California’s Office of Administrative Law approved new amendments to its Electric Vehicle Fueling Systems Specifications. The new rules ban per-minute billing of EVSEs (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) and also require that all new DCFC stations have displays on them by the year 2023. The new rules also require that all DCFC stations have displays on them by the year 2033. These amendments were passed on December 16, 2019, and will be effective from January 1, 2020. It is meant to make EV charging stations more transparent, like gas stations.

Tesla Superchargers are DCFC (Direct Current Fast Charger) stations. Tesla Superchargers use DC current at rates of 72-250kW to charge the 400-volt battery packs of its vehicles. Therefore, Tesla is required to comply with the new rules and incorporate displays in its charging stations.

New Tesla Superchargers in 2023

- Advertisement -

News Landed teamed up with @appleleaker2020 (Darvik Patel) to reimagine a Tesla Supercharger with a display that complies with the new Electric Vehicle Fueling Systems Specifications in California. The supercharger depicted below takes design hints from Tesla’s Supercharger V3 and includes a large vertical display with information such as cost, power delivery, and charging time.

Tesla Supercharger with display, charging a Cybertruck. Concept by @appleleaker2020 and News Landed. Contributor: @techblood

Now, why would Tesla incorporate such a large and expensive display? For one, if this display is made on the same specification as the Model S or Model X display, Tesla would not have to design and manufacture a new display for its Superchargers. They could use the same display panel to cut costs.

Another very obvious way to look at that display is ad space. Though it is very unlikely for Tesla to use idle Supercharger displays as ad space, the natural location of these Superchargers in parking lots and high-traffic areas could prove to be effective ad placement.

New Tesla Supercharger may look like this in 2023. Concept by @appleleaker2020 and News Landed. Contributor: @techblood

- Advertisement -

The concept Supercharger also includes a light strip. This could be used to identify available Superchargers from a few yards away, or depict occupied stations.

Existing Tesla Superchargers in 2033

As mentioned before, the new rules also state that all DCFC charging stations (including existing) must have a display on them. What can Tesla do with all existing Superchargers to make them compliant? Akash Krishna, designer at News Landed, shows a simple photoshop concept of how Tesla might mount little displays on existing Superchargers.

Existing Superchargers could be modified to include a display. Concept by Akash Krishna, News Landed

Though the implementation seems very impractical, there is little can be done. Changing numerous charging stations across California will be very expensive for Tesla, so it will be interesting to see what Elon Musk does to comply with the new rules.

Do Superchargers need displays?

- Advertisement -

Personally, I think Tesla Superchargers do not require displays. The charging stations are built specifically to work with Tesla vehicles and are designed to communicate with Tesla vehicles. All charging details including rate, power delivery, time to charge, can be viewed and controlled inside the massive displays the vehicles.

Companies like EVgo have generic charging stations that are designed to accommodate different vehicles. Therefore, they have to have the controls, pricing, and other important information on the station itself.

Tesla owners can use the car display or use the Tesla app to control charging limits, set reminders, and be notified when their vehicles have completed charging. They can pay via their credit card stored in the Tesla app. With this deep integration between Tesla Superchargers and Tesla vehicles/Tesla app, is it required that a display be added to the charger? Superchargers already are transparent to the owners via the app or the vehicle. Who else does it have to be transparent towards by adding a display?

Though I love the design of a Supercharger with a massive display, doubling as potential ad space, it still seems unnecessary for Tesla to comply with the new amendment. Perhaps the company can request an exception to the requirement, based on its already very transparent charging infrastructure.

Per-minute billing banned in California

The new amendment most importantly bans the practice of per-minute billing. Tesla bills per kWh (quantity) while other charging stations like EVgo charge by the minute. EVgo and other companies will have to change their billing system to comply with the new rules, at least in California.

The main reason is the way California views electricity. The CDFA defines electricity as “a type of motor vehicle fuel.” Though companies like EVgo argue that billing is also for parking space rental, The Department is classifying those as “other services” of the transaction. This means that no matter what, these other companies have to bill per kWh, or amount of electricity dispensed. This makes sense, as paying per-minute of charging to the same people that control how fast your vehicle can charge seems like a form of scam.

Subscribe to our newsletter, What Just Happened, where we dive deep into the hottest topics from the week! Apply to write for us if you love writing and want to see your articles featured on Apple News, Google News, and more.

More from Automotive – News Landed

Here are the best concept cars of this year – 2019

SEC investing BMW for “sales punching” or inflating sales statistics

Popular Stories – News Landed

SpaceX Starship first flight hopefully to occur in 2-3 months, Elon Musk tweets

Dana White reveals a big update on Conor McGregor and Khabib Numegoemdov