CCS Is the New HD-DVD/Betamax of EV Charging

EV charging in North America is about to undergo a major shift, and both EV drivers and Tesla are going to be major beneficiaries. Aside from the higher upfront purchase price of an EV, the biggest pain point of EV ownership is using public charging infrastructure, especially for those who drive anything but a Tesla. Anyone who has tried to use DC fast charging that isn’t a Supercharger in the past couple of years has almost certainly encountered the terrible user experience of chargers that don’t work or charge much slower than advertised, or charging stations that are simply full. Automakers have heard the complaints, which is why Ford, General Motors (GM), and five other automakers have announced plans to abandon the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard in favor of the Tesla charging connector, recently rebranded as the North American Charging Standard (NACS).

When the Nissan Leaf was launched in 2010, SAE International had published a standard for an AC charging connector known as J1772. This was adopted by GM, Nissan, and later other automakers for plug-in vehicles. In the absence of a standard for DC charging, Nissan added the Japanese CHAdeMO connector to the Leaf. With no North American DC connector standard, Tesla opted to create its own, now referred to as NACS. The J1772 connector was later extended with two extra terminals for DC support and branded as CCS.

Compared with NACS, the CCS connector is much larger and significantly more challenging to insert into the vehicle, particularly when the weather is cold and the cable is stiff. In addition to being more reliable, the NACS connector is much easier to use, especially for those who might have strength or mobility challenges with their hands.

When Ford launched the Mustang Mach-E in 2021, it tried to replicate the extensive network and easy experience of Tesla charging with its FordPass app, which integrated multiple network operators and a single payment interface along with Plug & Charge. Unfortunately, poor charger reliability and the patchwork of charging speeds limited the usefulness of this approach. This almost certainly led Ford to bite the bullet and adopt NACS in May 2023.

Since then, GM, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan have followed suit. With many other automakers currently tooling up to build millions of EVs annually in the next several years, all of these companies realized they would have to do better. While several of these automakers and others are also building their own charging networks, going with Tesla was the best near-term option.

With seven automakers now set to use NACS starting in 2025, the question becomes the rest of the industry. It seems likely that in the coming weeks and months, most, if not all, other automakers will probably make announcements about leaving CCS behind in North America. They may not be crazy about collaborating with Tesla, but they will be at a significant competitive disadvantage in terms of user experience if they don’t. While EV sales are still a small slice of the market and the rest of the industry combined has less market share than Tesla, now is the time to make the change, before models and volumes proliferate. Waiting will mean much more pain for everyone.

The last hurdle is the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), whose National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program currently requires the use of CCS for government subsidies. No doubt, automaker lobbyists are already hard at work trying to convince DOE to change that requirement. In all likelihood, by the end of this decade—while some legacy CCS ports will probably still be hanging around, just as some CHAdeMO ports are today—NACS will be the connector on all new EVs.