Apple Car, Tesla, and the charging station problem

According to this Reuters article, Apple is talking with charging station companies:

Apple is now asking charging station companies about their underlying technology, one person with knowledge of the matter said. The talks, which have not been reported, do not concern charging for electric cars of Apple employees, a service the company already provides. They indicate that Apple is focused on a car, the person added.

If Apple is building a car, of course they’re going to be involved in the rollout of charging stations.

It is unclear whether Apple would want its own proprietary technology, such as Tesla Motors’ (TSLA.O) Supercharger network, or would design a system compatible with offerings from other market players.

This is where it gets interesting to me. Will Apple create a car-charging version of the lightning cable? Will it be more than a proprietary plug? Will the specific battery makeup require a custom charger, one that will only charge an Apple battery?

Elon Musk once said:

Musk responded that he specifically wants to avoid the walled garden effect with Supercharger technology, and that the main barrier to universal adoption by other EVs is whether or not other vehicles can accept the power level that a Supercharger delivers. Musk also noted that other manufacturers that want to use the Supercharger network would have to adopt the same cost structure. Currently, Supercharger users don’t pay for a fill-up; Musk has stated that each adoptee would need to contribute capital costs “proportional to their fleet’s usage of the network.”

Not all cars are compatible with Tesla’s charging solution. For example, the Chevy Volt is not plug compatible and, more importantly, not electrically compatible with the Tesla Supercharger network.

As Google and Apple (presumably) enter the fray, the national and, eventually, international charging network will see explosive growth. It will be interesting to see if the walled garden emerges, where an Apple car can only use an Apple charger, purely due to competitive business instincts.

It would be in the public’s best interest to develop a small set of standard plugs (think the standardization of USB phone charging bricks), the absolute minimum required for each voltage/amp setup, then have all manufacturers agree to support this standard, along with a system so a user can pay for a charge-up.

Tesla paid for the first wave of charging stations, true, but if they insist on maintaining ownership and sharing their stations only if other manufacturers play by their rules, they are contributing to the walled garden, not offering a way out.