Tesla Launches ‘Universal Wall Connector’ For All EVs

Tesla has launched a new version of its Wall Connector home chargers that will work with other electric vehicle brands along with its own vehicles. The equipment went on sale this week, and it’s expected to start shipping later this year, according to Tesla.

Above: Tesla vehicles at a Supercharger station (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

The Tesla Universal Wall Connector went on sale on the automaker’s web store this week, featuring a magic dock-like integrated adapter that lets users charge other EVs, in addition to Teslas (via Not a Tesla App). While the normal wall connector includes the company’s own charging equipment, suitable for charging a Tesla, the universal wall connector includes both the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, and an easy-to-use J1772 adapter.

Tesla’s universal wall connector is set to begin shipping in October, and the automaker says it can replenish up to 44 miles of charge per hour with an 11.5kW/48 amp output. It features a 24-foot cable, lets you power share with up to six other wall connectors, and it comes with a four-year warranty.

The news of the new wall connector comes just months after deals with automakers including Ford, GM, Rivian, Nissan, Volvo and several others, for the companies to install Tesla’s charging hardware in their future vehicles. Tesla has opened up the charging equipment to other automakers, dubbing it the North American Charging Standard in a post last November.

“In pursuit of our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, today we are opening our EV connector design to the world,” Tesla wrote in the post.

“We invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port, now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS), on their equipment and vehicles. NACS is the most common charging standard in North America: NACS vehicles outnumber CCS two-to-one, and Tesla's Supercharging network has 60 percent more NACS posts than all the CCS-equipped networks combined.”

Despite the shift to Tesla’s charging hardware, Not a Tesla App points out that most automakers won’t be installing NACS plugs in their EVs until 2024 or 2025 at the earliest, meaning that they’ll require more time using adapters. To ease the transition, many charging networks beyond the Supercharger network are planning to add the NACS hardware to stations, in addition to Combined Charging Standard (CCS) connectors.

The universal wall connector offers a similar idea to the magic dock adapters at some of Tesla’s Superchargers, which offer seamless switching between the NACS and CCS hardware. It also comes ahead of the industry’s adoption of a single standard in the coming years — which it seems will be Tesla’s NACS plugs.

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