Image: Tesla
Tesla today announced it is open-sourcing the design of its electric vehicle (EV) charging connector for charging networks and other automakers to use.
“In pursuit of our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, today we are opening our EV connector design to the world,” the company said. Tesla invited charging network operators and automakers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port on their equipment and vehicles.
In pursuit of our mission, today we are opening up our EV connector design →https://t.co/HTk7Si9XZy pic.twitter.com/vMKts5h4ei
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) November 11, 2022
At the same time, Tesla also renamed its charging connector and charge port combo to the “North American Charging Standard (NACS).”
With more than a decade of use and 20 billion EV charging miles to its name, the Tesla charging connector is the most proven in North America, offering AC charging and up to 1 MW DC charging in one slim package. It has no moving parts, is half the size, and twice as powerful as Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors.
The move comes after Tesla started opening up its global network of Superchargers to EVs from other companies last year. Tesla is working on opening U.S. Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs, and NACS ports could give future non-Tesla vehicles even greater access to the Supercharging network.
According to Tesla, NACS is the most common charging standard in North America. NACS vehicles outnumber those with CCS connectors two-to-one, and Tesla’s ever-growing Supercharging network has 60% more NACS chargers than all CCS-equipped charging networks combined.
Furthermore, Tesla announced that charging network operators already have plans in motion to bring NACS connectors to their locations and that the automaker is currently working with relevant standards bodies to codify NACS as a public standard.
You can click here to download the design and specification files for NACS.
