Tesla’s North American Charging Connector (NACS) is being made mandatory for state funding in some regions, as it is becoming obvious more areas are interested in adopting the automaker’s charger to make EV charging more available.
Washington became the second U.S. state to note that Tesla’s NACS connector will be mandatory for companies to use if they want to qualify for state funding that would help expand charging networks. The first was Texas.
After Ford, General Motors, and Rivian became the three mainstream automakers to adopt NACS, charging companies across the United States started putting out statements that they, too, would use the connector for future locations.
While the NACS is not yet a standard like the Combined Charging System (CCS), automakers are intent on using Tesla’s charging network because of its number of locations, which has swelled well past 45,000 chargers globally earlier this year.
The initial adoption of NACS by automakers has encouraged Tonia Buell, Alternative Fuels Program Manger for Washington’s Department of Transportation:
“I’m actually really happy about NACS and how finally automakers are gearing towards one standard. We want to provide access to as many makes and models as possible. It hasn’t necessarily been tested and certified for other auto manufacturers, so we want to make sure it’s going to work but we are planning to require NACS at our state funded and federally funded sites in the future.”
The state plans to begin the proposals process in the fall, according to Reuters.
Washington is still cognizant of the Biden Administration’s adamance of using the CCS connectors, and state officials are trying to determine the correct spread of NACS connectors to CCS. Federal rules state that taxpayer-backed sites must have four CCS connectors, and the state could require, at a minimum, two of them to work with NACS.
NACS is still working toward becoming a standard, as CharIN is working to let the connector work through its process of due diligence to become one.
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