The duel between two electric vehicle (EV) charging standards in North America has grown less competitive following a new decision by a major global standards development association.
On Tuesday, SAE International announced it would back the Tesla Inc.-developed North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector "to ensure that any supplier or manufacturer will be able to use, manufacture, or deploy" the connector on EVs and at charging stations across North America.
SAE, a Warrendale-based organization that engages with about 200,000 engineers, technical experts and others around the globe, will snub its own Combined Charging System (CCS) standard it helped create with the European Automobile Manufacturers Association in favor of Tesla's configuration, a major win for the Austin, Texas-based automaker.
It's a decision that follows one made a few weeks ago by Ford Motor Co. and then one by General Motors Co. that the two auto giants, among a few others, would adopt Tesla's NACS setup for all future EVs. Ford (NYSE: F) plans to have 40% of its vehicles electrified by 2030 and GM (NYSE: GM) plans to only produce EVs by 2035.
"Standardizing the NACS connector will provide certainty, expanded choice, reliability and convenience to manufacturers and suppliers and, most of all, increase access to charging for consumers," Frank Menchaca, president of Sustainable Mobility Solutions, an innovation arm of Fullsight — SAE’s parent company, said in a press release.
SAE said it will develop the new SAE NACS connector standard on an "expedited timeframe" and stressed the "consensus-based approach" this standard will undergo following Tesla's previous labeling that its NACS was a standard despite a lack of industry consensus or support, which has since changed dramatically over the past few weeks.
"The SAE standardization process is intended to assure reliable and consistent performance for any EV model or charging network," SAE said in a release.
Furthermore, SAE said the federal government's Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, established as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, played an "instrumental" role in fostering the SAE-Tesla partnership formed as a result of this standardization.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has allocated $7.5 billion "to build out the first-ever national network of EV chargers in the United States" in the coming years.
