More dominoes have fallen in the auto industry's switch to NACS, the Tesla plug for EVs. Toyota, who has basically zero EVs, has joined the club in adopting the North American Charging Standard in 2025. Of course this means future Toyota cars will also get access to the supercharger network too. Umar Shakir at The Verge has more.
One of Toyota’s first vehicles to include a NACS connector is a future three-row SUV it is planning for 2025, which will be assembled at the automaker’s plant in Kentucky. Toyota is currently light on EV options compared to most other automakers and has only released the mediocre bZ4X and the Lexus RZ 450e.
The Verge
You have to hand it to Tesla. It played the long game to heavily invest in building a reliable charging network and when the time was right, opened it up for any companies wanting to come aboard. Combine that with federal funds and the dubious reliability of the 2nd largest charging network (Electrify America) and you can see why automakers have been switching to the Tesla plug.
At this point there's only a handful of holdouts to move from the CCS plug standard to the new NACS plug: VW, Subaru, and Stellantis. Just two weeks ago Hyundai (including Kia and Genesis) announced the switch. That is huge because Hyundai's EGMP 800 Volt charging platform is the best out there. As someone driving one of those EVs, I can tell you the super-fast charging speeds of those cars is a huge advantage. Current Tesla Superchargers can't reach those speeds but apparently Tesla has assured Hyundai improvements will come in order to get speeds seen at EA stations pumping 350 kWh into cars.
While nobody will be left in the cold who has a current EV using a CCS plug, it is nice to see that in only two years we'll see almost every new EV out there standardized on a new plug. Yes, 90+% of people charge at home but for road trips or people like me who have no ability to charge at home, public charging is key. With only 3 automakers left to take the leap into NACS, it may not matter at this point. The lack of compatibility with future infrastructure will hamper sales and be a reason VW shoppers go with another brand. I'm curious to see which domino is the next to fall.