The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) association, which stands behind the CCS (CCS1 and CCS2) as well as MCS charging standards for EVs, issued an interesting response acknowledging that some of its members are interested in adopting the North America Charging Standard (NACS).
Let’s recall that NACS is Tesla‘s proprietary solution, which is promised to be opened for the EV industry in North America to become the ultimate charging connector for cars (AC and DC charging). In a matter of about two weeks, Ford and General Motors announced their switch from CCS1 to NACS in North America (starting with next-gen vehicles in 2025), which initially annoyed CharIN.
We were recently wondering which manufacturers might be next to adopt the NACS because the Tesla-Ford-GM trio is expected to hold the majority of the market of all-electric cars. CCS1 would then gradually lose its steam.
In the most recent response, posted on Monday, CharIn noted several things and surprisingly, expressed support for the standardization of the Tesla NACS.
First of all, the association says that the NACS, as of today, is not a charging standard, but some of the members of the association are interested in adopting NACS “form factor.”
“For any technology to become a standard it must go through a due process in a standards development organization (e.g., ISO, IEC, IEEE, SAE, ANSI). Such a process is collaborative and enables all interested parties to contribute their ideas.”
Having a proper standard – described in detail, approved by standard organizations, with an open charging ecosystem for the entire industry (everyone can become a supplier or user) – is very important.
“Customers and the EV industry need trustworthy open charging standards to ensure confidence in the availability, reliability, safety, and adaptability of the standard over time. NACS should be submitted to standards bodies to unify the charging standards market in North America.”
According to the press release, the Tesla NACS already has some standardized elements related to communication, which indicates that the process of making it an open standard will be simplified in those areas:
“CharIN is pleased that NACS is using DIN 70121 and ISO 15118 protocols based on power line communication (PLC) enabling CCS functionality. These protocols were created for CCS but are versatile communication standards that could help build bridges across all charging standards in North America. These standards are also deeply rooted in CharIN membership and activities.”
The most important thing is that CharIn said that it “will work to convene an open task force to align requirements to submit NACS to the standardization process.”
The group invites members and further involved parties to join the task force and even prepared a form to apply.
That’s a very interesting outcome because the standardization of NACS and its adoption by other manufacturers means that the CCS1 will be phased out in North America (probably in some other markets where it’s also used).
Tesla: North American Charging Standard vs CCS Combo 1
The question is why would CharIN do that? The association points out that it is the largest global association focused on the electrification of all forms of transportation and is supported by over 320 members. That’s a lot of companies, which put some effort into the CCS1/CCS2.
We guess that there is a big interest in NACS (remember when we said that there is a red alert at OEMs headquarters?) as well as headaches related to business. A switch to a different charging solution requires investments and resources. Some suppliers might fear that they will be left behind because if there is no open standard, they can’t produce a particular part for others.
It would be costly and painful if all the companies will have to individually care about the switch to something that is not yet an open standard. And this is probably why – we guess – after the weekend, the industry has concluded that we have to join forces to more smoothly move from CCS1 to NACS if that’s where the market is going. They might even think, let’s do something to accelerate the standardization process of NACS, so we will not have to deal with Tesla individually, through special agreements.
The dice have been thrown – if Tesla wants to make the NACS an open North America Charging Standard, we will probably see some cooperation soon.
