Electric vehicle (EV) charging station vendor ChargePoint has started rolling out support for the North American Charging Standard (NACS), also known as Tesla’s Supercharger network.
The networked EV charger stations will support AC and DC charging with much of the lineup being delivered over the coming months, the company said. Cable conversion kits for existing DC fast chargers will be delivered to customers in November, allowing Tesla drivers a public charging alternative for what ChargePoint claims is the first time.
Earlier this year, many automotive OEMs signed deals with Telsa Motors to allow their EVs to be charged on the Supercharger network. Specifically, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Rivian and Volvo will gain access to the 12,000 networks across North America.
Additionally, the SAE International, the global standards body focused on automotive engineering, said it will standardize the NACS connector due to the recent support it has garnered in the automotive industry. The next steps will be to “establish a consensus-based approach” for NACS and to validate the ability of the standard to “meet performance and interoperability criteria,” the organization said.
At the same time, numerous third-party EV chargers, like ChargePoint, had already made plans to adopt NACS connectors or made the decision shortly after these automotive OEMs announced their support.
In the short term at the very least, the access to the Supercharger network will help to promote the adoption of EVs and help what is one of the major sticking points to new sales of EVs -- the lack of public charging station availability, according to a recent report from J.D. Power.
ChargePoint’s plan is to help increase the number of charging stations including Tesla vehicles. The charging points will offer AC solutions as well as DC, which will negate the need for an adapter to charge.
