SAE wants to certify NACS by end of year, and fix plug & charge too
SAE has voted unanimously to form a task force to expedite its NACS standardization process, and thinks that this process could finish by the end of the year – much earlier than we expected. We spoke with the chair of the task force for some insight on what the process might look like.
Tesla released specifications of its charging connector in November 2022. It called it the “North American Charging Standard,” which was somewhat of an absurd name at the time, given that Tesla was the only company using it.
However, 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, until 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.
So now that we have what looks like a standard, the professional engineering organization which develops industry standards has taken up the flag of creating a real, independent standard that is no longer in the hands of Tesla.
This is an important move because many governments and companies would understandably have an issue with a single company having control over a standard that, at this point, it seems like everyone is planning to use.
NACS standard could come this year, named “J3400”
We talked to Rodney McGee, Ph.D., of the University of Delaware, who is chairing SAE’s NACS task force.
The most important thing he told us is that the SAE Task Force aims to publish its work by the end of this year, only around six months after the start of the standards process. This is significantly faster than we thought it would take to complete the process.
McGee said that SAE is the only standards-setting organization that would be able to publish NACS this quickly, because the timelines for meetings and consensus in the ISO and IEC, two other standards organizations, are much longer due to the complex document processes used by these international organizations.
Another reason for this quicker timeline is because the NACS connector already exists on millions of vehicles, and makes up the majority of the installed base in the US. Since their stations are listed to UL standards and have been proven in the real world, many questions are already answered.
The standard will likely take the official name “J3400,” similar to the name of the current J1772 plug used in SAE CCS chargers. Though it could colloquially be known as J3400, NACS, or even “the Tesla plug,” depending on which name the EV-owning public seizes on.
But McGee told us that this his interest in NACS isn’t just on the DC side of charging, where most of the public’s imagination has focused, but on AC charging where the vast majority of actual charge sessions occur. It turns out that NACS is superior to J1772 for AC charging in one significant way – it can use an input voltage of up to 277 volts, whereas J1772 uses 208-240V.
This not only enables faster AC charging due to higher voltages, but more importantly makes for easier setup on commercial electricity supplies, which is often supplied as 480-volt three-phase power, of which a 277-volt single-phase circuit can be used for charging. This could make public AC charging – in parking garages for apartment buildings or workplaces, for example – cheaper and easier to install since commercial customers won’t need to install their own transformers.
McGee said that Tesla has been very helpful with the process in the last two weeks since SAE proposed making NACS a real standard, and is leaving the future of NACS up to a consensus-based standards process.
This has helped to allay some concerns across the industry, especially in Europe, which was skeptical that NACS could be a protectionist move. Europe has mandated non-proprietary charging connectors before and recently wasn’t happy about EV protectionism in the US Inflation Reduction Act, so this recent groundswell of support for a standard controlled by one American company was met with some skepticism. Having a standards-setting organization in control of the future of NACS makes it much more palatable (and might have led to Mercedes’ announcement to adopt it last week).
Why Plug & Charge is broken and how to fix it
Plug & Charge, a colloquial name for the ISO 15118 standard which allows simple “plug in & walk away” operation of public charging stations, has had a long and difficult implementation process. For years charging station providers have promised it’s just around the corner, but it seems to never materialize.
This is part of why Tesla leads in charging experience satisfaction, because plugging into a Supercharger is a simple process that takes seconds, whereas other chargers might require a subscription, a payment app, swiping a credit card, or at the very least waiting the better part of a minute for authentication to occur before charging initiates.
Besides these user experience issues, McGee pointed out one of the lesser-discussed reasons the standard has been hard to implement in the US, and how the SAE has been working on that problem since before NACS, and sees NACS as a opportunity to further its effort.
Plug & Charge requires a Public Key Infrastructure on the back-end to authenticate vehicles and payments. Public keys are a cryptographic mechanism that allow for secure authentication – one example is website certificates, so your computer can know that it is looking at a legitimate website.
In Europe, this PKI is provided by a company called Hubject, which verifies charging sessions on European public chargers.
But in the US, nobody has coalesced around a single company or organization to provide these certificate services yet. McGee said this is a major obstacle to Plug & Charge in the ISO 15118 standard, first published in 2014, since it is a technical standard did not initially prescribe solutions that were practical for the market.
SAE participants see the wider efforts around the NACS process as an opportunity to solve this problem going forward. Since the industry is shifting to NACS, this disruption could serve as the right time to solve this problem. It is engaging with industry (through SAE-ITC) to create a PKI for NACS which will hopefully solve this problem going forward.
Electrek’s Take
We were surprised to hear that NACS could be certified as a standard by the end of this year.
In the past, standards have taken much longer to develop – in fact, that’s why we even have the Tesla plug in the first place.
