Tesla’s CEO recently unveiled a wall-mounted charger for the company’s forthcoming Model S sedan

Have you ever thought of an EV charger as an elegant fashion accessory? Probably not, but maybe you never thought of an EV as a tire-squealing, hair-streaming, midlife-crisis-handling Roadster until Elon Musk made it happen.

Tesla’s flamboyant CEO recently unveiled a wall-mounted charger for the company’s forthcoming Model S sedan, a small, sleek and aerodynamic-looking unit that will come in colors to match the cars. The home charger will supply up to 80 amps of current at 240 volts. There will also be a mobile connector that can plug into any 240-volt receptacle. Both will allow a Model S with extended-range battery to be fully charged overnight.

So, what’s wrong with the J1772 connector that’s rapidly being adopted as the industry standard? According to Musk, it’s “absolutely terrible, extremely ugly and low power.” Tesla’s proprietary plug, by contrast, is “a beautiful advanced alien artifact that arrived in the middle of the night. We want people to say, ‘Wow, I want that on my wall.’”

Is Tesla setting up an epic standards battle, a new VCR vs Betamax bout, an automotive Armageddon pitting a scrappy startup against the world’s giant carmaking conglomerates? Not at all. The company will offer an adapter to connect the Model S to charging stations using the J1772 standard.