US gov’t may update EV charger subsidy rules for newly-certified NACS port
The Federal Highway Administration announced today that it will seek feedback on how government rules should be updated to account for the new NACS/J3400 charging standard, potentially unlocking $7.5 billion in federal subsidies for the Tesla-developed charging connector.
As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the US government has allocated $7.5 billion in subsidies to expand EV charging access. $5 billion of that is through the NEVI program, which is intended to install a nationwide backbone of fast chargers at least every 50 miles along America’s major roads in order to make EV road trips seamless.
But one requirement of that law was that the chargers installed must be accessible by multiple brands of electric car – standard, not proprietary. This requirement is obviously reasonable, but it also seemed targeted at Tesla, a company that had built its own Supercharger network only accessible by Tesla vehicles.
In response to this, Tesla released specifications of its charging connector which it called the “North American Charging Standard.” This was somewhat of an absurd name at the time, given that Tesla was the only company using it.
However, since Tesla is a majority of the US EV market, Tesla’s argument was that most of the cars and most of the DC charging stations in America already used Tesla’s connector, so it should be considered a de facto standard anyway.
For a few months, not many people took this seriously. However, Ford shook up the industry by announcing it would adopt the NACS plug on upcoming vehicles. Soon after, GM made the same move, and now basically everyone else has – including one of the last holdouts Volkswagen, as of today.
But even after momentum was apparent, the White House threw cold water on NACS’ victory, reminding everyone that there are still “minimum standards” within federal charger subsidy rules, and it would have to examine how NACS fulfills those standards, to ensure that the charging network stay accessible and interoperable. A standard isn’t a standard just because one company says it is – it has to be treated like a standard with independent control and verification.
As of today, any DC chargers installed with federal money can have NACS connectors, but must also include CCS connectors.
This led SAE, the professional engineering organization that develops industry standards, to take up the flag of creating a real, independent standard that is no longer in the hands of Tesla, and Tesla obliged by allowing SAE to have control over the process of standardization.
The government will examine how to take advantage of the new SAE NACS/J3400 standard
And today, now that SAE has officially published its report on the J3400 charging standard (J3400 is SAE’s name for NACS), the government has simultaneously announced that it wants to re-examine its minimum standards in light of the new certification.
We covered how the new SAE/NACS standard will solve (basically) every charging problem in one fell swoop last week (click through to learn more about that, I promise it’s more interesting than an article about competing charging standards seems like it would be).
Today’s press release from the Federal Highway Administration announces that it “will soon publish a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit feedback from stakeholders on updating FHWA’s minimum standards and requirements for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to allow for new technology and continued innovation.”
It also specifically calls out the news of the day, name-dropping Tesla and NACS as the reason for this call to update the government’s minimum standards:
With the implementation of J3400 TM, a new standard for charging EVs published by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), any supplier or manufacturer will now be able to use and deploy the Tesla-developed North America Charging Standard (NACS) connector, which a majority of automakers have announced they will adopt on vehicles beginning in 2025 with adaptors available for current owners as soon as next spring.
In addition to that, the Biden Administration and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (which worked with SAE to develop the J3400 standard) put out a press release today applauding the new standard, celebrating how quickly the process was finished, and pointing to its potential future inclusion in the FHWA’s requirements.
Electrek’s Take
Firstly, I’d like to make note of the issue that many Tesla fans had for a while about the White House not properly acknowledging Tesla. I always thought this was silly, more of a reflection of the massive chip on the shoulder of the egomaniac who is the titular head of the company in question than of actual reality.
When the Biden administration said “hold up, not so fast” early in the NACS process, it made many think that Biden was once again slighting Tesla, but today’s news I think shows that that was never the case. The government simply wanted it to be a proper standard, and now it is (and that process went really fast), and on the same day that it became a proper standard, the government announced that it’s ready to treat it like one. That all seems fair to me.
