Another state is placing an emphasis on Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. Washington state has plans to require the NACS connection for charging companies in the region that want to use federal funding to build and expand charging infrastructure.
If this sounds familiar, Texas recently announced pretty much the same thing just a couple of days ago. And this all comes after recent announcements from Ford, General Motors, and Rivian stating plans to nix the Combined Charging System (CCS) connection in favor of Tesla’s NACS plug.
The decision isn’t absolutely set in stone just yet. Tonia Buell is the alternative fuels program manager at Washington State, and as reported by Reuters, she acknowledges that some additional steps are in store for the plan.
“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.”
Of course, this only applies to companies that want to use federal funds for building new charging stations in the US. There are major incentives to do that, not the least of which being $7.5 billion available for the charging infrastructure. Federal requirements call for companies to have at least four CCS chargers per site, but no minimum for NACS plugs. The CCS requirement also applies to Tesla, should the company seek federal funds for new Supercharger locations.
With some states now requiring NACS plugs, it will be very interesting to see how the charging infrastructure in the US moves forward in the months and years to come. That will also hinge on whether other automakers decide to incorporate NACS. The last few weeks have obviously come with some surprising announcements, but it’s not a full-speed-ahead affair just yet. Hyundai and Stellantis are currently considering NACS for EVs, while Lucid is hesitant due to its higher-voltage battery
