Stellantis finally adopt NACS, but there’s no deal with Tesla

Stellantis has finally announced that it is joining everyone else in adopting the NACS for its upcoming electric vehicles in North America, but there’s no deal with Tesla for the Supercharger network.

In 2022, Tesla opened up its proprietary connector, now known as NACS, in the hope of making it the official charging standard in North America.

It took a while, but eventually, automakers got on board.

It started with Ford, then GM, and then virtually every other automaker except for Stellantis’ brands.

Tesla managed to convince automakers to get on board by using its Supercharger network as a carrot.

The Supercharger network is recognized as the top charging network in North America by a wide margin. With the adoption of NACS, automakers made deals with Tesla for their EV owners to also have access to the Supercharger network with an adapter.

That’s what makes today’s announcement interesting.

Stellantis was the last major automaker holding out to announce the adoption of NACS – even after it became an official SAE standard, which means that you don’t need a deal with Tesla to adopt it.

Today, Stellantis announced that it will start integrating NACS, also known as SAE J3400, in its new electric vehicles in North America starting in 2025:

Stellantis today announced its adoption of the upcoming SAE J3400 charging connector, starting with select battery-electric vehicle (BEV) models launching in North America for the 2026 model year.

Interestingly, Stellantis is the only automaker to announce the adoption of NACS without mentioning Tesla nor a deal with the automaker to use its Supercharger network.

It doesn’t mean that it won’t have access since the automaker is talking about making an adapter available, but there’s no deal with Tesla for Superchargers that are not already open to non-Tesla EV drivers through the Magic Dock.

Instead, the automaker appears to be betting on its own newly announced IONNA charging network, which is a new charging network planned for North America in partnership with BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Mercedes-Benz.

Stellantis mentions the new charging network several times in its announcement of NACS adoption.

The IONNA stations are going to feature both NACS and CCS connectors.