EVgo, one of the largest EV charging networks in the United States, announced that it plans to expand deployments of North American Charging Standard (NACS) charging connectors at its fast chargers across the country.
The decisions was announced on June 12, following Ford and General Motors’ switch from the Combined Charging System (CCS1) charging connector to Tesla’s NACS.
For EVgo, this is not the first try to include NACS and to get access to Tesla electric vehicles, as the company already deployed integrated Tesla connectors at some of its stations in 2020-2021. It was a special case in the industry, because EVgo had no access to Tesla’s proprietary charging solution at the time. The company simply integrated CHAdeMO to Tesla adapters to its DC fast chargers with all the limitations (up to about 50 kilowatts of power). Tesla incorporated those locations into its navigation system.
According to EVgo, around 600 integrated Tesla connectors were deployed at the time. For reference, the company has around 900 fast charging locations (and a four-digit number of individual chargers) in 60 metropolitan areas and 30 states.
Since the Tesla charging connector will be opened for the EV industry and maybe even 100% standardized as in the case of the CCS1, in the future EVgo (and other networks) should be able to simply order DC fast chargers with NACS plugs and add them to the network.
Let’s recall that EVgo is one of the EV charging pioneers, which started more than a decade ago with CHAdeMO-only chargers. It was then followed by CHAdeMO and CCS1 dual-head units, and a try to use NACS (through integrated Tesla connectors). As Tesla released also the CCS1 to NACS adapter (on top of the CHAdeMO adapter), Tesla drivers gained access to use the network also in this way. With the opening of the NACS, things should be simpler than ever.
There are no details about the expansion plan, but EVgo says that it intends to add NACS plugs to its new chargers, as well as to some existing chargers.
Cathy Zoi, CEO of EVgo said:
“EVgo first deployed integrated Tesla connectors in 2020, and with the recently announced expansion of the number of automakers using the NACS connector, we are excited to announce that we will also be integrating NACS connectors on the EVgo network in future deployments as well as on some existing chargers. As a first mover in EV charging, EVgo has a history of delivering for all EV drivers, evolving from CHAdeMO only to CHAdeMO and CCS, and now CHAdeMO, CCS, and NACS through both integrated connectors and Tesla to CCS adapters. We believe these developments will help to accelerate EV adoption rates and sales, which in turn will spur throughput growth on EVgo’s network.
This is a potentially very big opportunity for the EVgo network, considering that the company finally might get access to Tesla’s customer base. Previously, due to incompatibility or inconvenience of using adapters, this access was limited.
