Supercharger standard, VW’s next partner for Tesla > teslamag.de

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In its bid to make its Supercharging system the new charging standard in North America, Tesla notched two more wins this week. On Tuesday, SAE International announced that preparations for standardizing the Tesla system have been completed. On the same day, like many other competitors, the American company Volkswagen announced that the German group’s brands will soon be able to use superchargers and switch to the NACS standard for new electric cars.

Tesla standard supported by the government

The relationship between Tesla and the US government stubbornly does not seem to be the best, but the standardization of the supercharger system has the support of the Department of Transportation, according to the International SAE Association. Its Joint Office of Energy and Transport has been very helpful in supporting plans for a faster process with Tesla, SAE writes. The new connector standard based on the NACS proposal was named J3400 by SAE.

According to the task force leader, the J3400 enables widespread interoperability in electric vehicle charging, which also works with alternating current or direct current through the same plug. Therefore, the new standard is described as a milestone, achieved after only six months. Also on Tuesday, Volkswagen joined the trend of Tesla’s US rivals switching to superchargers: from 2025, electric cars from Volkswagen brands including Porsche and Audi must be able to use poles with inverters, and must have Newer models have the right charging socket out. You receive business.

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Automakers commit to the North American Charging Standard (NACS) in 2022: 1

Automakers committed to NACS in 2023: 28

Thank you for joining our vision to improve charging experiences for all electric vehicle drivers!

— Tesla (@Tesla) December 20, 2023

This means that 38 more automakers have now decided to use NACS, as Tesla noted in the X letter. The first was Ford last May, followed by General Motors. Essentially, these collaborations have always been described in roughly the same way, with the use of trans-converter supercharging on the one hand and the switch to NACS on the other. However, the early partners have set 2024 as the first year their electric vehicles will be able to charge at Tesla. The start date for this has now been pushed back to 2025.

A Tesla executive recently revealed that third-party brands will get access to the Supercharger in the order in which they announced the collaboration, i.e. Ford and GM first, starting next February. Therefore, electric cars from Volkswagen brands will be late in arriving, having made their decision only now. in Announcement from the company As electric vehicle startup Lucid previously reported, 2025 is the first year to use superchargers without any other specifications.

VW is late and cautious about the converter issue

Volkswagen also announces converter plans for this purpose, but less specifically than other partners. The statement says such solutions are being “explored”, while Ford said in May that Tesla would produce or develop the necessary converter itself. VW also writes relatively cautiously that the collaboration has the “potential” to give electric cars from the German brands access to 15,000 supercharging stations. However, in principle, there is only one big car company missing from Tesla’s partners: Stellantis with important brands such as Jeep and Chrysler, but rarely electric cars in the USA.