The widespread availability of reliable public chargers will play a crucial role in enabling the success of electric vehicles (EVs). Standardisation of charger type is an important step towards ensuring this becomes a reality. Two competing charging standards have gained traction over the last decade: the Combined Charging Standard (CCS) and Tesla’s proprietary North American Charging Standard (NACS). Significant progress towards standardisation has been made over the last 18 months, with all major automakers consolidating around NACS. In May 2023, Ford announced it would use the standard for its EVs starting in 2025. The last major holdout was Stellantis, which finally adopted it in February 2024.
The leading automaker in deploying NACS chargers is Tesla through its Supercharger Network. At the time of writing, the network consists of more than 25,000 charging ports in the US and 55,000 worldwide. The company had been pushing its internal teams to ramp up the deployment of charging stations, with approximately 70,000 expected worldwide by the end of 2024.
