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The state of electric vehicle charging in North America is shaping up like the smartphone charging wars — but focused on much more expensive hardware. Right now, like USB-C and Android phones, the Combined Charging System (CCS, Type 1) plug is on a greater variety of cars. Meanwhile, Tesla’s plug was long compared to Apple and Lightning.
But while Apple eventually adopted USB-C, Tesla is opening up its connector, renaming it the North American Charging Standard (NACS), and trying to shove CCS out of the way.
And it’s working: the new NACS port is being standardized by SAE International, and today, largely every automaker, including Ford, GM, Toyota, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Fisker, Hyundai, Stellantis, Volkswagen, and BMW, has signed on. New cars equipped with NACS are on the way but likely won’t start rolling out until 2026.
Meanwhile, Europe already dealt with its standards issue by settling on CCS2. For now, EV drivers in their Tesla Model Ys, Kia EV6s, and Nissan Leafs (with the ailing CHAdeMO connector) in the US are still stuck looking for the right station or adapter and hoping everything’s operational — but things should get easier soon.
To help solve these issues, the federal government has established a pool of $7.5 billion to fund charging network operators in building reliable EV infrastructure.
North America can become a great and convenient place to own an electric vehicle, but how long will that take? You can find out by reading all the news about electric vehicle charging right here, so come back and plug in often.
Ford’s Tesla Supercharger adapters are now on sale for $200
Kia’s EV9 will soon be able to power your home
Image: Wallbox
Kia EV9 owners can soon take advantage of the SUV’s “Vehicle to Home” power backup capabilities with the availability of a bidirectional charger coming in June. The new Wallbox Quasar 2 electric vehicle charger is the first home EV power connector in the US that works with the EV9 and is now up for preorder for owners and lessees of the vehicle.
The Quasar 2 can feed power to the EV9’s battery to charge it or draw from it to keep your home’s lights on during a blackout. You’ll need both the charger and a special Power Recovery Unit to interface with your home power panel to make the home generator features work. EV9 owners get first dibs on the Quasar 2 but will need to register with Wallbox to preorder both items. According to Kia, they will be available “on a first-come, first-served, while supplies last basis.”
Tesla Superchargers coming to dozens of Steak ‘n Shake locations
Image: Getty
Tesla is planning to install dozens of Supercharger sites at Steak ‘n Shake locations across the country, according to an exchange between the companies on X. The companies have signed an agreement for over six sites, with over 20 more to come. And if Steak ‘n Shake gets its way, possibly 100 restaurants will see future Supercharger installations.
The way the news trickled out was a little weird, yet typical of how Elon Musk likes to use his social media platform, X, to publicize new information about his various companies.
EVgo says no to fast-charging extension cables and breakaway adapters
Image: EVgo
Electric vehicle charging network EVgo changed its terms of service Thursday to include new language explicitly prohibiting the use of high-speed DC extension cables and breakaway adapters at the company’s stations. The terms, which go into effect March 8th, are another bump in the road for enterprising companies looking to cash in on EV charging accessories.
EVgo added the following terms in bold to the Authorized Charging Adapters section of its Terms of Service: “EVgo prohibits the use of all other adapters, including break-away adapters and DC extension cords (“Unauthorized Equipment”) on EVgo’s network and Charging Stations.” The company continues to authorize “automaker-manufactured charging adapters” (such as J3400 “NACS” to CCS1) and have UL2252 certification.
The GSA is shutting down its EV chargers, calling them ‘not mission critical’
The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages buildings owned by the federal government, is planning to shut down all of its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, describing them as “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages contracts for the government’s vehicle fleets, is also looking to offload newly purchased EVs.
The GSA currently operates several hundred EV chargers across the country, with approximately 8,000 plugs that are available for government-owned EVs as well as federal employees’ personally owned vehicles.
Trump administration halts $5 billion EV charging program that benefited Tesla
Ford is bringing its free home EV charger offer to Canada.
Canadians can now take advantage of the recently extended Ford Power Promise promotion, which includes a free home charger plus standard installation, 24/7 live EV support, and access to the BlueOval charging network. You must buy or lease a new Ford F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, or an E-Transit vehicle between February 1st and March 31st to take advantage. In Quebec, the charger plus installation costs $2,450 plus tax.
Kia EVs will get Tesla Supercharger access in March
Image: Tim Stevens for The Verge
Kia’s electric vehicles will get Tesla Supercharger access “sometime in March 2025,” the company announced in a statement. Kia EVs, including the EV6 and EV9, were scheduled to get Supercharger access in January using NACS to CCS1 adapters, but that has been delayed.
