Mercedes-Benz announced today that it’ll join the growing list of automakers who will support NACS in North America in 2025. This means Mercedes-EQ owners will be able to access the 12,000 Tesla Supercharger locations across the country, plus a growing list of third-parties that’ll support the standard.
“Our strategic priority is clear: Building the world’s most desirable cars. To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers — including fast, convenient, and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them. That’s why we are committed to building our global Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network, with the first sites opening this year. In parallel, we are also implementing NACS in our vehicles, allowing drivers to access an expansive network of high-quality charging offerings in North America,” said Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG, in a statement.
Additionally, Mercedes will continue its rollout of its own high-power charging network. Those stations that will launch by the end of the year will contain a current CCS1 connector, along with a NACS plug.
Mercedes owners will a CCS1 receptacle currently will have access to an adapter to connect to NACS chargers when this all goes live.
We still haven’t seen any firm movement from any of the Korean automakers on this, though there are rumors of talks. Additionally, we’re still waiting for Volkswagen to make the switch. One thing of note is that cars like the Porsche Taycan and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 all use 800-volt architecture. Most Tesla Superchargers are 400-volt. That would limit charging speed to some extent.
New automakers seem to be joining about once a week, so next week it could be one of them, or someone entirely different. We’ll see.
