ChargePoint Tackles Charger Plug Uncertainty

EV charge station maker ChargePoint has introduced an EV connector plug design that the company says will let any EV can charge at the new Omni Port charging station, regardless of the car’s connector type. That means drivers won’t have to use an adapter when using a charger with a different plug design than their car’s charging port.

Omni Port works by automating the use of an adapter for Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) port-equipped vehicles. The charging station has a cable with a conventional SAE CCS connector for the vast number of EVs on the road today adhering to that standard. When the connector is stowed in the charging station, the CCS plug nests directly into an adapter for NACS vehicles.

For cars with a CCS port, the CCS connector automatically releases from the NACS adapter when it is removed from its stowed position on the charger, so it is ready to plug into the car’s CCS connector.

For cars with a NACS port, the charging station releases the NACS adapter that the CCS plug is already resting in, so that the adapter comes out pre-installed on the charging cable so that it can connect to NACS-equipped vehicles.

The Omni Port station knows which configuration of the cable’s connector plug to release to the driver based on the vehicle profile in the ChargePoint mobile app. For walk-up customers or others who don’t have a vehicle profile in the app, they can select the configuration manually on the ChargePoint Omni Port charging station’s display.

This flexibility is crucial both for drivers and for charging station operators who have to contend with a shift from today’s fleet of 5.5 million EVs that are mostly CCS vehicles to a future fleet of mostly NACS EVs. This will aid the needed build-out of charging stations, if operators can buy hardware that can change with the times.

Indeed, existing ChargePoint CP6000 and Express Plus Power Link 2000 chargers can be upgraded to Omni Port chargers, which should reduce the pain of shifting the EV fleet and charging infrastructure to a different connector standard. The company says it will deliver Omni Port chargers to charging station operators by the end of the year.

“With Omni Port, ChargePoint solved the challenges associated with a multiple connector environment, ensuring Tesla and non-Tesla drivers can continue to expect a world-class driver experience,” said Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint. “We are giving drivers and site hosts assurance that ChargePoint will continue to meet all their charging needs now and in the future.”