Tesla’s NACS assist webpage now lists Mercedes alongside different automakers in its “coming quickly” part, although the timeline for Supercharger assist has been pushed again for different automakers as Tesla kinds by a chaotic reorganization of its charging workforce on the behest of CEO Elon Musk.
Just about the whole business is onboard with NACS at this level, the brand new charging commonplace first superior by Tesla after which licensed by SAE as “J3400.”
NACS/J3400 makes use of the identical connector that Tesla autos have been utilizing for years now, and the standardization of the connector stands to make EV charging a lot easier. It additionally has some massive technical advantages that may clear up quite a lot of the issues with EV charging.
Over the course of this 12 months and subsequent, nearly each producer is within the strategy of transitioning its automobiles over to make use of the NACS commonplace. Most producers will nonetheless use the previous CCS commonplace as receptacles on their autos, however supply adapters sooner or later over the course of this 12 months.
As these adapters roll out, Tesla will open up its Supercharger community to autos from every producer, permitting them to cost on Superchargers, that are thought-about the gold commonplace EV charging community in North America.
At the moment, Ford and Rivian are within the strategy of delivery adapters to prospects, and their autos can use Tesla’s Supercharger community. Different EVs also can cost on Superchargers with Tesla’s “Magic Dock” adapter, although there aren’t a lot of these and deployment is prone to give attention to NACS from right here on out.
There are 4 different producers listed as “coming quickly” on Tesla’s NACS webpage. Normal Motors, Volvo and Polestar have been listed on there for months now, however at the moment, Mercedes-Benz was added to the checklist.
Nonetheless, previous to at the moment, the “coming quickly” part truly stated “coming Spring 2024.” GM, Volvo and Polestar had been anticipated to have entry to Superchargers throughout this season. However with the season having ended 4 days in the past, that deadline has handed.
Now, as an alternative of itemizing a season, Tesla merely says “coming quickly” for all upcoming producers.
The delay is probably going associated to Musk’s latest abrupt firing of the whole supercharger workforce. This workforce, previously led by Rebecca Tinucci – who was instrumental in negotiating the business’s shift to NACS – was heading up discussions with different producers and their adoption of the NACS commonplace. When the whole workforce was fired, that meant these discussions had been delayed as different producers’ contacts inside Tesla had been instantly absent. (Associated: Learn the wild e mail Tesla is sending to suppliers amid Supercharger chaos)
Tesla has since began rehiring some Supercharger employees, and presumably this has allowed some progress to start out being made on NACS adoption once more. Ford’s adapter-shipping course of has additionally been delayed, probably additionally on account of Tesla’s Supercharger workforce chaos.
So, hopefully because of this bulletins could be imminent for the businesses that had been scheduled for Spring. And, with Mercedes added to the checklist, because of this Mercedes house owners can anticipate Supercharging to occur “quickly™” – although don’t maintain your breath, as a result of a wait of a number of months appears probably.
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