Tesla has had a very good month, even when it comes to its EV charging standard. Washington state wants to require electric car charging companies to use Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) to be part of the state’s program to support electric vehicles, according to Reuters. The proposed state mandate would put Tesla’s technology at state and federally funded charging sites in the future, though Washington has not yet decided what that will look like.
Currently, the federal government requires at least four Combined Charging System (CCS) chargers at taxpayer-funded sites, and Tonia Buell, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) alternative fuel program manager at Washington state, said. Reuters the state may require that at least two, or perhaps all four, of the chargers also support NACS. CCS is the standard currently preferred by the federal government for cross-platform use.
It’s a good week for Tesla’s NACS standard – Texas made a similar announcement on Tuesday, saying it will also begin requiring electric vehicle charging companies to use the standard to receive federal dollars. The state DOT spoke Reuters via email that “the decision by Ford, GM, and now Rivian to adopt NACS changes the requirements for Phase 1” of Texas’ rollout of a federally-funded electrification program.
Also on Tuesday, electric automaker and Tesla competitor Rivian announced its intention to adopt NACS for its future vehicles, which would give the cars access to an already robust network of stations at Tesla Superchargers nationwide. Hyundai is also considering the standard, although it says it depends on customer interest, as Tesla chargers do not charge at the higher rate supported by its own EV platform. Electric charging company BTC Power, which supplies DC and AC car chargers to convenience stores and fleet operations, has also announced its intention to support NACS.
With Ford and General Motors also announcing support for Tesla’s standard, NACS now has a big advantage over CCS in the fight to become the de facto standard for EV charging in the US.
