Texas announces state support for NACS system

Texas has approved its plan to require companies to include Tesla’s charging system NACS in electric vehicle charging stations to be eligible for federal funds. Washington state has also debated similar plans and Kentucky has already mandated it.

The state of Texas had announced its plans to include NACS standards as a requirement for funding at the same time that Rivian had announced its intentions to use the charging technology as a standard. Fisker also announced its plans to follow the system just last week, which was preceded by Nissan towards the end of July. Ford and General Motors were the first major OEM to sign on to the NACS standard in June, but was quickly followed by other major manufacturers, even internationally, as Volvo announced in June. Mercedes was then the first German manufacturer to follow suit in July.

These are not the only states who are considering making a NACS connection a grant requirement: As mentioned above, Kentucky mandated the charging technology last month, while Florida recently revised its plans, saying it would mandate NACS one year after standards body SAE International formally recognizes it.

This step brings Tesla one step closer to being the new standard for electric vehicle charging in the USA. Tesla had initially opened up the Supercharger design to third parties at the end of 2022, but then really changed their game in March, when the network was opened to use by all electric vehicles.

Currently, the federal funding requirements in the USA stipulate that a vehicle must be able to charge on the CCS standard, however, states can add their own stipulations on top of the requirements, which has led to a shift. Texas approval should not come as a surprise, as Tesla moved its headquarters there in 2021. “The two-connector approach being proposed will help assure coverage of a minimum of 97% of the current, over 168,000 electric vehicles with fast charge ports in the state,” said Humberto Gonzalez, a director at Texas’ Department of Transportation while presenting the state’s plan to the commissioners.

reuters.com, reuters.com (Washington)