Four Brands Get Access to Supercharging
With most manufacturers selling electric vehicles in North America having announced they would adopt the Tesla charging plug, it was only a matter of time that the Volkswagen Group brands – Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and the soon-to-be-introduced Scout – would join them. The four brands will implement the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug in their future products starting in 2025, providing customers access to Tesla’s national high-speed Supercharger network. With over 15,000 high-speed charging stations across the country, Tesla’s network will greatly expand the charging options available to Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Scout drivers.
In 2025, drivers of the four brands that use the current Combined Charging System (CCS) port will also be able to access the Tesla network through a physical adapter, said Volkswagen Group. That’s a year behind Ford, General Motors, and others, who have said they will start providing plug adapters in 2024.
Improving High Speed Charging Options
What makes this announcement interesting is that Volkswagen Group is the owner of one of the larger high-speed charging networks on our continent, Electrify America (and Electrify Canada). The company currently operates over 3,800 high-speed charging stations across the U.S. and Canada, which currently use the CCS port for their high-speed chargers. Electrify America has already announced that, starting in 2025, its chargers will offer customers both the CCS and Tesla-style NACS port, which should offer drivers of any EV an easy and convenient charging experience.
Charging on the whole is set to get a lot more convenient for EV drivers. In addition to many brands providing their drivers access to the Tesla Supercharger network, a number of brands have formed a new charging partnership committed to rolling out 30,000 additional high-speed chargers across the U.S. and Canada by 2030. That would nearly double the number of available high-speed chargers, making road tripping in an EV easier than ever.
Will Stellantis Brands Use the Tesla Port?
The announcement from Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Scout means that the Stellantis brands – Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Fiat – are the only major holdouts in the North American market for the CCS charging port. It’s likely only a matter of time before they adopt the NACS plug, and provide their customers with access to the Tesla network.
