I keep reading that other car companies are ditching their standards to adopt the Tesla charger, but I haven’t seen anything that makes them better besides that they are more widely available.
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Widespread adoption and infrastructure is a huge point. Gaining access to Tesla’s branded chargers opens up a widespread selection of charging stations, nearly all of which are built for very high charging speeds.
The main advantage is availability. Tesla’s cars and chargers are also well-integrated; you just plug in the car and it tells the charger how to bill you. Other chargers need separate apps to activate them. Depending on the agreements Tesla has to get other manufacturers to use their charging connector, they might be equally well-integrated. The Tesla connector itself is also a little nicer (it’s smaller and the shape provides more obvious guidance about how to plug it in), though I don’t think that’s a factor in adopting it.
Availability is everything in this case.
Imagine dropping a bunch of money on a cool (non-Tesla) EV, only to find that you have to go a long way out of your way to find a public charging station that’s compatible. What about road trips on long sections of open highway? Sure, you can always charge at home and you probably planned on that piece, but you didn’t expect to have your plans constrained so much by a lack of charging infrastructure.
Adopting Tesla’s extensive charger network helps solve the chicken-and-egg problem of EV adoption.
I believe Tesla had made them free to license. So in addition to a large network, the companies don’t have to pay to use the technology, although I’m sure there are stipulations.
Once Ford moved it was just a matter of time. You can’t be the only EV brand that can’t use Tesla chargers, that’s a huge competitive advantage
Apart from the other reasons given, they’re lighter – which makes a big difference to individuals with mobility or other disabilities.
The wide availability is in fact the reason why other companies want to use Tesla chargers. Any putative technical reason would be secondary to that. (And I say putative bc I’m not sure if there is a technical reason for one to be better than the other.) This is one of those examples where it’s not really the science/technical reasons that matter, it’s the business reasons.
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