Tesla has issued a license to produce its NACS connector to Volex, a large UK-based power equipment manufacturer.
It took a while for Tesla to get the ball rolling after announcing that it is opening its connector to become the new charging standard in North America, but it has gotten some momentum with Ford, GM, Rivian, and a few other automakers announcing that they are adopting the standard.
However, there are still a few automakers that are holding out.
Tesla has been trying to put some distance between itself and the connector, which could ease the minds of those holding out.
As a first step, it has hired SAE to standardize the connector.
Now Tesla has also released a license to build the NACS to another company: Volex.
Volex announced in a press release today:
Volex plc (AIM: VLX), the specialist integrated manufacturer of critical power and data transmission products, is pleased to announce it is a licensed partner of Tesla for the North American Charging Standard (“NACS”) EV Charging system. Volex is a selected global manufacturer of the authentic NACS coupler and is stocked and ready to immediately supply automotive OEMs and charging infrastructure suppliers.
Nat Rothschild, executive chairman of Volex, commented:
“As a selected supplier of the NACS coupler, this further validates that Volex continues to be the trusted manufacturing partner of Tesla’s charging system technology to the world’s leading EV manufacturing companies and suppliers who utilise the NACS EV Charging system.”
The company surprisingly says that it is already ready to supply the NACS connector to automakers.
Top comment by YogaJohn
I don’t really understand this. If the connector is “open source” so everyone can use it, how does the license work? It does sound like Tesla is in charge of the connector, and I definitely see apprehension with that. It needs to have nothing to do with Tesla, and simply be another charge connector option.
In announcements with other automakers about adopting NACS, Tesla said that it would start supplying adapters to them next year, and the integration into non-Tesla EVs would start in 2025.
Electrek’s Take
That, plus the official standardization through NACS, is going to start putting some distance between NACS and Tesla.
It’s likely what the last few automakers holding out on adopting the standard want to see, and I get it. It would be risky to adopt a charging standard dependent on one of your competitors.
Maybe we’ll start seeing a new wave of automakers announcing NACS adoption soon.
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