Kia’s sister company, Hyundai, is beginning to ship new 2025 model year Ioniq 5 EVs with native NACS ports that match the ones on Teslas, and its models with older CCS1 ports can already plug into Supercharger stations using an adapter. However, Kia dealerships are now receiving NACS adapters meant to be free to EV6 and EV9 owners who purchased the new vehicles on or after September 4th, 2024. Kia also says owners can buy the adapter from dealers.
Tesla Cybertrucks get faster charging at V4 Supercharger stalls.
If you can find them, that is. While there aren’t a lot of new V4 posts out there yet, they’re supposed to support up to 500kW of fast charging once Tesla upgrades the on-site cabinets. For now, locations with the newly-designed stalls will support 325kW charging for Cybertrucks. Electrek notes that Elon Musk once suggested V3 would be capable of more than 350kW.
Lucid Gravity has a unique rear motor to help maximize EV charging
Image: Lucid
Lucid started delivering the Gravity SUV to customers late last year but waited until now to reveal an interesting quirk about the new luxury EV that it says can help make charging better than ever before.
When it was first announced, Lucid said that the 450-mile, $94,950 Gravity SUV would come with an incredible 926-volt architecture, making it one of the few vehicles on the market to exceed the 900-volt Lucid Air or fast-charging 800-volt systems found in many Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles. That architecture allows Gravity owners to add up to 200 miles of range after just 12 minutes of charging — provided you have access to the right charger.
ChargePoint is doing something about all the EV charger cable-cutting crooks
Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge
ChargePoint has had enough of vandalizing thieves who saw through EV charger cables to steal valuable copper — so now it’s making new “cut-resistant” cables and adding alarm systems in an attempt to mitigate the damage.
ChargePoint’s VP of product management Steve Farrell tells The Verge the cable uses a patent-pending technology that includes strategically placed steel to provide protection. Although the design may make the cables a bit larger and less flexible, Farrell wrote that usability won’t be impacted, and that most users “will not notice the difference” with the changes. The new cable can be retrofitted on commercial and fleet charging stations (both AC and DC models) made by the company.
Mercedes-Benz EV owners can start using Tesla Superchargers in February
Image: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz said that its electric vehicles will be able to access Tesla’s Supercharger network starting in February.
By now you should be familiar with how this goes: a manufacturer announces Supercharger access, first through the use of NACS-to-CCS adapters and then later with native NACS integration. The adapters are available to purchase through dealerships. And EV owners will get to giddily watch as the number of accessible public EV chargers suddenly grows by the thousands. (By last count, Tesla had 20,000 stalls in the US and Canada.)
Hyundai will give its EV customers free NACS adapters in early 2025
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Hyundai announced it will start distributing free CCS to Tesla NACS adapters to its EV customers in the first quarter of 2025. The adapters will enable vehicles such as the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 to connect to “20,000-plus” Tesla Supercharger stations. The free adapter is available to those who purchased or leased their Hyundai EVs on or before January 31st, 2025.
The NACS adapter deal includes 2024 and earlier Kona Electric, Ioniq hatchback, Ioniq 5, and Ioniq 6. It also includes the 2025 Ioniq 6, 2025 Ioniq 5 N, 2025 Kona Electric, and Genesis brand EVs (a full list will be revealed next year). You can request the free adapter through the My Hyundai owner portal.
GM and ChargePoint plan to install hundreds of fast EV chargers by the end of 2025
GM is partnering with ChargePoint to build out a new EV charging network under the GM Energy brand, the companies announced today.
GM plans to install up to 500 DC fast-charging ports at stations deployed in “strategic” places across the US, with some equipped with ChargePoint’s Express Plus platform that supports charge speeds up to 500kW. GM and Chargepoint plan to open the stations “rapidly, with the locations deployed by the end of 2025.”
EVgo nabs $1.25 billion loan as Biden races to approve more EV spending
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
The US Department of Energy announced a $1.25 billion loan to electric vehicle charging company EVgo as the Biden administration races to finalize its spending on EVs before Donald Trump takes office. The money will fund EVgo’s plans to install approximately 7,500 chargers at roughly 1,100 charging stations across the US over the next five years, with a particular focus on fast-charging 350kW stalls that can charge two vehicles simultaneously.
But more importantly, it shows how President Joe Biden is intent on doling out as much money for EV projects as he can before leaving office. Trump has promised to reverse or cancel much of the spending by Biden on EVs once he assumes office. He has said he will kill the $7,500 tax credit for new EV purchases and wipe out the rest of the spending from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on EV charging infrastructure.
Rivian opens up its charging network to other EVs for the first time
Image: Rivian
Rivian’s latest EV charging station is the first to be open to other companies’ vehicles.
The new station located in California’s Joshua Tree National Park will be the companies’ first that’s available to non-Rivian electric vehicles. The station features a new design, including larger displays with a tap-to-pay option, that can accommodate any car brands’ EVs.
