Only 2 major car companies haven't joined Tesla's charging tech yet
Ram; Volkswagen
- A flood of automakers have announced their EVs will adopt Tesla's charging tech.
- But there are still two significant industry holdouts.
- Volkswagen and Stellantis have yet to make the switch to NACS.
It started with a drop, and then a flood of automakers announcing their vehicles would soon support Tesla's charging technology, a major win for consumers and a massive vote of confidence for the plug.
But even as the companies behind a vast number of new electric vehicles announce support for the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, two major holdouts remain: Volkswagen and Stellantis.
Volkswagen was the world's second-largest carmaker last year, holding 10% of the global light-vehicle market share, while Stellantis came in fifth on the list with 7% of global share, according to S&P Global Mobility.
As for EVs, VW sold more than 572,000 battery electric vehicles around the world in 2022, while Stellantis hit 288,000 global electrified sales. Though both have ambitions to invest billions of dollars to boost plug-in product development and sales further over the coming years, those plans do not yet include NACS.
A spokesperson for Stellantis, which is electrifying its notable Jeep lineup and more, told Insider in a statement Monday that the company had nothing new to announce.
A Volkswagen spokesperson said: "Volkswagen Group and its brands are currently evaluating the implementation of the Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its North American customers."
Of course, other charging options exist for Stellantis and Volkswagen owners. Perhaps most notably, they can charge at home — and experts say a vast majority of EV charging can be done there (if drivers have a garage and plug available).
But outside of the home is where Tesla's sprawling Supercharger network — over 5,500 stations with more than 51,000 plugs across the globe — really shines.
In surveys and real-world tests, rivals like ChargePoint, EVgo, and Electrify America (born out of the Dieselgate emissions scam as part of Volkwagen's settlement) just haven't been able to compete, struggling with broken plugs, station downtime, and other frustrating problems.
Meanwhile, Tesla's network has long been an advantage for the automaker. Though ChargePoint dominates in US charging overall in terms of quantity of plugs, Tesla leads in terms of number of fast-charging ports, according to consultancy EVAdoption.
The ability for drivers to charge quickly on road trips or in areas of the country with long stretches that are void of plugs is a major sticking point in the EV debate.
The two auto giants are likely holding out given the plug wars may not have a huge effect until 2025, when most of the NACS adopters say their revamped ports will roll out on new products. (By then, many of the EVs on the road with the old charging tech, coined CCS, will also have an adapter available to use the Tesla network.) And other, smaller automakers, like Lucid, also aren't convinced of the benefits of NACS.
Still, the ability to roll up at a Tesla Supercharger (for the companies that switched, their drivers can access 12,000-plus Tesla plugs) is likely to remain a massive selling point as automakers look to unseat Elon Musk as the king of EVs.
It will also be key to drive adoption beyond the roughly 9% it sat at in the US last month.
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