A little over a week after the White House announced that Tesla would open up its charging network to non-Tesla vehicles, we’re seeing that process begin. A charging station in Verona, New York now has Tesla’s Magic Dock adapter and can juice up any EV with a CCS-style port. Here’s what you need to know about the magic dock and how it works in practice.
Part of the deal that Tesla struck with the U.S. government to get some of the $7.5 billion worth of EV infrastructure cash was that it would open up parts of its supercharger network to non-Tesla owners. That requires Tesla to fit an adapter that will fit in the CCS plug standard that almost all non-Tesla EVs use. The “Magic Dock” is something that Tesla came up with to do exactly that.
When non-Tesla customers get to a Tesla charging station like the one spotted here by a Redditor, they’ll need to have the Tesla app, create an account, sign in, and then select “Charge Your Non-Tesla.” Once they’ve done that they’ll tell the app which stall they’re using and the adapter, aka the Magic Dock, will unlock itself from the station and at the same time lock onto the NACS connector that Tesla vehicles use.
More: Tesla May Have Snuck Next-Gen Platform Easter Egg Into Engineering HQ Video
When the person is done with the charger it’ll reverse the process and thereby lock the adapter back to the station. We’ve known for a little while that the “Magic Dock” would likely be Tesla’s way to open up its charging network to non-Tesla vehicles. It’s long since used a similar device overseas and late last month it seemed to accidentally show one off inside of its app.
The process of fitting the standard Tesla charging station with the Magic Dock seems to be pretty simple and seamless. Drive Tesla reports that all 12 stations in Verona are already outfitted with the adapter. In addition, Tesla employees were spotted adding the tech to charging stations in California earlier on Friday.
It sounds like a sleek and simple solution but it’s not without its issues. The process of charging a Tesla is actually a bit quicker and there’s concern that the charging cord isn’t long enough either. Many EVs use a charging port that’s on the side of the vehicle as in the case of the Ford Mustang Mach-E. To charge such a car, it’ll have to be parked sideways and likely cover more than just one space. Whether or not Tesla has a fix for that issue we have yet to see.