Texas has officially approved an initiative that would force charging stations to be equipped with Tesla’s NACS connector in order to get access to over $400 million in subsidies.
After the first wave of automakers announced that they would adopt NACS, a connector that Tesla designed and is trying to make the new charging standard in North America, Texas’s Department of Transportation announced that it planned to add NACS as a requirement to get access to millions in new funding for charging stations.
However, Texas Transportation Commission faced pushback from charging station companies over the initiative due to concerns about getting access to the NACS connectors to build those stations.
It pushed the vote back, but today, it was made official (via Reuters):
Texas on Wednesday approved its plan to require companies to include Tesla’s technology in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to be eligible for federal funds, despite calls for more time to re-engineer and test the connectors.
Now this new requirement is a state requirement on top of the federal requirements – where the money is coming from – which includes a requirement that the charging stations have CCS connectors.
Therefore, charging stations in Texas will need to have both CCS and NACS connectors to get access to federal money. Texas will receive more money for EV charging stations from the federal government than any other state – $407 million.
The money will be granted and deployed over five years.
Electrek’s Take
That’s the right move. If the federal government doesn’t do it, other states should follow, or they simply won’t be spending that money efficiently.
Not only is the momentum clearly on NACS’ side to become the new standard in North America, but there are already more electric vehicles on US roads with NACS connectors than CCS connectors.
It’s a no-brainer.