Tesla begins adding ‘magic dock’ that lets other brands' EVs use its chargers

After the US government struck a deal with Tesla to open up its charging stations for charging of other non-Tesla EVs, the EV giant has started installing a so called ‘magic dock’ to facilitate the process. An image posted by a Twitter user shows a Tesla charging station in Verona, New York with the company's Magic Dock adapter that is capable of charging any EV with a CCS-style port.

As part of the deal with the White House, Tesla will get some of the $7.5 billion worth of EV infrastructure cash and would open up parts of its supercharger network to non-Tesla owners. This requires the company to fit an adapter that will fit in the CCS plug standard that almost all non-Tesla EVs use.

However, to use this charging dock, non-Tesla drivers will have to download the Tesla app, create an account, sign in, and then select an option that says, ‘Charge Your Non-Tesla’. Once they’ve done that they’ll tell the app which stall they’re using. After this, the adapter or the Magic Dock will unlock itself from the station and at the same time lock onto the NACS connector that Tesla vehicles use. Once the non-Tesla EV is done charging, the process will be reversed and the adapter will be locked back to the station.

The process of fitting the standard Tesla charging station with the Magic Dock seems to be simple, as per a report by Drive Tesla. The report stated that all 12 stations in Verona have already been outfitted with the adapter. In fact, Tesla employees were spotted adding the tech to charging stations in California as well.

However, there's a concern that the charging cord isn’t long enough while many EVs use a charging port that’s on the side of the vehicle. To charge such a car, it’ll have to be parked sideways and likely cover more than just one space. Tesla might have to fix this issue for this process to be fruitful.