Tesla’s charge port location is due to Elon Musk’s garage layout, says Lucid CEO
Lucid CEO and former Tesla chief engineer Peter Rawlinson claims that Tesla’s charge port location, and why everyone has to back into Supercharger stations, is due to Elon Musk’s garage layout back when Model S was designed.
If you have ever charged a Tesla vehicle at a Supercharger station, you most likely had to back into the stall. That’s primarily because Tesla’s charge port is located at the back left side of the vehicle.
There’s no standardization of charge port location on electric vehicles, and it is causing a bit of a problem right now as Tesla opened its Superchargers, with most of them equipped with small cables, to other electric vehicles with different port locations.
Tesla was early in making electric vehicles, so its choice of charge port location was important and influential.
Peter Rawlinson was the chief designer of Tesla’s Model S, its first EV designed from the ground-up. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied that since Rawlinson is now a competitor leading Lucid Motors, but there’s plenty of evidence that he was in fact in charge of the Model S engineering despite Musk’s vengeful claims to the contrary.
Now, Rawlinson has given some interesting insights into the decision-making behind Tesla’s charge port location. He says that he was pushing back then (circa 2010) for the now popular front driver-side fender charge port location (via PC Mag):
I told him, look, it [should be] the front fender on the left-hand side. Most Americans drive nose in rather than parallel park. And if you drive nose in, you want the charge port on the front. You don’t want a long, dirty old cable coming past the doors. And you don’t want to put the charge port on the very front, like the Nissan Leaf, because it’s a vulnerable spot. You can have a slight bump or fender bender, which could mean you couldn’t open it if it was damaged.”
The Lucid CEO says that Musk insisted that this wouldn’t work for him because it wasn’t compatible with the way the garage in his rented mansion at the time was set up:
Well, that wasn’t acceptable to [Elon]. He said it wouldn’t suit the layout of his garage in Bel Air. So I said, ‘Well, where do you want it, then? What suits the layout of your garage in Bel Air?’ He said it’s going to be on the rear because he could trip over the cable. He was renting the property, and he didn’t even own the place, but we put the charge port on the Model S on the left hand rear because of the layout of his rented garage in Bel Air!
Musk was in financial difficulties at the time and was renting a mansion in Los Angeles. He even claimed he had to borrow money from friends to cover rent.
With the Air, Lucid’s first EV, Rawlinson put the charge port where he wanted it originally for the Model S, but now that Tesla has opened the Supercharger network to all other EVs, he had to recognize that the value the network brings to customers is bigger than the limitation of the charge port.
He said that now the upcoming new Lucid Gravity will have the same charge port location as Tesla’s:
Because of that, every Tesla charger across the land you have to reverse into because the charge port’s in the rear, which is just nutty. [But] if you can’t beat them you’ve got to join them. So now we’ve put our charge portion on the left rear of Gravity to be compatible.
Rawlinson also added that he is happy with Tesla’s help to get Lucid vehicles working on the Supercharger network,
After all, it is undoubtedly the best fast-charging network in North America. There’s no question about that.
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New York-based real estate developer LeFrak has installed the largest rooftop solar array on a high-rise multifamily residential building in New Jersey.
The Beach, a 336-unit waterfront rental tower in Jersey City’s Newport neighborhood, now hosts a 180kW, 450-panel rooftop solar system that will offset 13% of the building’s carbon emissions, equivalent to removing 37 gas-powered cars from the road annually. Sunkeeper Solar, a Brooklyn-based solar energy company, installed the nearly $1 million system.
The new rooftop solar offsets energy produced by electrical systems used in The Beach’s common area spaces, including those that power elevators and lighting, as well as cooling and ventilation in the high-rise building’s lobby and amenities. The Beach’s roof design and the building’s orientation optimize the amount of solar power generated by the system.
“Solar makes sense on multi-family buildings, and especially because Jersey City is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, projects like this should become the bar for new development. Going solar saves consumers money, reduces air pollution, and creates a more resilient energy grid – solar is a double green amenity,” said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.
Last year, LeFrak partnered with EV-sharing platform Envoy to offer Newport residents exclusive car-sharing benefits and access to a fleet of on-site electric vehicles, representing Envoy’s first expansion into New Jersey.
Read more: A record $847M raise powers a commercial rooftop solar wave
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It’s official. Kia has now confirmed plans to launch the EV2 next January. The electric SUV will be an even smaller, more affordable model to sit below the EV3.
Kia confirms EV2 will launch in January 2026
Kia is on an EV launch spree. After revealing three new mass-market EV models, the EV3, EV4, and EV5, in October 2023, the Korean automaker is preparing to launch a fourth.
The new lineup is part of Kia’s “EVs for all” strategy, with prices ranging from $30,000 to upwards of $80,000. Kia launched the EV5 in China, starting at around $20,000 (149,800 yuan) in November 2023. Last year, Kia followed it up with the EV3, which is now rolling out in Europe for around $38,000 (36,000 euros).
Kia will introduce the EV4 globally this year, or what it calls “an entirely new type of sedan.” Depending on the market, it’s expected to start at around $30,000 to $40,000 as a potential Tesla Model 3 challenger.
On the company’s Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings call this week, Kia confirmed plans to launch the EV2 in January 2026. The EV2 will be built at its Zilina, Slovakia plant, Kia’s first manufacturing facility in Europe.
Although it was not showcased during its 2023 EV day, Kia CEO Ho-Sung Song told Autocar that the EV2 would go on sale in 2026 with a target price of around $30,000 (£25,000) in Europe. In Korea, prices could start as low as $15,000 (KRW 20 million).
Kia’s CEO stressed that building affordable EVs is “very important” for the brand. It will also help “the European market that is in need of smaller [electric] vehicles too,” Song added.
Ahead of its official debut, the EV2 has been caught in public testing a few times, revealing a Soul-like design. You can expect an exterior look similar to the EV3 and EV5, featuring Kia’s new Opposites United design.
Like other models in the lineup, it’s expected to feature Kia’s new Connected Car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) operating system inside. The setup includes a dual 12.3″ driver display and infotainment screens.
Like the EV3 and EV5, the EV2 is expected to be based on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform, providing over 300 miles (605 km WLTP) of range.
Earlier today, we learned that Kia will launch the EV5 in Canada next year, but not in the US. The EV5 will even include a native NACS port for charging at Tesla Superchargers. So, for those of you in the US, don’t get too excited. Given the lack of demand for smaller cars, the EV2 is not expected to arrive in the US. Hopefully, Kia will surprise us.
Source: TheKoreanCarBlog, Kia
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Environment
Podcast: Tesla earnings were wild, new BMW iX, some EVs won’t make it to the US, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s wild Q4 earnings, a new BMW iX, some EVs not making it to the US, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):
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