Texas is the first state to require all EV chargers to include Tesla’s NACS connector

It seems there is no slowing the relentless march of Tesla’s NACS standard. After the surprise move by GM and Ford to include Tesla’s connector in their future electric cars, the floodgates of support have opened. GM and Ford were swiftly followed by Rivian, with Stellantis considering its support, and Hyundai is already thinking of joining the bandwagon.

Car manufacturers are the one side of this story. Charging network operators play a very important part here, and many are already swaying toward the NACS. The latest is BTC Power which confirmed it will integrate Tesla’s connectors into its chargers, beginning in 2024. BTC Power is one of America’s largest providers of DC chargers, and its latest Gen4 equipment already includes NACS connectors.

Now Texas has joined the movement, and its Department of Transportation confirmed that from now on, DC charging stations will be required to have both the CCS and NACS connectors. It’s quite an interesting development, seeing Tesla’s home state support the NACS standard after denying the company state incentives for its Supercharger network. Bit of a twist there, but clearly this is more of a political decision with the NACS seen as a patriotic choice.

Whatever the background of this decision, the result plays well into Tesla’s hand. The NACS is becoming de facto a US charging standard, just as the company wanted it to. The Texas decision is ironic - last year the government body set up to deal with the fallout from VW’s Dieselgate (TxVEMP) refused to support the rollout of Tesla’s Supercharger network. The TxVEMP was created to distribute compensation from VW to fund projects that improve air quality in Texas but Tesla’s application was rejected. Now, the Texan government wants Tesla’s NACS connector on every DC charger - irony and karma hardly ever come together this quick.

Via