Rivian has opened a new charging station in Joshua Tree, California, that is open for other EV owners to use — a first for the company. It’s part of a plan to build out a much larger interoperable charging network across the U.S., though the company is still very early in that process.
The new station still uses the CCS charging plug that was the standard until automakers began adopting Tesla’s smaller, faster version. Rivian says the company is working to integrate Tesla’s North American Charging Standard tech into future charging stations and will retrofit existing stations over time.
Rivian has been tailoring much of its so-called Adventure Network to have charging stations in harder-to-reach places that are not served by charging networks from Tesla and others. Opening these stations to competitors will allow other owners to venture a bit farther with their EVs. But it’s not a wholly altruistic move. As Rivian notes in its press release, opening its charging network makes the company eligible for state and federal funding — which the company says it hopes to use to make the network bigger.
