Tesla is sharing the design of its electric vehicle charging connector to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America. Tesla said in a blog post Friday that its design and specification documents are available for download. The company said it is “actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard.
The charging connector for all Tesla vehicles provides AC charging and DC charging up to 1 MW. Its compact design and performance are considered superior to the Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors used in most electric vehicles in North America.
Tesla claims that its charging connector and charging port – which it now calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) – is the most common charging standard in North America. This is a statistic based on the number of Tesla vehicles sold in North America and the number of chargers at its branded Superchargers. Tesla has nearly 1,500 Supercharging stations in the United States. Each charging station has an average of nine chargers.
Tesla did not identify any automakers or charging infrastructure companies as the next switchers. In this highly competitive environment, where virtually every automaker is using CCS, it’s hard to see GM, Ford and Stellantis switching to Tesla’s technology.
However, at least one company, electric vehicle startup Aptera, supports the move. Earlier this year, Aptera called on the U.S. government to adopt Tesla’s Supercharger technology as the standard for charging all-electric vehicles in the country. And EVGo has already added Tesla connectors to some of its charging stations in the United States.
If network providers like ChargePoint, EVConnect or Electrify America join NACS, it will allow Tesla owners to charge at those stations without the need for an adapter, the company said in a blog post.
If the automaker switches to NACS on its EVs, owners of those vehicles will have access to Tesla’s North American Supercharging and Destination Charging network.
