General Motors Commits to NACS – Beginning of the End for CCS1?
By Edward A. Sanchez — June 8, 2023
Ford Motor Company’s announcement that it would adopt Tesla’s NACS charging plug from 2025 on sent shockwaves through the automotive and charging infrastructure industries. But many were not prepared for the aftershock that has come: General Motors has announced it will also adopt NACS going forward.
I can only imagine the discussions going on at CharIN headquarters in Berlin, Germany. Probably a combination of outrage, befuddlement, stunned resignation, or a combination of all three. Having had representatives of CharIN on our podcast, we want to give the organization respect and credit where it’s due. Certainly, the organization has worked very hard at creating standardization in an area that was previously characterized by fragmented, proprietary standards that did little in the way of encouraging broad mass-market adoption of EVs. However, as we discussed on Episode 122 of The Watt Car Podcast, the resulting form factor could not truthfully be described as elegant and exactly user friendly.
The other factor, which CharIN does not have direct control over, is the quality and reliability of the charging infrastructure companies and networks which employ their standards. In its official response to Ford’s adoption of NACS, CharIN criticized NACS for not being a recognized “standard” in the same way which CCS has become. But truthfully, this is a distinction without a meaningful difference. The end consumer simply wants things to work reliably, consistently, and predictably. And by that measure, Tesla’s “proprietary” Supercharger DC fast charging network is miles ahead of its competitors.
Much of this has to do with Tesla’s nearly decade-long head start in building out its charging network both in North America and globally. It also takes reliability and uptime of its network very seriously, and has even gone as far as deploying temporary charging stations in heavily-traveled areas to mitigate and relieve congestion at its permanent Supercharger installations.
As we hypothesized in Episode 121 of the podcast, all of the major OEMs with a significant presence in North America have likely been testing, researching, and internally validating NACS, or the “Tesla plug.” They have also likely seen the struggles that third-party charging networks have had in creating a seamless, intuitive charging experience. Although probably plainly obvious for many years, the superiority of Tesla’s plug and port form factor, as well as its user experience, was hard to ignore.
With this development, it’s likely that NACS will become the de facto North American charging standard. Ultimately, whatever release or statement CharIN makes is irrelevant from this point forward. Also, as we’ve noted in past posts and podcasts, Tesla is still (as far as we know) a member of CharIN. It has dutifully complied with the European Union’s mandate of a universal EV charging standard (likely at the behest of CharIN, undoubtedly).
Although a tough pill to swallow from an optics standpoint, CharIN’s best recourse at this point is probably to engage in a meaningful dialogue with Tesla about specifications, standards harmonization, and intellectual property rights and access around NACS, with the goal of making it the recognized North American standard, fully recognized and sanctioned by CharIN. Frankly, whether or not NACS gets CharIN’s official blessing or approval is now irrelevant. With GM’s announced commitment, NACS looks poised to become the actual North American charging standard.
(Image courtesy General Motors)
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