Kentucky has become the first state to mandate the inclusion of Tesla’s charging plug, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that receive state funding. The mandate is a significant victory for Tesla kingpin Elon Musk.
Reuters reports that Kentucky is now the first state to require that EV charging stations use Tesla’s charging plug, also known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Companies that want to take part in a state-funded program to electrify highways must meet this new requirement.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks via video link during the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg
The mandate is an addition to the federal requirements for the Combined Charging System (CCS), a rival charging standard. This development is seen as a significant victory for Tesla, the dominant EV maker in the United States, which also recently won another fight when its charging technology was adopted by Ford Motor.
“Each port must be equipped with an SAE CCS 1 connector. Each port shall also be capable of connecting to and charging vehicles equipped with charging ports compliant with the North American Charging Standard (NACS),” the state’s request for proposal documents for the EV charging program stated.
However, not everyone is on board with this trend. A group of EV charger manufacturers and operators has voiced opposition to Texas’ plan to mandate the inclusion of Tesla’s technology in charging stations. They argue that the move is “premature,” and that “time is needed to properly standardize, test, and certify the safety and interoperability of Tesla connectors across the industry.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation has previously stated that to be eligible for federal funding aimed at deploying 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, charging companies must provide CCS plugs. However, the rule does allow for other connectors, as long as they support the CCS, a national standard. This flexibility in the rule leaves room for states like Kentucky to include Tesla’s NACS in their charging infrastructure plans.
Highway travelers that make the questionable decision to purchase an EV will need significant charging capabilities available to them. Breitbart News reported last year on the nightmare one owner of a Nissan Leaf EV suffered trying to travel between states:
An electric vehicle (EV) owner who takes road trips between Cheyenne and Casper in Wyoming has revealed that his first trip of 178 miles took a staggering 15 hours to complete in his electric Nissan Leaf.
“It was very difficult. For example, [it took] 15 hours to get from Cheyenne to Casper,” Alan O’Hashi told Cowboy State Daily, adding that this particular trip wasn’t taken in the beginning of the EV era. It was in May 2022.
One month later, O’Hashi was able to complete the road trip in about 11 hours, he said. To put it into perspective, the trip of 178 miles should take less than two and a half hours traveling the speed limit in a gasoline-powered vehicle.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan