German luxury car manufacturer Mercedes Benz announced it will adopt Tesla’s charging design for its North American electric vehicles.
Quartz Smart Investing with Cameron Dawson, Part 2
On Friday (July 7), the company revealed its plans to adopt the design, better known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), for its 2025 EV models. The company’s vehicles will now be able to use Tesla’s approximately 12,000 superchargers in North America starting next year, via an adapter distributed by the company.
The news comes after Ford, General Motors, and Rivian all announced similar plans in recent months. Volkswagen is reportedly also in discussions to adopt the NACS.
How does this affect the White House’s EV plans?
The widespread adoption of Tesla’s EV charging system, especially by rival automakers, has put a crimp in the federal government’s $7.5 billion plan to develop a sprawling nationwide system of EV charging stations.
The White House had originally planned to universalize a different charging system, the Combined Charging System (CCS), for all EVs in the US. Tesla CEO Elon Musk refused the government subsidy associated with the CCS, instead offering the NACS system to other car manufacturers free of charge.
In June, the Biden administration attempted to mitigate the migration by reminding Tesla that its chargers could be included in the federal subsidy program if they added CCS compatibility.
But, with the increasing adoption of NACS by major car companies—as well as last month’s decision by the Texas Department of Transportation to mandate the inclusion of NACS in all new charging stations—it looks like the CSS is losing the battle.
America’s EV charging station network, by the digits:
17,500: Number of Tesla-operated high-speed EV supercharger stations—chargers that can add approximately 200 miles of range in just 20 minutes—in the US. There are an estimated 10,000 additional stations that can recharge Teslas at a slower speed.
130,000:Number of public EV charging stations in the US, according to the White House. However, a fraction of these are considered superchargers.
500,000:Number of public charging stations the White House aims to make available in the US by 2030.
Related stories:
🔌 The White House is trying to persuade Tesla to keep the US’s EV charging standard alive
🚗 Ford became the first US carmaker to take up Tesla’s offer to use its supercharging network
🔌 Tesla scored a major win in Texas in the battle for EV charging dominance
