Volkswagen has delayed access to Tesla’s Supercharger network for its EVs due to “technical challenges” that erupted towards the end of the rollout. The company reaffirmed that access is still a plan, but it is Read More Source link The post Facebook: We’re Not Ready To Integrate ID.A And We Will Not Integrate It appeared first on TechWorm. 4 and ID. Buzz owners just yet.
The delay left Volkswagen among the final big brand holdouts waiting to connect to the biggest high-speed charging network in North America. Audi and Porsche — sibling marques of the Volkswagen Group — have already started linking up, although Porsche is characterising its rollout as a “soft launch” that is relying on the Tesla app until its own software is widely compatible.
What’s really hard about this integration
The process of opening Superchargers to all-comers is more complicated than simply okaying an adapter. Auto manufacturers will need to ensure that both the vehicle’s software and charger firmware, as well as related apps authenticate cleanly and bill accurately. Many marques are also deploying Plug & Charge based on ISO 15118 that authorizes a session automatically via VIN; making this work across the very different ecosystem Tesla has built requires careful back-end work and thorough testing.
Another sticking point is optimizing charge speed. In order to reach peak speeds, vehicles must precondition the battery upon arrival and broadcast the correct charge curve to the station. In short spurts, however, small discrepancies can act as a speed-killing parasite, and add minutes to a routine. Volkswagen’s engineers also need to ensure high-current performance—today’s V3/V4 Superchargers can put out hundreds of amps—doesn’t send temperatures soaring or trip conservative failsafes designed to avoid straining the car’s battery management system.
And there are practicalities, like cable length and connector geometry, adapter tolerances, and edge cases such as partial sessions, idle fees and mid-charge handshakes. These are not headline-grabbing issues but they drive customer satisfaction, and they are exactly where early rollouts across other brands revealed bugs.
How VW compares with peers
Audi drivers are charging up at Superchargers in North America, and Porsche owners can plug in through a soft launch using the Tesla app. Volkswagen brand vehicles are PENDing native access in VW’s own app experience, as a standalone app experience and an approved adapter workflow, the statement adds. BMW, Toyota, and Subaru are all also notably absent from Tesla’s public partners list.
The staging … follows the order in which agreements were signed and how much time each brand needs to certify hardware, finalize app integration and pass reliability testing. The U.S. Department of Energy still cites that Tesla operates by far the most DC fast-charging stations in the U.S., so that goes a long way to explaining why access order matters as much as it does for what it feels like to be a daily EV user.
Adapters, apps and what drivers can expect
Volkswagen owners will likely initially encounter an official adapter, that adapts Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector to the CCS ports used on current VW models. The company has all that behind the scenes work of finding and vetting this hardware down — work that includes high-cycle durability tests, thermal monitoring, and confirmation that the adapter would not be the bottleneck at a higher charge rate.
Third-party off-market adapters are available, but they aren’t validated by Volkswagen and can introduce points of failure or throttled speeds. Previous Supercharger expansions for other brands experienced brief hiccups around adapter availability and firmware mismatches, helping explain why automakers are pushing their customers toward brand-approved hardware and in-app confirmation.
Expect some site-to-site variability. V3 Superchargers represent the fastest, most consistent experience available to today’s adapters, while V4 hardware includes longer cables that fit most parking situations and are designed for spots that charge heretofore from the rear driver side. Once preconditioning via VW’s native navigation to a Supercharger — when if it’s activated — is implemented, this will be a crucial addition to match the speeds Tesla drivers are used to.
Why this is important for the charging landscape
Supercharger access is increasingly looking like a must-have, not a nice-to-have. J.D. Power’s EV Experience studies have consistently shown that public DC fast-charging is fraught with reliability problems, including high occurrences of “charge failed” or “station offline,” while the Tesla network continues to raise the bar on uptime and ease of use. Add Volkswagen to that ecosystem and practical road-trip coverage for ID. 4 and ID. Buzz owners.
The strategic stakes are higher than just convenience. Most automakers, Volkswagen included, are moving away from the native NACS ports on new models in the next product cycles. That transition cuts the reliance on adapters, and it makes the manufacturing process easier, although—a big although—the period in between now and then depends entirely on rock-solid software and roaming agreements. Interoperability can be assisted in some cases by back-end standards like OCPI, but Tesla’s network has its own protocols, meaning each brand’s integration is a bespoke project.
What to watch next
Signs that Volkswagen is closing in on the finish line will be where the rubber meets the road in visible adapter shipments and an app update listing Superchargers as favored DC fast sites, and posting official policy for billing and idle fees.
Transitioning away from Tesla-app charging to a Porsche-native experience, meanwhile, will side-step a preview of how the Volkswagen brand (to which Porsche is now completely subsumed on the tech front) might handle authentication and Plug & Charge.
For anyone who owns the planes, the bottom line is this: The delay is annoying, but there is nothing, technically speaking, that can’t be overcome. If/when Volkswagen turns the proverbial switch, tens of thousands of Supercharger stalls across North America will arguably become more reliably available for charging, trip planning, and overall EV ownership (assuming the adapter, the app, and the car’s thermal strategy aren’t working at cross purposes).
