Why is the charge port in the back?

[linux-works]

Uhh...seriously? Do you (or any of us?) have enough engineering/design experience to question an engineering/design choice? For sure, there are many reasons for this decision, but the ones stated above make the most sense. And, they DO make a lot of sense, for all the reasons stated.

nonsense.

and yes, I work in the field and this is a 100% arbitrary decision. funny how people try to justify a random choice as being 'smart'. its just arbitrary.

 

[jcanoe]

@jcanoe interesting. I see signs not to back in in some private parking lot stalls, and always assumed it was because they didn't want the car's exhaust discoloring the wall of the building (same reason we never backed our ICE vehicles into our own private garages).

As clean as the exhaust is for modern vehicles I doubt that the exhaust would discolor the walls of a building. You must have some really dirty vehicle exhausts in BC.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Those links reminded me:

I was walking across the road once, heading towards a garage sale, when some guy in a Jetta passed in front of me, saw the garage sale and decided to take a better look at it. To do this he put it in reverse and backed up slowly, right into me, even though I was shouting a warning. He kept on coming so by now I was hanging onto his trunk and I banged on it with my fist

He was very apologetic and I decided to take the high road and let it go - in part because I'd put a huge dent in the top of his trunk

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

That's exactly my point/question. You're essentially saying 'the charge port's in the back because they put the electronics back there," but there's no reason they couldn't put the charging electronics at the front of the car rather than the back.

I agree that the design of the charge port and cable is well done it's just in a very inconvenient spot for what appears to be no good reason.

Driver-rear would be fine for our primary car. It would not be so good for our secondary car.
What would really suck both of our cars woudl be the Leaf's front-center.

We have a 2-door detached garage, Kona (front-driver) on the left, Volt (driver-front) on the right.
We are _not_ parked closed to the rear wall.
We pull in forwards and walk in and out of the garage through the main doors.
Kona plug is on the left wall, Volt plug hangs down in the middle of the garage.

But it's horses for courses. Driver-front would be best for us. But not for everybody.
It depends on where you park relative to the charger, where the charger is mounted, and so on.

Even passenger-side charging has utility. It's good for parallel roadside charging, or pull-by public chargers.
Generally sucks hard for off-street charging though.

Anyway, I don't see that backing up with a backup camera and parking sensors is a big hardship. I'm not good at it, but at least walls, curbs, painted lines and parked cars behave predictably.

 

[Pianewman]

nonsense.

and yes, I work in the field and this is a 100% arbitrary decision. funny how people try to justify a random choice as being 'smart'. its just arbitrary.

So, you "work in the field", and that means you understand the myriad decisions that go into the placement of every item in a particular car's design? Really?
I think that's a bit of a stretch. There HAVE to be compromises for every single decision. Those decisions are far from arbitrary.

 

[Chuq]

(Does anyone know, for UK Tesla vehicles with right hand drive, did Tesla move the charge port to the right side of the Tesla vehicle?)

I can confirm that RHD vehicles (UK, Australia, etc) have the charge port on the same side (left) as LHD vehicles. Personally I think we got the better end of the deal, as the charge port is on the footpath side when parking.

 

[Chuq]

Since Hyundai and Kia are sister companies I would have expected them to be in the same place.

It's even crazier than that:

Left of front fender - Hyundai Kona and Kia e-Niro
Above left front wheel - Hyundai Ioniq (PHEV)
Left rear - Hyundai Ioniq (BEV)
Right rear - Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6

Four different locations for six models - including two different variants of one model (Ioniq BEV and PHEV) having different locations - presumably they re-used the fuel flap location for the BEV, but couldn't do this for the PHEV.

 

[sleepydoc]

Driver-rear would be fine for our primary car. It would not be so good for our secondary car.
What would really suck both of our cars woudl be the Leaf's front-center.

We have a 2-door detached garage, Kona (front-driver) on the left, Volt (driver-front) on the right.
We are _not_ parked closed to the rear wall.
We pull in forwards and walk in and out of the garage through the main doors.
Kona plug is on the left wall, Volt plug hangs down in the middle of the garage.

But it's horses for courses. Driver-front would be best for us. But not for everybody.
It depends on where you park relative to the charger, where the charger is mounted, and so on.

Even passenger-side charging has utility. It's good for parallel roadside charging, or pull-by public chargers.
Generally sucks hard for off-street charging though.

Anyway, I don't see that backing up with a backup camera and parking sensors is a big hardship. I'm not good at it, but at least walls, curbs, painted lines and parked cars behave predictably.

The majority of garages are arranged so the rear wall is close to the front of the car, but even in your case, front is better than the rear - if you have the cord hanging down from the ceiling the garage door will hit it if it's too far back.

