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Comment by Suppafly | Hacker News Reader

I had no idea that Rivian had a charging network and they build them like an hour from where I live so I see them all over the place. I just assumed they used the Tesla ones or the generic ones you see all over.

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They do (mis)use the Tesla ones. I don’t expect this announcement means literally anything to any EV brand.

in what sense do they misuse them?

They take up 2 spots: https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/1f0wt4v/okay_is_the...

Apparently that's the recommended way from Tesla to do it, per that thread. Do they not make extension cords you can use with the charger cables so you charge from other angles?

No, they don’t. Extension cables for something that is dumping 250kW would be dangerous, or outrageously expensive and bulky.

Tesla is rolling out stations with longer cables. Supposedly, there will be more long cable V4 supercharging stations than the older short cable version in 18 months.

https://insideevs.com/news/742106/tesla-supercharger-longer-...

https://electrek.co/2024/11/27/tesla-adds-longer-cables-and-...

To add to the understanding of why there aren't just extension cords for these, those cables are liquid cooled. You pretty much need the right sized cable the first time to handle this much power.

That's cool, I had no idea they were cooled.

A2Z has announced an extension cord, but tbh it sounds like a bad idea: https://a2zevshop.com/products/dc-nacs-extension-cord-6-9-ft...

That's a lot of power through an air cooled cable.

How are they supposed to use them?

That's a straightforward failure of charger design. Tesla's cables are too short.

The V4 chargers have longer cables and solve the problem.

3,500 new locations is helpful for all EV owners (and brands)

They are using them correctly. That is how Tesla tells Rivian owners to use them. Tesla is updating their chargers with a longer cable to make this less of a problem over time.

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