Tesla recently opened up the design of its formerly proprietary charging connector to any automaker who wants to use it, naming it the North American Charging Charging Standard (NACS).
Tesla is hoping it becomes the new standard in North America because of its slim and elegant design, which they say has “has no moving parts, is half the size, and twice as powerful” as what is currently the standard, the Combined Charging System (CCS).
The team at Munro & Associates have put those claims to the test, comparing the internals of a Tesla charge port and connector to that from a Mach-E equipped with a CCS charge port.
Unsurprisingly, the team found what every Tesla owner already knows – the NACS is lighter, more compact, and more efficient than CCS. That simplicity even goes as far as a small charge port door integrated into the tail lights, instead of using a typical fuel door that most other EV automakers borrow from their internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
Even with the elegant design, Tesla was still able to use the same pins for both AC (e.g., home charging) and DC (e.g., fast charging) charging, and build it so that it can transfer up to 1MW of power, much more than originally thought.
Since Tesla’s announcement of the NACS, no automakers have taken them up on the offer yet. Only Aptera, which perhaps initiated this move by Tesla by launching a petition earlier this year asking congress to make Tesla’s design the North American standard, will be adding NACS to their EVs.
No charging networks have publicly said they plan to add Tesla connectors, but in their announcement Tesla revealed there are some who “already have plans in motion to incorporate NACS at their chargers.”
You can watch the full video from Munro & Associates below.
