Polestar moves to Tesla charging standard

Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Tesla that will allow drivers of its EVs to charge at about 12,000 Tesla charging stations in North America starting next year.

New Polestar vehicles sold in North America will come standard with the Tesla-designed North American Charging Standard, or NACS, plug starting in 2025. Owners of existing Polestars will be able to charge at Tesla’s Supercharger stations with an adapter starting in mid-2024.

Polestar’s deal follows an identical one announced by corporate sibling Volvo Cars on Tuesday. Ford Motor, General Motors and Rivian have also announced similar deals with Tesla in recent weeks.

“We salute the pioneering work Tesla has done to speed up the adoption and increase the popularity of electric vehicles, and it’s great to see the Supercharger network being made available in this way,” said CEO Thomas Ingenlath. “This move will greatly increase the rate of EV adoption in a key automotive region.”

Most non-Tesla EVs and charging stations in North America use a plug design called CCS, which stands for Combined Charging System. Recent studies have found that CCS charging networks have much lower reliability than Tesla’s network. Critics have also noted that the CCS fast-charging plug is significantly larger and heavier than the NACS plug, making it difficult for some older or disabled drivers to use.  

Tesla EVs can use CCS chargers with an adapter, but currently only Tesla EVs can use Tesla chargers.

Tesla’s plug design was proprietary until November, when the company published the technical details of its system and made it available to other automakers and makers of EV chargers.

SAE International, an engineering group that publishes standards for the auto industry, said earlier this week that it is in the process of writing public standards for Tesla’s NACS charging plug.