While we don’t yet know what the minimum standards will change to, it seems clear that this is an effort to update them to coalesce around NACS. Which is great news, because charging will only get better when everyone just rips the band-aid off and goes with one charging standard – and a more robust one than J1772 at that.
But this leads to the question: will the government fully embrace NACS, thus potentially leaving some of the installed base of CCS-enabled cars out of luck in the longer term? Or will it hamstring deployment to some extent, requiring CCS (which is effectively now a dead standard) and therefore not full taking advantage of the NACS standard’s myriad solutions to charging problems?
But as I stated in that last article, this decision point is also a little ironic, considering NACS’ existence seems to have been spurred on by NEVI in the first place. When the government offered billions of dollars to companies that installed chargers with the requirement that those chargers be useable with multiple vehicles, that’s what got Tesla to finally offer a “standard.”
At the time, it wasn’t really a standard because only Tesla was using it, and it was somewhat of a last-ditch effort to save the Tesla connector. Then, when Ford decided to use NACS, that’s what started all the other dominos falling.
Now, NACS is dominant, but it only happened because of NEVI in the first place – and NEVI now has the difficult decision over whether to embrace the (positive) situation it caused, even if it will give some of the installed base an effective “use-by” date as a shift to NACS will inevitably mean fewer CCS/J1772 chargers over time.
We wish that all of this would have been figured out long ago so we could be done with it by now, but it looks like the solution to all our charging problems is finally nearly at hand.
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Hyundai issued a recall for nearly 600,000 vehicles in the US, including the popular Palisade SUV and several IONIQ electric vehicles.
Hyundai Palisade and IONIQ EV recall details
In a notice to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on September 12, Hyundai announced a recall of 568,580 2020-2025 model year Palisade vehicles.
The recall is due to faulty seat belt buckles in the front and rear, which may fail to latch. Although Hyundai expects only about 1% of the Palisade models actually have the defect, it’s issuing the recall out of an abundance of caution.
Hyundai said those with impacted vehicles may notice a lighter-than-normal “click” when fastening the seatbelt. You can bring it to a Hyundai dealer, where they will fix the seatbelt, free of charge.
Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on November 10, 2025. You can contact Hyundai’s customer service at 1-855-371-9460 with any questions. Hyundai’s recall number is 283.
In a separate notice sent to the NHTSA on September 12, Hyundai issued another recall for 31,042 2023 – 2025 IONIQ 6 EV models because the charging port door panel could detach.
Again, Hyundai expects only about 1% of them to have the defect. Those impacted can bring their vehicle to a local Hyundai dealer, where they will fix the port, free of charge.
Owner notification letters will also go out on November 10. Hyundai’s recall number for the IONIQ 6 is 282. Owners can contact Hyundai’s customer service hotline (listed above) with any questions.
But, wait, that’s not all. Hyundai issued a third recall on September 12 for just eight 2025 IONIQ 5 models due to improperly tightened fasteners that could loosen over time. Dealers will replace the bolts, align the wheels, and even replace the tires if needed, free of charge.
If you own any of the recalled vehicles, you can contact Hyundai’s customer service or NHTSA hotline (1-888-327-4236) with questions. You can also visit NHTSA.gov for more information.
Hyundai’s recalls follow Toyota, which issued a recall for over 590,000 vehicles in the US. Between the two, a combined 1.1 million cars have been recalled.
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Tesla has lost another leader of its Optimus humanoid robot program, which is upsetting those who bet on Tesla’s stock (TSLA), as CEO Elon Musk says most of Tesla’s value is tied to the robot.
Musk claims that 80% of Tesla’s future earnings would come from its humanoid robot, which he believes would bring in trillions of dollars and finally justify Tesla trading at more than 200 times earnings.
That’s been hard to believe considering the state of the Optimus program.
All of Tesla’s public demonstrations so far have involved remote control by humans, and the company has not been entirely forthcoming about that.
In June, Milan Kovac, the head of the Optimus program, left Tesla, just months after being promoted to senior vice-president by Musk.
