Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi Officially Adopt Tesla's NACS EV Charging Port

VW group members Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi have joined the growing list of manufacturers signing up to use Tesla's EV charging standard. From 2025, EVs manufactured by the companies will be fitted with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port and will be able to use Tesla's 15,000-strong network of supercharging stations.

As with other manufacturers who have signed up, existing VW vehicles will also eventually get access to Tesla's supercharging network. The company is currently "exploring adapter solutions" and claims that its current EVs will be able to top up at a Tesla station from 2025.

Volkswagen's upcoming all-electric Scout will presumably launch with NACS ports in place, as the German manufacturer plans to release the electric SUV in 2026. There are also knock-on effects for Volkswagen-owned charging networks Electrify America and Electrify Canada. The company's charging stations, including its 3,800 DC fast charging outlets, will still be available for VW customers — and NACS connectors are set to be fitted to those stations by 2025.

It may have been bold of Tesla to name the port and connector it invented in 2012 the "North American Charging Standard" — but after more than a decade, it's beginning to live up to its name. CCS dominated at the time, and for a long while only Teslas used NACS, but that has changed over the past few months. So far, major manufacturers including Ford, GM, Rivian, Mercedes, Volvo/Polestar, and Subaru have committed to the standard.

Although it took a while, it's easy to see why NACS has begun to take off. Elon Musk's company made NACS "open source," essentially allowing other manufacturers to implement it without having to pay any fees. Then there are its benefits; Tesla claims it can deliver more power, more efficiently, than CCS, which is becoming more important as charging wattages increase. It allows access to Tesla's vast and ever-growing supercharging network too, which arguably eases one of the biggest issues standing in the way of EV takeup. Almost everyone seems to benefit from the switch to NACS. The biggest losers seem to be Tesla owners, who are set to lose exclusive access to what is arguably the best charging network in North America.