June 30, 2023

Tesla Adds Volvo, Electrify America To List Of Charging Partners

A stream of automakers and charging companies have now announced plans to launch the use of the Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS), all unfolding over the past several weeks. Automaker Volvo and charging company Electrify America are just the latest companies to add support for Tesla’s hardware, potentially opening the doorway for the NACS to become the official charging standard in North America.

Above: A Tesla Supercharger station (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

Charging networks Electrify America and Blink both announced plans to add support for the NACS plug this week, as detailed in an article from Ars Technica. The news came alongside an announcement from Swedish auto giant Volvo, which owns Polestar, that both of these brands will also add the NACS format to future electric vehicles.

Beyond these companies, the auto standards organization the Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE International) has shared plans to make the NACS format an official standard in the coming months, which Ars Technica says could be the “cue that other automakers have been waiting for” to make the switch.

It’s worth mentioning that Volkswagen owns Electrify America, and recent reports have suggested that the German automaker could also be considering a switch to Tesla’s hardware. Additionally, Hyundai and sister brand Kia have stated that they’re considering whether or not to adopt the NACS format for future EVs.

Other major automakers to sign onto using the NACS plug for future EVs include Ford, the first auto giant to sign on, and General Motors. Following these automakers were EV startup Rivian, and now Volvo and Polestar. Fellow EV startup Aptera, which has yet to produce EVs, was the first to officially adopt the standard, right after Tesla announced plans to open it up to other automakers last November.

Volvo will, unsurprisingly, begin offering customers CCS to NACS adapters as soon as 2024, adding the Tesla plug to its cars as soon as 2025. The move echoes those of Ford, GM and Rivian, which also plan to follow similar timelines. Drivers of each brand will soon gain access to roughly 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stalls across North America.

While the move has been met with mixed reviews from Tesla drivers who are worried Supercharger stations could become too crowded, investors and analysts have pointed to the added revenue streams this may create for the EV company. In any case, the path to NACS becoming the official standard of North America seems well underway, so many non-Tesla EV owners in future years will gain easy access to what is considered the most reliable fast-charging network yet.

Below are the automakers and charging companies that have officially adopted Tesla’s NACS hardware, as of the time of writing.

Automotive Brands Adopting Tesla NACS Hardware