Shortly after, we learned that Tesla was delaying production due to an unexpected redesign.
Now, we learn that another leader of the Optimus program has left Tesla: Ashish Kumar, who led Tesla’s Optimus AI team for the past two years.
Kumar received a phD in artificial intelligence from Berkeley in 2023 and quickly joined Tesla’s humanoid effort. He was believed to be leading the AI aspect of the program, while Kovac led the overall program, including robotics.
He announced his departure on X:
Kumar confirmed that he joined Meta’s AI team as a researcher. Meta has been aggressively poaching AI researchers over the last year, but Tesla has remained largely unaffected by this effort.
The Facebook owner has been reported to be offering substantial compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions to AI researchers, but this hasn’t been confirmed.
Some Tesla shareholders were visibly upset by Kumar’s announcement and some quickly accused him of taking Meta’s money:
Kumar responded and claimed that Tesla was actually giving him a better deal than Meta:
Financial upside at Tesla was significantly larger. Tesla is known to compensate pretty well, way before Zuck made it cool. If I wanted to optimize for money, I would have stayed at Tesla.
It didn’t stop many Tesla sharehodlers to be mean to him for simply deciding to work on something else than Optimus:
Electrek’s Take
It will not come as a surprise to anyone here, but damn, the Tesla community is really becoming toxic.
This individual dedicated two years of his life working at Tesla. The only appropriate thing to say is: thanks for your hard work and good luck in your next endeavor.
The reason they are being so mean is that they believe Elon Musk’s lies that Optimus will justify Tesla’s insane valuation and become the most valuable company in the world; this guy’s departure challenges their view.
Why would he give up working on the most important product of all time and likely become a billionaire in the process? Maybe because these things won’t happen?
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It looks like electric motorcycle influencer Surronster has landed himself in trouble south of the border, based on an arrest video posted to his social media channels.
A heavily edited video posted on his Instagram page shows the controversial rider in handcuffs being led into a police vehicle by officers in Tijuana, Mexico. The reel appears to have been filmed by a companion in the influencer’s entourage. No additional context was provided in the post, and at the time of writing, details surrounding the arrest remain unclear.
The incident comes just two days after the influencer posted another update to his social media showing that he was being denied entry into Mexico with his Sur Ron electric off-road motorcycle loaded in the bed of his truck.
In the more recent clip, the Tijuana Municipal Police appear to be questioning him and an associate before handcuffing them both. An officer is seen starting to remove the influencer’s helmet, then the clip jumps to a shot of the influencer entering the back of the police truck, edited to avoid showing his unhelmeted face. Surronster has long concealed his identity, always being filmed while wearing a full-face dirt bike helmet.
Surronster has gained a large following online by pushing the limits of electric motorcycles – especially the Sur Ron Light Bee and similar lightweight electric dirt bikes. His content often shows him performing stunts, riding in traffic without a license plate, and usually on electric dirt bikes that are not street legal for use on public roads. His 1M+ following is comprised mainly of young male viewers in their teens and twenties, with many attempting to imitate the riders’ style and stunts. He has risen to become one of the leading influencers in the electric motorbike industry, all while promoting a rebellious image and racking up millions of views on social media.
That notoriety has earned him plenty of fans, but also a long line of critics. Many in the e-bike and e-moto community have called out the influencer for encouraging illegal and unsafe behavior that risks drawing increased regulation and public backlash against electric two-wheelers, not to mention the danger to young riders who may attempt to recreate his stunts. Others defend him as a thrill-seeking entertainer similar to traditional motorsport stunt riders.
A large proportion of his videos feature illegal riding activities, but his strict control over his anonymity has meant that he has effectively operated with impunity. But getting arrested in a foreign country is a serious matter, and it remains to be seen what charges – if any – he’ll face. At the time of publishing, the Tijuana Minicipal Police have not responded to a request for comment.
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