Nissan needs a little something extra to connect the Ariya to Tesla’s Superchargers
Nissan put out a tutorial video for Ariya owners today that shows how to use a Tesla NACS adapter with the vehicle, and it includes a step completely out of left field: shove a small piece of plastic into your car’s CCS port before you connect the adapter.
The Ariya is Nissan’s first EV with a CCS port, and the automaker just activated the vehicle’s ability to connect to Tesla’s vast Supercharger network in October. Other manufacturers have also adopted Tesla’s NACS standard, with companies like Ford and Rivian already shipping adapters to current EV owners. But none of those EVs need you to take a confusing extra step to make the adapter work.
GM and EVgo now have over 2,000 EV charging stalls and counting
General Motors and EV charging company EVgo announced that they’ve installed their 2,000th public EV charging stall, in Murrieta, California. With that, GM has met a deadline it set in September to have the bulk of its planned 2,850 DC fast-charging stalls set up by the end of this year.
GM says the new station, which is near Interstate 215 in Riverside County, serves five 350kW fast chargers for as many as 10 EVs simultaneously. All of the new GM / EVgo stalls are populated with CCS chargers, EVgo communications director Katie Wallace told The Verge in an email. Wallace said the company is still testing Tesla’s NACS, which has emerged as the de facto standard over the last year and a half, before using it in charging stations:
A universal ‘Plug and Charge’ protocol for EV charging is coming in 2025
Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge
Elon Musk learns how EV charging works from Pete Buttigieg
Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge
You’d think Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and its wide-reaching Supercharger network, would already know about the workings of the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program that has dedicated $7.5 billion to building a national charging network. However, he needed Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to chime in on X yesterday to stop some Republican leaders from spreading misinformation about the program.
“Please post the rebuttal,” Musk asked Buttigieg under a Donald Trump Jr. post quoting Ohio congressperson Michael Rulli, who accuses Buttigieg of “squandering billions” to build “8 EV charging stations.” Buttigieg tells Trump the post is “false.”
Tesla’s first 500kW V4 Superchargers are coming next year
Tesla will launch fully realized V4 Supercharger stations that support up to 500kW charging for EVs and 1.2MW for Tesla’s commercial Semi trucks next year. Sites with new V4 cabinets are going into permitting now. When they open next year, they’ll connect the charging stalls EVs plug into with upgraded electronics that support faster charging on Cybertruck and other manufacturers’ EVs.
Tesla started rolling out the V4 stalls in Europe and limited places in the US last year. However, their power cabinets are limited to the capabilities of V3 Supercharger stations that support 250kW max charging. The updated V4 stalls include new physical payment terminals, longer cords that can reach the charge ports of other manufacturers’ EVs without causing the vehicles to block additional spots, and CCS connectors (so you don’t have to bring your own adapter.)
GM offers free nighttime charging to Chevy EV owners in Texas
Image: Reliant
General Motors is teaming up with Reliant Energy to offer free nighttime charging to some Chevy electric vehicle owners in Texas.
Chevy owners who enroll in Reliant’s EV charging plan will receive free nighttime charging through monthly bill credits that offset charges incurred between 11PM. and 6AM, the companies said. Customers must also designate an EV to receive the charging credit through GM Energy’s Smart Charging Portal. (GM Energy is the automaker’s home energy subsidiary, and Reliant is a subsidiary of NRG Energy.)
Curbside charging is coming to Michigan.
AT&T and curbside EV charging startup Voltpost announced a partnership to convert street lights “across Michigan and the Metro-Detroit area” into internet-connected EV charging posts. That connectivity means it’s easier to monitor and fix malfunctioning posts, as InsideEVs writes.
Curbside charging is very rare in the US. Voltpoint’s plans also include charging posts in New York City and Chicago, though, and Massachusetts has been testing utility pole-mounted ones since 2022.
Volvo and Polestar EVs are now getting Tesla Supercharger access
Volvo and Polestar — two Swedish car brands owned by China’s Geely — are now offering their electric vehicle customers access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. The companies are taking orders for adapters that will allow its EV customers to charge at over 17,800 Supercharger stalls across the country.
Tesla’s superior charging experience and the ubiquity of its Superchargers has spurred the entire auto industry to announce support for the company’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). All non-Tesla EVs will require adapters at first, but automakers have said they intend to start producing vehicles with native NACS ports installed at the factory starting as soon as 2025.
Scout’s charge port looks... busy.
Scout’s Terra and Traveler EVs will come with the Tesla charging port, also known as NACS, right out of the factory. Unlike other EV makers, the company won’t have to bumble through an CCS-to-NACS adapter phase with customers. Both Scout EVs will come with an 800-volt architecture, so charging should be very fast. And as you can see, it will have plenty of 120-volt plugs too!
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