A growing number of car manufacturers and EV charging companies are making commitments to using Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug but according to Lucid chief executive Peter Rawlinson, the hype is a little over-the-top.
While working at Tesla as the chief engineer of the Model S, Rawlinson was involved in the design of the company’s charging plug. He acknowledges that Lucid will probably make the shift to the NACS plug in the future but is wary of doing so before SAE International officially standardizes the plug.
“If you’ve got the most advanced technology in the world, you’re a bit reluctant to risk that,” he told Bloomberg while speaking of Lucid’s charging capabilities. “If you haven’t got the most advanced technology in the world, you’re not really incentivized to tread that warily.”
Rawlinson is particularly concerned with who will gain access to consumer data through Tesla Superchargers, noting that details including credit card information and driving cycle details will be available.
“Whoever controls this — if it isn’t an open, impartial standard, if it’s owned by one company — has access to a lot of consumer data,” he said. “It’s who owns that data, and making it genuinely open-sourced, that would worry me.”
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Rawlinson added that “it’s just a plug,” stating that “what we’re really comparing is, is it a screw cap or is it a cork on the bottle, not the quality of the wine. It’s rather bizarre.”
The boss of Lucid is also concerned with the focus on fast chargers. He believes government funding for charging infrastructure should be directed to slower charging options for overnight use, noting that they are better for the environment.
“Why do you have an EV? Partly because it’s better, but partly because you care about the environment,” he said. “The best thing for the environment is to have the power stations running more evenly on a 24-hour cycle. The worst thing for the environment is going charging daytime when the factories are running, everybody’s cooking.”
