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Mark Kane
Jun 12, 2023
The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) association, which stands behind the CCS (CCS1 and CCS2) as well as MCS charging standards for EVs, issued an interesting response acknowledging that some of its members are interested in adopting the North America Charging Standard (NACS).
Let's recall that NACS is Tesla's proprietary solution, which is promised to be opened for the EV industry in North America to become the ultimate charging connector for cars (AC and DC charging). In a matter of about two weeks, Ford and General Motors announced their switch from CCS1 to NACS in North America (starting with next-gen vehicles in 2025), which initially annoyed CharIN.
We were recently wondering which manufacturers might be next to adopt the NACSÂ because the Tesla-Ford-GM trio is expected to hold the majority of the market of all-electric cars. CCS1 would then gradually lose its steam.
In the most recent response, posted on Monday, CharIn noted several things and surprisingly, expressed support for the standardization of the Tesla NACS.
First of all, the association says that the NACS, as of today, is not a charging standard, but some of the members of the association are interested in adopting NACS "form factor."
"For any technology to become a standard it must go through a due process in a standards development organization (e.g., ISO, IEC, IEEE, SAE, ANSI). Such a process is collaborative and enables all interested parties to contribute their ideas."
Having a proper standard - described in detail, approved by standard organizations, with an open charging ecosystem for the entire industry (everyone can become a supplier or user) - is very important.
"Customers and the EV industry need trustworthy open charging standards to ensure confidence in the availability, reliability, safety, and adaptability of the standard over time. NACS should be submitted to standards bodies to unify the charging standards market in North America."
According to the press release, the Tesla NACS already has some standardized elements related to communication, which indicates that the process of making it an open standard will be simplified in those areas:
"CharIN is pleased that NACS is using DIN 70121 and ISO 15118 protocols based on power line communication (PLC) enabling CCS functionality. These protocols were created for CCS but are versatile communication standards that could help build bridges across all charging standards in North America. These standards are also deeply rooted in CharIN membership and activities."
The most important thing is that CharIn said that it "will work to convene an open task force to align requirements to submit NACS to the standardization process."
The group invites members and further involved parties to join the task force and even prepared a form to apply.
That's a very interesting outcome because the standardization of NACS and its adoption by other manufacturers means that the CCS1 will be phased out in North America (probably in some other markets where it's also used).