The US Department of Transportation is expected to set the final requirements that all electric vehicle charging stations must meet to qualify for the US government’s $7.5 billion incentive programme this week. According to an agency report, one of the policy decisions is unlikely to please Tesla.
As Reuters has learned, the use of the CCS fast-charging standard will be made a condition. In North America, the CCS1 standard is used, which combines the Type 1 connection for AC charging that is widespread there with the two DC contacts – in Europe, the CCS2 with Type 2 socket + DC is used.
This alleged policy decision in favour of CCS would increase the pressure on Tesla to make its Superchargers accessible to electric cars of other brands in the US as well. Otherwise, Tesla will go away empty-handed in terms of subsidies. Along with the new EV tax credits, the charging infrastructure subsidy is seen as a central element of US President Joe Biden’s plan for battery-electric cars to account for half of sales in 2030.
Against the background of the system duel between CCS and Tesla’s own charging plug called NCAS (“North American Charging Standard”), Tesla released the design of the NCAS in November 2022. When Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, there was simply no industry standard yet. Therefore, Tesla had developed its own charging plug at the time, which combined AC and DC charging. By releasing the design, Tesla wanted to encourage other carmakers and charging network operators to install the NCAS – and thus make its own system the charging standard in North America.
If the Reuters information is correct, the CCS1 would be favoured and Tesla would be virtually excluded from subsidies for charging infrastructure – the news agency cites unnamed government officials. Tesla had long announced the opening of its Supercharger network to electric cars from other brands, but has not yet done so in the US. In Europe, selected Tesla Superchargers are already accessible to third-party brands in a total of 15 countries, and some Superchargers were recently added in Australia.
There is one major difference: in Europe, Tesla has been using the CCS2 standard since the premiere of the Model 3, both on its vehicles and in the charging infrastructure. The older V2 Superchargers were retrofitted with a CCS cable, the new V3 Superchargers are pure CCS charging stations. Here, the opening for foreign brands was a pure software release that could immediately reach a large audience. In the USA, opening up NCAS charging stations would be more complicated.
Whether the possibility to charge with an electric car of another brand at the Superchargers with an adapter from NCAS to CCS1 is sufficient for eligibility is currently unknown.
Keyword: USA considers requiring CCS standard for subsidies