CharIn (Charging Interface Initiative), the association behind the CCS EV charging standard, has issued a response to the Tesla and Ford partnership on NACS. The North American Charging Standard (NACS) is an electric vehicle charging standard developed by Tesla. It is used on all North American market Tesla vehicles since 2012, and was opened for use to other manufacturers in 2022.

Last month, Ford announced that it will integrate NACS, Tesla’s charge connector that it open-sourced last year in an attempt to make it the North American charging standard, into its future electric vehicles.

This was a big win for NACS.

Tesla’s connector is widely recognized for having a better design than CCS.

NACS was already more popular than CCS in North America thanks to the sheer volume of electric vehicles the automaker has delivered in the market, but other than its more efficient design, it was the only thing going for the connector.

Every other automaker had adopted CCS.

Ford getting on board was a big win, and it might create a domino effect with more automakers adopting the standard for a better connector design and easier access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.

The $7 billion for charging stations in the federal infrastructure bill doesn’t require stations to have CCS connectors, but it does require them to be available to “more than one automaker.”

CCS had an opportunity to establish itself as the prevailing standard in North America. However, the charging network operators in the region have so far been unable to match Tesla’s Supercharger network in terms of size, user-friendliness, and dependability. This situation is granting Tesla some advantages in their efforts to promote NACS as the standard, which is justified given its superior design. A practical solution would be for CCS and NACS to combine forces in North America, with CCS incorporating Tesla’s form factor.