When Tesla was building the Model S, there wasn’t a standard that could do both AC and fast DC charging in the same plug. The rest of the industry – and the SAE – was slowly working out the CCS standard, but Tesla couldn’t wait any longer and went its own way, building the Tesla plug and later revealing the Supercharger network.
Now, more than a decade later, that Tesla connector looks likely to become the main charging standard in North America.
So the idea that this could be approved by the end of the year definitely raised our eyebrows, given the history of charging standards implementation and sometimes-long timelines involved.
And we’ve had a lot of questions about Plug & Charge and how long it has taken to implement in the past, so the conversation with McGee was enlightening on that front. It’s good to hear that a solution might finally be around the corner.
But this is a bit of a double-edged sword – while the NACS disruption gives an opportunity to solve the Plug & Charge problem for NACS, increased focus on the new charging standard might mean that nobody bothers to fix it for CCS, as it rapidly becomes considered a “legacy standard” the likes of CHAdeMO.
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![Hyundai's small new EV has a wild aero hatch design and ducktail spoiler [Image]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/12/Hyundai-small-EV-design.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
The IONIQ 3 is set to arrive as a smaller sibling to the IONIQ 5, but it will look a little different from other Hyundai EVs.
The Hyundai IONIQ 3 will debut a new EV design
Hyundai previewed the new electric hatchback, dubbed the Concept Three, at the Munich Motor Show in September.
The “Three” is Hyundai’s first compact electric vehicle concept under the IONIQ series, set to bring a radical new design to the family.
According to Hyundai, the Concept Three “represents the next step in the company’s electrification journey.” Production is expected to begin in early 2026 at Hyundai’s manufacturing plant in Turkey, with deliveries starting shortly thereafter.
The new design, “Art of Steel,” is inspired by Hyundai’s advanced steel technology. Hyundai calls the Aero Hatch profile “a new typology that reimagines the compact EV silhouette.”
Hyundai kept a few of its signature design elements from other IONIQ EV models, like the Parametric Pixel lights at the front and rear.
With its official debut approaching, a few IONIQ 3 prototypes have been spotted driving in public in South Korea. Despite heavy camouflage, you could tell the production version was shaping up to be nearly identical to the Concept Three.
A new image from KindelAuto offers a closer look at the IONIQ 3, spotted in Europe with barely any camouflage.
You can clearly see the vehicle’s profile stays close to the concept, with a sleek, hot-hatch design and a ducktail spoiler.
The compact EV is 4,287 mm long, 1,940 mm wide, and 1,428 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,722 mm, or about the size of the Kia EV3 or Volkswagen ID.3.
Hyundai has yet to reveal battery specs or prices, but it’s expected to offer 58.3 kWh and 81.4 kWh battery packs, like the Kia EV3, providing a WLTP range of around 365 miles. Given the Kona Electric starts at £35,000 ($47,000), the IONIQ 3 will likely be priced closer to £25,000 ($33,700).
For those in the US, sadly, the IONIQ 3 is not expected to make the trip overseas, given America’s growing love for bigger trucks and SUVs.
The IONIQ 5 does, however, remain one of the most affordable EVs in the US, starting at under $35,000 with leases as low as $189 per month.
If you’re considering an EV, Hyundai’s lineup is absolutely worth checking out — offering over 300 miles of range, fast charging, modern tech, at a price that’s actually reasonable. Check out the links below to see what’s available by you.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on a podcast this week to express regret over the time he spent trying to destroy the American government, claiming that he wouldn’t do it again.
In the first half of this year, Musk took a position advising convicted felon Donald Trump (who cannot legally hold office in the US) on what essential government jobs to trim.
He named the group he led the “Department of Government Efficiency,” despite that it was never an actual government department, nor did it do a whole lot to increase efficiency as we will see below.
Musk claimed before taking the position that he could save the government $2 trillion – which was always going to be literally impossible, given the amount of discretionary spending in the US budget, as anyone with a passing interest in American government could have told you at the time.
Unsurprisingly, Musk was unable to succeed in the impossible cuts he had proposed. After less than half a year (incidentally, not far off from the 130-day cap for unofficial advisory positions), Musk left the position amid a fiery breakup with Mr. Trump. The breakup led to a big drop in Tesla stock, which had been inflated due to expectations of corruption.
All in all, Musk claims that he cut around $200 billion from the government’s budget, but actual analyses show that those numbers were fake and in fact that his actions likely increased the budget deficit, rather than decreasing it. This is due to the disruption in necessary government services, higher costs for employee severance, and lost revenue for the government as ultra-wealthy tax cheats will be able to get off without paying their fair share.
And, in the interim, republicans passed a law that gives away $4 trillion to those same wealthy elites, adding $3.3 trillion to the deficit. That number is 16 times larger than even the inflated $200 billion “savings” number Musk claims.
