Electrify America on Thursday announced that it will add Tesla connectors to its charging network in the U.S. and Canada.
The company said in a press release that it will continue to provide Combined Charging Standard (CCS) connectors, while also adding the Tesla connector, branded by Tesla as the North American Charging Standard (NACS) as an option at existing and future charging sites by 2025.
"Since our founding, we have focused on building an inclusive and open hyper-fast charging network to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles," Electrify America CEO Robert Barrosa said in a statement.
Electrify America upscale charging concepts
Recent weeks have seen multiple automakers announce plans to integrate the Tesla connector, including Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Volvo, and most recently Polestar. Adoption of the Tesla connector has mostly been discussed in terms of non-Tesla owners gaining access to the automaker's Supercharger network.
But as a charging network itself, Electrify America will give Tesla owners additional places to charge as the Supercharger network is poised to gain a massive amount of traffic from other EV brands.
Created as part of the Volkswagen Group's diesel-emissions settlement, Electrify America claims to have more than 850 charging sites, with about 4,000 individual connectors, in the U.S. and Canada. Some of those chargers allow 800-volt EVs to charge at their peak 350-kw rate.
Unmentioned in the announcement was whether that will also be true of EA's Tesla connectors, which would require using the latest V4 version exclusively in order to provide 800-volt charging.
Electrify America told Green Car Reports that it was still working out the details in this evolving space.
Electrify America upscale charging concepts
Electrify America has adjusted somewhat to the market already. It raised prices for frequent users earlier this year, while longtime partner Walmart announced that it plans to go it alone with its own charging network. Addition of Tesla connectors could be an important factor in Electrify America's future competitiveness as the industry tilts toward NACS.
Despite the branding used by Tesla, NACS is not a true standard like CCS. But SAE International has moved to standardize it on an accelerated timetable, which may have something to do with Electrify America's decision to add Tesla connectors.
