ChargePoint was one of the first companies that announced that it will offer the North American Charging Standard (NACS) charging connector as an option.
The company noted that its AC and DC charging solutions utilize modular connectors for both customer preference and serviceability, indicating that NACS will become just another option besides the Combined Charging System (CCS1), CCS2 (in Europe), CHAdeMO, and the J1772 (AC) plugs.
According to ChargePoint, the NACS will be offered “soon,” because “the ChargePoint NACS connector solutions were actively in R&D before recent news about the connector type, and as a result are planned to deliver ahead of the vehicles with native NACS ports announced over the past two weeks.”
It means that ChargePoint is not surprised by Ford’s and General Motors’ switch to the NACS connector and intends to bring NACS-compatible charging solutions before the new NACS-compatible vehicles (2025). It will be very interesting to see which company will be the fastest to potentially attract volume orders for NACS charging infrastructure.
ChargePoint said that the NACS option will be available on its Express 250 and Express Plus fast chargers, AC charging points CPF50 and CP6000, as well as on home charging units Home Flex.
Noteworthy is also that there will be an upgrade option for existing products, so early adopters, will not be left alone if they would like to switch to NACS.
“ChargePoint will soon be offering a NACS connector option for all of these products, with cost-effective field upgrades available for chargers that are already in service. Thanks to this approach, existing customers can be confident their investment is protected.”
As we understand, the upgrade concerns DC fast chargers. Time will tell whether also home charging units with J1772 (AC) plugs will get a NACS plug retrofit option and whether it will be a viable option, compared to a new unit (and sale of the old one, together with the older car).
Let’s note that ChargePoint, besides selling hardware, is also running its own ChargePoint network (which consists of charging points, owned mostly by other companies) and the addition of NACS chargers is very important for the company because it allows the network to serve Tesla EVs without any adapters. That would be a potentially serious boost to the network (at least, the DC part).
