get “dongled”, since they’ll need adaptors for their older cars to use the CCS standard.
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Musk will only allow non Teslas to plug in if you like, retweet, and share 5 of his tweets.
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I think this is a huge win for EVs! Tesla trying to create a walled garden for charging was massively holding back the decarbonizing of cars in the US.
I imagine Tesla will modify their chargers to have both cords on them so that Teslas don’t have to carry a dongle, but regardless it’s a great thing.
Hopefully all the automakers will get on board with CCS now as well. Japanese-made EVs like the Leaf have been clinging to the CHAdeMO standard popular in Asia, even for cars shipped to North America. This was annoying when I had a Leaf. I couldn’t find CHAdeMO chargers anywhere except Nissan dealerships. This shouldn’t be a big deal- car makers have been shipping different configurations to different countries for the entire history of the industry. They need to start doing it for charging options as well.
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Absolutely. This is the kind of win that doesn’t happen without the government doing its job. It’s a good lesson for Musk’s fanbois and Libertarians in general.
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How much did this “opening up” cost us non-EV taxpayers?
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Less than we’re gonna pay to keep very rich people’s sea side homes safe.
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Less than oil subsidies cost the EV taxpayers …
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Interesting that red states get the lion share of funding.
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Not enough, to be fair.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, $20 Billion in subsidies (of which $16B goes to oil and $4B to coal) go to maintain the status quo of burning Dinosaurs.
This has been changing as more renewable subsidies are added to the mix, but there’s still more to be done. A really important part of that mix is making sure electric cars are affordable to the average person and a viable option in transport industries. This is a prerequisite to the other side of this equation, removing fossil fuel subsidies altogether.
IOW, the government spends more to keep oil costs low than they do to make green alternatives (like EVs) competitive.
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We’ve been looking of late and holy crap they are expensive. Sticking with a gas burner for now.
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It’s always this way. The more forward-looking Dem-run states have to pay to help the backwards GOP-run states play catch-up with the rest of the civilized West. It’s part of the price we have to pay to remain one nation.
Now who are those “takers” and “moochers” conservatives are always talking about again…?
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I just bought a fossil fuel vehicle a few months ago. I did it because all the EVs I wanted to buy (i.e., in a similar price range) were sold out through 2023 and my lease was up. That’s another problem that needs solving stat.
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Trusting Elmo to follow through is the rub.
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I just bought a plug-in hybrid that I pre-ordered nearly a year ago. Since my nearest relative lives an 8 hour drive away, and the charging infrastructure isn’t very built out, I wasn’t ready to go full EV. The industry focus on faster charging and government investment in charging infrastructure does mean that my next vehicle will be fully electric.
Anyone want to buy the World’s Loudest Prius? It’s for sale. Buyer will get lower A arms free! (Parts, not the installation.)
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Who cares?!? I want my tax dollars spent trying to improve the current situation with climate change. I want that over dumping endless dollars into murdering Brown and Black people in the global south.
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Dunno what your budget can stand but we were having a similar issue. We got a Chevy bolt. I love it.
We waited 3 months. Which was incredibly annoying since the car existed but they couldn’t get transport. We were able to keep our old vehicle limping along until the bolt arrived. Now I think 3 months might have been on the low side
Definitely an issue. We need two cars, so the gas one will be used for longer trips.
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I thought at one point Tesla offered up the connector to other companies but they’re the ones who balked?
I don’t know. That may have happened, but “offer” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your sentence. Did they demand royalties? Patent licensing? Exclusive rights to change the standard at any time? Priority given to Teslas when there’s a line? One wonders what that “offer” looked like.
It’s always been possible for other cars to use Tesla chargers if you have an adapter and an account with Tesla, but it’s not easy or convenient for anyone. What has happened here is the ideal outcome- the government stepping in to create a standard when industry refuses to. That’s what good government does!
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