Mercedes-Benz is the latest automaker to commit to using Tesla’s electric vehicle charging connectors for its vehicles, bringing Elon Musk’s company one step closer to total electric vehicle charging dominance.
From 2024, the German automaker will offer adapters to its customers so they can access Tesla Supercharger stations, which use the company’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug and outlet. And in 2025, Mercedes will start producing EVs with Tesla’s charging port, eliminating the need for an adapter.
The company joins Ford, GM, Volvo, North Star, and Rivian in adopting Tesla’s connector, which is fast becoming the de facto charging standard in North America and Europe. Mercedes is also the first German automaker to jump on the Tesla bandwagon, putting pressure on Volkswagen and BMW to follow suit. VW, along with Hyundai, Kia and Stellantis, has previously confirmed that it is in talks with Musk’s company about adopting NACS.
The company joins Ford, GM, Volvo, Polestar and Rivian in adopting Tesla’s connector
Mercedes also announced plans to expand its network of EV charging stations in North America to 400 hubs with more than 2,500 “high-power chargers,” which will also grow with Tesla’s NACS connector. The company plans to install 2,000 hubs with 10,000 chargers worldwide.
Mercedes announced earlier this year that it was partnering with ChargePoint and MN8, a solar power company, to install chargers in key cities and along major highways. The opening of the first stations, which will be accessible to Mercedes and non-Mercedes EV owners, is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Tesla’s Supercharger network is widely recognized as superior to many of the third-party EV charging stations, most of which feature Combined Charging System (CCS) plugs and the lesser-used CHAdeMO charging standard. The company says it has 45,000 Superchargers worldwide, 12,000 of which are in the US. Tesla operates nearly 2,000 DC fast charging stations in the US and nearly 5,000 Level 2 chargers, according to the Department of Energy.
And while other EV charging stations struggle with software issues, frayed cables and broken chargers, Tesla says its Superchargers are almost perfectly reliable. The company says that Supercharger site average uptime was 99.95 percent last year, slightly down from 99.96 percent in 2021.
For years, Tesla Superchargers were exclusive to Tesla owners, but that changed when the company started offering access to non-Tesla EVs in Europe. Last year, the Biden administration announced that Tesla would do the same in the US as a condition of tapping a share of the $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Unlike in Europe, Tesla Superchargers in the US use a proprietary connector – this was Tesla’s “competitive moat”, the thing that initially protected against other automakers. The NACS connector is smaller than CCS connectors, which reduces the chance of failure. To allow non-Tesla vehicles to access the chargers, the company installed a device called the “Magic dock” with a CCS adapter fitted to the connector.
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