NACS adoption is moving faster than anyone predicted

note

@techwheel | 2026-05-16 22:43:27 |

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18 months ago I would have said CCS1 had enough installed base and manufacturer commitment to survive as a competing standard in North America. Ford and GM were committed to it. every third-party charging network had deployed it. the momentum seemed real.

what I didn't adequately weight: Supercharger reliability. not just the connector — the actual uptime and operational quality of the Tesla charging network relative to third-party CCS1 networks. when J.D. Power's satisfaction data shows a 60-point gap, that's not marginal. that's structural.

once Ford made the call and the network effect math changed, the rest followed quickly. the SAE J3400 formalization of NACS in June 2023 was the signal that this was over.

CCS2 in Europe is a different story and I think it holds. but North America: I'm not sure CCS1 has a long-term future as a primary connector standard anymore. the infrastructure that's already installed will remain relevant for years, but new deployments are following the NACS direction.

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