Almost every modern EV has the charging port in one of the same two places—either where the fuel filler door used to be on gas-powered cars or on the front fender. There are some outliers of course, such as Tesla’s taillight charge port, but they all might be doing it wrong. The best spot to put the charge port might be where Porsche put it on the new Boxster EV—the rear bumper.
In some recent spy photos, the Porsche Boxster EV can be see charging at a public charging station and the plug is right in its caboose. Just above the license plate, a little door opens vertically, exposing its charge port and it seems like the best placement for it.
Why do I think a rear charging placement best? Simply because it allows the owner to more easily park the car to charge it. I’ve tested quite a few electric cars now and almost every time I use a public charger, I pull into the spot with the charge door on the wrong side of the plug I want to use. Not because I don’t know which side the charge door is but because, when using a public charger for the first time, I don’t always know which side the correct charge cable is on. Many chargers have two cables. Sometimes one is for faster charging, sometimes one is for CCS and one is for CHAdeMO. So I’ve often pulled in, only to realize that I have to turn the car around so I don’t have to run the cable underneath or across the car to reach. Sometimes cables are long enough that it doesn’t matter but typically not, in my experience.
However, having the charge port right on the back end of the car makes it far easier. Just back into the spot and it’s always in and easy spot. No worrying about which side the port is on. It just makes so much sense. Some old-school muscle cars used to have their fuel fillers at the back like that, which made pulling up to gas pumps easier, as you could pull into any open spot and not have to worry about turning around to get it on your side of the car.
Admittedly, the Boxster is a bit unique because its battery pack isn’t a skateboard pack like most EVs. So instead of the bottom of the car being batteries, like a big flat skateboard with the body on top, Porsche packed its batteries into the sport where the piston-powered Boxster’s mid-mounted engine used to be. That gives it the same mid-engine weight distribution Boxster fans are used to and allows the car to sit lower, giving the driver a better seating position. That battery placement could make it easier to charge from the rear.
While I get why EVs have their charge ports where the fuel fillers used to be, to make it feel more familiar for ICE customers, but there’s really no other reason for that to be the case. Make it easier to pull into charging stations by putting the charge port somewhere in the middle of the car, not on one side.
