Electric vehicle charging solutions company ChargePoint has announced Omni Port, a multi-port solution that allows any EV to charge from the point regardless of its connector type.
"Omni Port eliminates the hassle of carrying an adapter for drivers, negates dedicating parking spaces exclusively to a select connector type and is available at no incremental cost as a standard feature of ChargePoint's applicable chargers," the company said in a release. It said Omni Port will be incorporated into select ChargePoint AC and DC charging stations at no additional cost.
Omni Port will allow a charging station to support charging for all makes of electric vehicles at the same station, thus making public charging ports future-ready, while also helping support electric vehicles already on the road or coming to market, ChargePoint said.
ChargePoint claims Omni Port is the only publicly available solution to solve North America's EV connector confusion. At the moment, companies use different connector types across AC and DC charging, with Tesla pushing for its NACS to become the industry standard and other companies supporting a rival connector format, dubbed CCS.
In its release, ChargePoint pointed out there are more than 5.5 million electric vehicles on North American roads, more than half of which are equipped with J1772 or CCS1 charging ports.
"As automakers attempt to align on a single connector type for the future, these 5.5 million drivers need assurance that they will be able to charge when they need to. Omni port gives drivers and station owners peace of mind by combining these most common connector types into a single solution, meeting EV driver needs without having to dedicate parking spaces to specific connector types," the company said.
Rick Wilmer, CEO, said in a statement: "With Omni Port, ChargePoint solved the challenges associated with a multiple connector environment, ensuring Tesla and non-Tesla drivers can continue to expect a world-class driver experience. We are giving drivers and site hosts assurance that ChargePoint will continue to meet all their charging needs now and in the future."