NACS Keeps Winning

Well, we can add Mercedes-Benz to the list of major automakers who have announced that they will be using Tesla’s North American Charging Standard from now on.

The German luxury car maker announced on July 7th that they would be adopting the NACS for their electric vehicle line - gaining access via adapters by 2024, and fully integrating the port type into their vehicle designs by 2025.

They’ll even have access to Tesla’s application API - meaning Mercedes users will be able to locate nearby Tesla charging stations on their own apps.

This deal mirrors the one made by GM, and Ford over a month ago now - adding one more big name to the growing list of automakers and charging companies who are pushing the governments of North America to adopt the NACS as the actual standard over the clunky and inefficient CCS design.

Mercedes is the first German company to agree to integrate Tesla’s charging port - giving some hope that this movement could spread to Europe someday - but there’s also reports that longtime Tesla rival Volkswagen is also discussing making the swap to NACS.

The push to get NACS adopted in North America has been wildly successful in an extremely short period of time - but the EU is a harder nut to crack. Regardless of how clearly superior Tesla’s charger is, the CCS might take more time to be dethroned in Europe. Here though, it seems like there’s no going back.

Most industry experts believed that NACS adoption was a done deal after Ford announced their partnership with Tesla back in May - and with more and more companies announcing their support, it’s hard to think that the NACS won’t be the actual standard by this time next year.