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Comment by declan_roberts | Hacker News Reader

I drove a 2015 Nissan Leaf for almost 10 years before upgrading this year to a Model Y.

When it comes to charging network Tesla is SO MUCH BETTER. It's hard to describe how much of a wild west other charging networks are. You have to download this app or that app, add a credit card here, add one there. De-rated charging handles absolutely everywhere.

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To be fair, non-Tesla networks are catching up. I moved from Tesla to BMW i4 (I had a quite significant disagreement with Elon when it comes to international politics), and I was worried about finding non-Tesla charges. I took a few long distance trips so far (US Northeast), and I had zero problems. Plus, if you are lucky, you get 2 year free charging from BMW, and they've enabled plug-and-charge recently. So, you just plugin, charge and drive away, mostly for free. Not bad.

which networks/providers are good?

Electrify America is great.

A good one but too little (usually just 2 or maybe 4 handles) and far between. They have a very long way to go.

One thing they did right was require a credit card scanner right on the machine. No app!!!

I wrote this exact comment above. It's just insane when I hear how 3rd party chargers work. And I personally check charger pricing while I'm out and about. at least 30% are broken among the ones I find.

Can't believe it took them 10 years to add CCS1.

Tesla and Apple understand that the charger elegance and design is more important than the strict engineering requirements.

NACS is theoretically a worse charger, but it's more approachable to consumers.

CCS1 is clumsy , heavy and makes the car look like it's attached to an umbilical cord.

That's why they had to dump it.

This is exactly right. It's just too big and clumsy. It's almost always the Pareto principle option that wins if it's easier to use. Because "good enough" is all that matters to most consumers.

CCS1 for others who are curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Charging_System

aren't they all dumping it for NACS in North America?

NACS is officially the North American charging standard. Elon projected the name into reality.

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