One of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler, has announced that a major annoyance for owners of electric vehicles may soon be lessened.
The North American Charging Standard, or NACS, is a charging connection technology that Tesla invented, and the firm announced this week that it will integrate it into its electric vehicles by 2025.
Generally, the new connector will replace an earlier one known as the CHAdeMO and an even older one known as the Combined Charging System, or CCS. Although they were created by a team of qualified engineers, those had a tendency to be slower, more cumbersome, and frequently more difficult to drive than the Tesla rival.
Stellantis, which produces Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler and is one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, has revealed that a significant nuisance for owners of electric vehicles may soon be eased.
This Monday, Tesla stated that it will incorporate the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, a charging connection technology it devised, into its electric vehicles by the year 2025.
The new connector will often take the place of two previous ones: the CHAdeMO and the Combined Charging System, or CCS. Despite being designed by a group of skilled engineers, those were often harder to drive, slower, and more unwieldy than the Tesla competitor.
The last domino to fall before Tesla’s connector could claim triumph in North America was Stellantis. May will see the addition of the more recent connector to Ford’s electric vehicles. Several companies have since followed, including General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Honda, the Hyundai Group, Toyota, BMW, and Volkswagen. As a matter of fact, very few electric startups have survived.
In summary, a lot more cars will be able to charge at many of the same locations by 2025.
According to surveys, American electric vehicle drivers today—a comparatively tolerant group of first adopters—are frequently dissatisfied with the public charging experience. On public roadways, you frequently come across chargers with damaged plugs, erratic payment methods, and software that isn’t compatible with the cars they’re trying to charge.
Finding the appropriate public charging station might be “a weird mental hurdle for people,” according to Edmunds vehicle research expert Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights researcher. “Had you to use Google to find the location of the closest gas station?”
For these reasons, the disorganized set of standards and terminology seems like EV esoterica, but it may be crucial to the success of the electric vehicle transition. At last, the US has achieved some level of charging standardization, following in the footsteps of China and Europe. (It should come as no surprise that those areas have adopted electric vehicles earlier.) The modification may aid in persuading more prospective EV buyers that driving an electric vehicle is both superior to and comparable to driving a gas-powered vehicle.
The supremacy of Tesla’s charging standard, which it naively renamed in 2022, is a significant victory. It’s a symbolic nod from other manufacturers that their Supercharger network is the most extensive and dependable in the United States. Additionally, it is a tacit admission of the superiority of NACS’s more compact design.
Possibly more significantly, it represents a prospective revenue stream that, according to one analyst, could generate $20 billion by the end of the decade—stable “recurring revenue” that could materialize without much ado. That’s particularly good news because, as it increased production of its Cybertruck and a new, less expensive car, Tesla had warned earlier in the year that it expected sales to drop down.
Nonetheless, there are still many technical issues with charging electric vehicles that need to be resolved. Stellantis’ statement clarifies a few of the issues: The company stated that it would use the Tesla standard, but it made no mention of the fact that its electric cars will be able to connect to the network of Tesla Superchargers. It also made no indication as to when or if the charging norm would be implemented outside of the United States. An email from Dan Reid, an automobile representative, stated, “While we don’t have additional details at this time, the company is continuing to look at all options that make charging simpler and more convenient for our customers.”
Rather, the business highlighted the potential application of the upcoming Ionna charging network, a collaboration with BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis, which is expected to see the deployment of 30,000 DC fast chargers later this year throughout the US and Canada. In fact, astute readers will observe that Stellantis purposefully left out the T-word and NACS, which are the terms used by the unnamed electric automaker to describe their plug system.
An additional complexity is that not all North American EVs and chargers—between the chargers and the networks that support them, or between the chargers and the EVs themselves—will speak the same “languages” while sharing the same connector.
Instead, the company showcased how the soon-to-be Ionna charging network, a partnership with BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis, could be used. It is anticipated that 30,000 DC fast chargers will be installed in the US and Canada later this year. Astute readers will actually note that Stellantis purposely omitted the terms “T-word” and “NACS,” which are what the nameless electric manufacturer uses to characterize their plug system.
Another layer of complexity arises from the fact that not all North American EVs and chargers will speak the same “languages” while sharing a connector, either between the chargers and the networks that support them or between the chargers and the EVs themselves.
