Ford Adopts Tesla NACS Standard – Obvious, But Courageous
By Edward A. Sanchez — May 25, 2023
Ford shocked almost everyone in the automotive world when it announced that it would adopt Tesla’s NACS charging plug standard starting on 2025 EV models, an announcement made on Twitter jointly with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Industry watchers, myself included have long touted the elegance and simplicity of the “Tesla plug” now known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS).
The precise details of the release also spell out the interim steps that will more closely integrate Ford Motor Company vehicles into the Tesla Supercharger ecosystem, including integration into Ford’s FordPass or Ford Pro Intelligence apps and payment platforms. From a hardware standpoint, this will manifest itself with the availability of a NACS-to-CCS1 adapter (basically the “magic” part of the Magic Dock) to Ford owners, allowing them to use the Tesla Supercharger network, even those charging stations not yet equipped with the Magic Dock, and ultimately, starting with 2025 models, native integration of the NACS plug port.
This was a very bold, and on the surface, risky move for Ford and Jim Farley. Many tacitly admit the superiority of the NACS design for being slimmer, lighter, and integrating both AC and DC fast charging into a single plug. But almost nobody, apart from startup Aptera, were willing to go on the record with their opinion.
With the surprise new partnership, expect to see more Fords charging at Tesla Superchargers.
Most other OEMs probably thought adoption, or the glass-half-empty perspective, capitulation to the NACS standard is admission that Tesla “won.” Yet the Tesla Supercharger network consistently wins in almost every survey of DC fast charging network user satisfaction and ease of use.
The big question in everyone’s mind is if Ford is going to stand alone as the only other mass-market OEM to adopt NACS, or if it is the first domino to fall in what will become many in the industry-wide adoption of NACS. You can bet in boardrooms from Detroit to Wolfsburg, Tokyo, Seoul, and beyond, heated discussions are taking place.
Personally, I applaud Farley for making this bold move, recognizing the obvious superiority of the NACS standard and the Supercharger DC fast charging experience, and wanting to make that a reality for Ford owners as well. He will inevitably face detractors and critics that say he’s capitulating to Tesla. But what ultimately matters is making Ford’s customers happy, and I definitely think this development will achieve that.
(Photos courtesy Ford)
