In this post, we review the portable EV charging cords that come standard with the following electric vehicles sold in North America: Tesla (all models), the Audi e-tron, the Nissan Leaf, the Jaguar I-Pace, the Porsche Taycan, the Chevy Bolt, the BMW i3, and Hyundai (all BEVs). This review is pretty wild; the specs (usefulness) of OEM standard charging cords are all over the place. Some car makers gave a ton of thought to this while others clearly gave none. That’s concerning, because “electricity is everywhere” is a major argument in favor of EV ownership, but that’s only meaningful if you can usefully tap the grid.

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Elon Musk has been leaving breadcrumbs about Tesla’s intention to reinvent the entire energy sector from generation of renewable energy with SolarCity to energy storage and consumption with Tesla. It looks like the company’s vision will be unveiled on or around October 28 when Tesla will make its next product announcement:

Musk has one of the best Twitter accounts right now. Even Twitter’s own founder says it. He uses it to answer questions from his fans, correct media perception on his businesses and even to make occasional product announcements. But this Tweet in particular, it might be his most important yet. expand full story

Tesla has recently been reducing the price of its chargers quite significantly. We reported last month on the automaker offering an updated and cheaper ‘Tesla Wall Connector’ after unveiling its refreshed Model S. Now Tesla updated its ‘Mobile Connector’ and like the Wall Connector, its main update is a significantly cheaper price. expand full story

While the Tesla Model S grabbed much of the attention today with its redesign and a few new features, the automaker also quietly released a new ‘Tesla Wall Connector’ on its equipment website, which went virtually unnoticed.

The new charger is rated at up to 80 amps, just like the previous version, but it’s now significantly cheaper starting at $500 instead of $750, and it now features a “power sharing” function. expand full story

Tesla first announced the upcoming introduction of its Destination Charging network in Europe almost 6 months ago. At the time, Tesla said that the network was “coming soon“, but the automaker’s charger map is still showing no destination charger in Europe.

Now we received reports of hotels in Europe, especially Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where Tesla Wall Connectors have been installed or delivered. We hear that the program could launch as soon as next month with new locations.  expand full story