My wife and I stopped for gas tonight. I was at the rear pump on the left side of the island. A white Tesla X pulled in on the other side and went to the front pump. I told my wife, "look, a Tesla X. She didn't get it but a woman got out and cleaned her windshield and then got back in and left. I guess old habits are hard to break.
Hey, windshields still need cleaning. With an eye condition that causes the brain to want to focus on the nearest object in view -- bugs on the windshield get priority over more distant objects -- even with a gasser I occasionally pull into fuel stations solely for window cleaning.
After she left the gas pumps she pulled into a parking spot and went inside the gas station probably to buy lottery tickets and cigarettes. Like I said old habits are hard to break.
I'm guilty too. A dirty windshield bugs me. And the gas station also has a McDonald's. I wonder why I'm fat..... (I also carry Miracle Glass cleaner and towels in the trunk.)
I looked up charging stations in my area in N W Indiana a while ago and the only ones I found were at two local dealers, Nissan and Toyota. Both dealers are right next to each other. We are lucky we have what they call roads In this neck of the woods.
Same here. There is no public charge station, Tesla or not, within 100 miles of where I live. After year of owning PHEV, I have yet to see what a public charging station looks like. I guess, the Tesla woman you spotted must use in-house charger only.
This is what the Icelandic stations I saw last week look like. Five different plug choices, don't think I've seen this much variety on charging stations here in the states.
I'm guessing Iceland can get cars built to US and EU vehicle codes. Even if the cars from either market use the same charging protocols, they can simply have different plugs.
This design is 180 degrees away from what our *#@!! skytrain architects would have done: if they'd had a hand in it you'd have an artist-commissioned glass and steel sculpture roof and walls around the the whole dang thing.
These looked to me mostly like different protocols, not just different plugs. Not yet being electrified myself, I haven't yet learned all the varieties. Closeups (one from a different location): On the two-plug stand, the plug under the orange cover seemed to have the same shape and contact holes as one plug on the three-plug stand, except with different contact positions loaded or empty. The three-plug stand has plug labels. I'm hoping some PHEV/BEV folks here can provide us with labels for the two-plug stand.
The 2 plug one is J1772. The right hand(top) plug is the US style one, and the left one the German(IIRC, known as Menekes). There might be slight difference besides the plug. They are the basis for the CCS DC charger, and I think the ultra fast charging VW is putting out. On the three plug, CHAdeMO and CCS(frankenplug) are pretty straight forward. Don't know what #1 is besides it being AC. There is another plug type that is more common in France. Then China has their own standard, but I would guess that is less likely there. This just illustrates that having different standards isn't that big of a deal. The major differences is in the software, but the added cost for the charger will be mostly in just having another cord and plug.
It seems as though the same plugs will not be universal internationally. They had the chance and blew it.
The plugs to your hair dryer and phone charger aren't the same internationally. Why the expectation that the AC plug for a plug in car to be the same the world over? A car is less likely to be moved between foreign markets than your phone or any other personal electric gadget. Places like Iceland are the exception in terms of plug in cars having the same plug through out the market. In the US, all plug ins use the same J1772 plug for home or AC charging on the road. If the car is capable of fast DC charging, there are two types of plug; CHAdeMO and CCS. Once CCS was formalized, installed chargers started having both plug types. Tesla's are an exception, but an adapter for J1772 comes with the car, and a CHAdeMO one is available.