Mercedes-Benz was recently mentioned as one of the electric vehicle manufacturers that is considering using Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) in North America.
The news comes from Benzinga (via Drive Tesla Canada), which wrote that Mercedes-Benz is evaluating “a technical implementation” of the Tesla charging connector, which will be adopted in North America also by Ford and General Motors, instead of the Combined Charging System (CCS1).
We don’t know anything more besides this unofficial bit of information, but it does not sound surprising. Most likely, every manufacturer has to conduct an internal technical and business analysis of NACS versus CCS1 to decide what to do next. OEMs would have to do the same with any major change at fuel stations (a different type of gasoline) as well.
Let’s recall that Stellantis recently also admitted that it “continues to evaluate” the NACS. The decisions will be revealed when the time is right, we guess. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tries to tease Toyota a bit.
It will be very interesting to see which European manufacturer will decide first to ditch CCS1 in North America and focus on NACS and gain native compatibility with the Tesla Supercharging network. For premium manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, easy access to Supercharging might be very important.
Mercedes-Benz Own Fast Charging Network
It’s worth adding that in January 2023, Mercedes-Benz announced a plan to build its own DC fast charging network.
The German company would like to deploy more than 10,000 individual stalls globally (major markets), including over 2,500 in North America (over 400 stations) by 2027.
The question is whether the wider adoption of NACS by other EV manufacturers and potential access to the Tesla Supercharging will change this plan.
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Currently, Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the United States are equipped with the CCS1 charging inlet and are offered with a complimentary charging package at Electrify America stations.
Unfortunately, there were numerous reports that the Electrify America network has reliability issues, which is not necessarily a good thing for a premium car brand. In this perspective, Tesla Supercharging/NACS has some advantages.
