Tesla wants its proprietary EV connector to be the new North American standard

If you don’t have a Tesla but are an electric vehicle (EV) owner, your car likely takes advantage of the current North American standard Combined Charging System (CCS). On the other hand, the Elon Musk-owned EV company utilizes a proprietary J1772 charger that only works with its own vehicles.

Now, Tesla wants its J1772 connector to become the new standard for all EVs and has renamed it North American Charging Standard (NACS) in an effort to encourage EV charger platforms like Flo and Petro Canada to offer the formerly Tesla-exclusive port at their charger locations. The company has gone so far as to make the port’s design and specification files publically available to download.

Tesla says that its NACS charger features “no moving parts, is half the size, and [is] twice as powerful” as a CCS charger, followed by mentioning that its Supercharger network offers “60 percent more NACS posts than all the CCS-equipped networks combined.” The press release ignores the fact that Tesla has a massive 10-year lead over other EV competitors in the space regarding the number of its vehicles on the road and its substantial charger infrastructure.

The release also says that “network operators already have plans in motion to incorporate NACS at their chargers,” but doesn’t mention any specific charging networks.

Back in November 2001, Tesla launched its “non-Tesla Supercharger pilot” in several countries around the world, allowing non-Tesla electric vehicle drivers to use the EV maker’s charging stations with their vehicles through a CCS charger. Unfortunately, Canada isn’t included in this pilot project.

As legacy car manufacturers like Hyundai and Ford take the EV market more seriously with their respective vehicles like the Ioniq 5 and Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla’s stranglehold on the burgeoning space is rapidly shrinking. For example, Hyundai and Kia (which the latter company owns) hold 15 percent worldwide EV market share (excluding China). Given most of these vehicles already feature CCS ports, it’s unlikely they’ll change direction and bend to Tesla’s will.

In other Musk-related news, the billionaire continues to push Twitter into persistent chaos with nonsensical decisions regarding the platform’s verification system.

Image credit: Tesla

Source: Tesla