 

[BigNerd]

I only have 120v charging so I use an extension cord so I can park nose in.

About back in parking in public spaces, it’s harder to see cars coming out unless they have daylight running headlights. And, many cars do not have front license plates even here in Cali.

 

[sleepydoc]

So, you "work in the field", and that means you understand the myriad decisions that go into the placement of every item in a particular car's design? Really?
I think that's a bit of a stretch. There HAVE to be compromises for every single decision. Those decisions are far from arbitrary.

Believe it or not, some decisions are arbitrary (or worse, made because someone higher up liked the idea even though they had no clue.) I find it interesting how someone who admittedly has no experience can argue either way.

Cars can be backed-in and pulled out in less space with fewer three-point adjustments needed.

Except when backing you have a much poorer view of the surroundings and it's harder to direct the rear, even with a camera. Beyond this, when backing into a parking space you generally are backing between two cars, so making a mistake means you hit one of the cars. When backing out there's a wider traffic way to maneuver in, making it easier.

I agree that pulling out forwards is easer - as a rule, I pull through parking spots whenever I can, but I never back into parking spots just so I can pull out forwards. In fact, the only time I back into spots is when I have to charge my car.

 

[PDX-Y]

Except when backing you have a much poorer view of the surroundings and it's harder to direct the rear, even with a camera.

This argument cuts the other way though. When backing in to a space, you are in the travel lane, are clearly visible, and have the right of way (or the closest thing thereto in a parking lot).

When backing out of the space, you aren't visible to other cars and you can't see them nearly as well. Backing in is objectively safer. It's just harder.

 

[MY-user]

This is from a few years back, but might be helpful here:
View attachment 718044

Left side makes sense so people see the cord before they drive. Otherwise some will drive with the cord plugged in

 

[Chuq]

When backing out of the space, you aren't visible to other cars and you can't see them nearly as well. Backing in is objectively safer. It's just harder.

100%. My employer has a large car park and mandates reverse-in parking as a safety consideration.

Given all Teslas have a reversing camera, I have no idea why anyone would find it difficult. My Leaf has a camera which is only active when the vehicle is in reverse and cannot be manually enabled when in park or drive - so it's considerably easier.

 

[Chuq]

Otherwise some will drive with the cord plugged in

But all EVs (to my knowledge) have a safety provision where they cannot move when plugged in.

 

[Rocky_H]

When backing out of the space, you aren't visible to other cars and you can't see them nearly as well. Backing in is objectively safer. It's just harder.

This used to be true before cars had backup cameras; now the opposite is true. I've had some of those situations where I am backed in, but there are big trucks and SUVs parked on both sides of me completely blocking the view down the aisle in either direction. The only viewpoint I have is with my eyes, and that is alllll the way back in the middle of the car. I've had to creep the whole front hood of the car out into the lane blindly, before I ever get any chance for my eyes to get any possible angle to see down the lane. We don't have cameras on the front bumper.

But with a backup camera and pulled in forward, I have a fish-eye view 180 degrees on the back bumper of my car, seeing both ways up and down the aisle, before my car ever has to move.

 

[MY-user]

But all EVs (to my knowledge) have a safety provision where they cannot move when plugged in.

Didn't know that!

 

[Chuq]

But with a backup camera and pulled in forward, I have a fish-eye view 180 degrees on the back bumper of my car, seeing both ways up and down the aisle, before my car ever has to move.

This is a good logical argument to support forward-in parking. I don't think any cars have the same functionality at the front. I think the Leaf has a camera right on the front bumper, but even the Tesla only has them in the windscreen.

For those who have been in this situation, do the AP cameras / on screen visualisation of other cars help?

 

[Midnightsun]

Tesla thought this out for sure and has done it right IMHO. Many larger companies require all to park backed into the space for safety reasons. This is becoming more and more as safety overtakes our lives. 4 Reasons Backing Into Parking Spaces Is Safer

As for cross traffic alert, really useless if you back into a space since you can see everywhere when pulling out.

As for charging at home in your garage, just install the cord/receptacle in the correct place to charge your car depending on your preference of driving in or backing in. Makes more sense to drive in for me at home.

 

[dduffey]

Tesla put it where it did so it would blend into the car (looks) and be at a convenient height (experience). That is all.

 

[TIppy]

It's probably in the rear because the motors were originally only in the rear, and all the high voltage connection were probably located in the same place on the battery pack to keep conductors short. The cooling plumbing came out the front of the pack because that's where the radiators were located. As for the side they chose, it's probably a US bias so you don't have to walk to the other side of the car to plug in at superchargers. The cable isn't in your way once it's plugged in.