The electric-vehicle charging technology by Tesla is being pushed to the front of the line to become a North American standard, giving the automaker’s plan to open up access to its once-exclusive chargers even more momentum.
Tesla’s charging technology has gained popularity in recent weeks. In rejecting earlier attempts by the Biden administration to make the Combined Charging System (CCS) the preeminent charging standard in the United States, Volvo Car joined General Motors, Ford, and Rivian on Tuesday in endorsing Tesla’s charging design.
According to an SAE International official, the organization’s goal is to create an industry-standard configuration of Tesla’s charging connector in no more than six months.
He continued by saying that the association is in discussions about NACS standardisation with the federal government, Tesla, Ford, GM, and other automakers.
“There was a real, I believe, shared sense of urgency and purpose between industry and government,” said Frank Menchaca, president of SAE International’s Sustainable Mobility Solutions.
“It is critical to understand that this process is no longer under the control of a single company.” It is really all companies working together to create a standard for developing for this plug.”
Although Tesla refers to its technology as “the North American Charging Standard (NACS),” SAE International has yet to approve it as a standard.
Tesla stock was up 3% at $248.33 on Tuesday afternoon.
According to a study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a federally funded research centre, the United States is on track to install a network of 1.2 million electric-vehicle public chargers, including 1 million Level 2 chargers, by 2030. There was no breakdown of NACS or other types of connectors in the study.
This figure surpasses the Biden administration’s goal of deploying 500,000 public chargers by 2030.
The NREL study estimates that the total amount of public and private capital required to expand the public charging network will range between $33 billion and $55 billion.
The Biden administration’s approach to CCS and NACS connectors is facilitating “more interoperable, and ultimately a more accessible set of chargers across the country,” according to Ali Zaidi, White House national climate adviser.
The White House has stated that electric-vehicle charging stations using Tesla-standard plugs would be eligible for billions of dollars in federal subsidies as long as they also included the US charging standard connection, CCS.
Texas and Washington have stated that the NACS, along with CCS, will be mandated as part of the federal programme. It remains to be seen whether the federal government will follow suit.