How Musk’s actions harmed Tesla, not just the US
But Musk’s actions cosplaying as a government official had other effects than his failure to effectively cut waste: they turned public opinion against his companies, mainly Tesla.
Over the last couple years, Musk has increasingly tried to involve himself in politics, both in the US and abroad. His politics have largely focused on pushing white supremacist nonsense including support for German neo-Nazis and agreeing with a defense of Hitler, and funding and supporting groups that oppose renewable energy and vehicle electrification. He’s even rhetorically got into climate change denial himself.
These actions have directly harmed Tesla through loss of expected revenue, and have also reduced the brand’s profile in the public eye. Tesla is now the only EV brand with negative perception, and it’s due to Musk himself. His actions have driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away – including business customers.
As a result, Tesla’s sales have been falling both in the US and around the globe in a rising EV market. All told, one study found that he cost Tesla over 1 million sales in the US alone with his braindead political takes. Even his own company had to chide him.
It wasn’t hard to see this coming
These results were eminently foreseeable – anyone can tell you that business leaders typically should remain neutral on politics as a rule, and generally only speak on issues that directly involve their company or industry.
Wading into wedge issues and identity politics as a business leader can only serve to turn off customers, and since negative motivations are generally stronger than positive ones, you will net lose sales even if you appeal to some portion of the population with your advocacy.
And if you do advocate for something, it should probably be for something that will help your companies, rather than hurt them.
But Elon Musk is different. Unlike most business leaders, he has millions of useful idiots at his beck and call on twitter at any time (and it is indeed where he spends all of his time), ready and willing to tell him that all of his ideas are genius, no matter how braindead they are, or how recycled they are from his rage-filled feed which seems to be his only source of information these days. Why should conventional wisdom apply to someone who is constantly told conventional wisdom doesn’t apply to him?
And so, he ignored – or rather, probably didn’t even see, given the echo chamber he has formed around himself – the conventional wisdom telling him what a bad idea all of this was. And now, years later, he’s finally showing the slightest moment of lucidity that perhaps all of the above was not a great use of time.
Musk finally recognizes what we’ve been telling him all along
This week, Musk went on a podcast (hosted by Katie Miller, wife of American white supremacist Stephen Miller) and claimed that his advisory board was “a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful,” which is a rather middling assessment given his big initial claims of being able to save the government trillions of dollars.
But further, he went on to say that he wouldn’t do it all over again, and that “instead of doing DOGE, I would have, basically, built … worked on my companies.”
He said that if he had done that instead, “they wouldn’t have been burning the cars.” This is a reference to Tesla protests, which have largely not included burning anything, but which have been widespread globally.
We, of course, agree that that would have been a better course of action. Which is why we said it at the time. Perhaps it’s time to get off twitter and read some real thoughts for once, Mr. Musk. We’re not sure if the damage you’ve done is repairable (though it was certainly preventable), but as they say, “garbage in, garbage out” – the more nonsense you read, the more nonsense you’ll continue to get up to.
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BMW is the latest major automaker to officially gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network in North America. Starting today, BMW EV drivers in the US can access over 25,000 Tesla Superchargers, adding a massive boost to the charging options for owners of the i4, iX, and other electric models from the German automaker.
It follows a wave of other automakers gaining access over the last year as the industry transitions to NACS (North American Charging Standard), Tesla’s proprietary connector that has now become the standard.
BMW confirmed today that the update is effective immediately. Owners can find Tesla Superchargers directly in their vehicle’s navigation system and the My BMW app.
However, like most other automakers making this transition, there is hardware involved. Current BMW EVs, which are equipped with CCS ports, will require a CCS-to-NACS adapter to use the vast majority of Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers.
According to BMW, official adapters will go on sale as accessories starting in Q2 2026. That is a bit of a wait, but in the meantime, some third-party adapters are already on the market.
For those lucky enough to live near one of Tesla’s few “Magic Dock” locations (Superchargers with a built-in CCS adapter), any BMW EV can charge immediately without needing to buy extra hardware.
BMW also clarified its timeline for native NACS ports, which will eliminate the need for an adapter entirely. The transition begins with the 2026 BMW i5 M60, followed by other models throughout the year, including the highly anticipated Neue Klasse iX3, which is expected to be a competitor of the higher-end trims of Tesla’s popular Model Y.
Interestingly, there is a software hurdle for some specific 2026 models. BMW noted that the 2026 iX and i5 eDrive40 will not be able to use Tesla Superchargers until they receive a remote software upgrade, also scheduled for Q2 2026.
One of the biggest pain points for non-Tesla EVs using the Supercharger network has been the user experience. Tesla has set a high bar with its “plug and play” ecosystem.
BMW seems to have done a good job integrating this. The automaker says that its Plug & Charge is supported at Tesla stations. You won’t need the Tesla app to start a session. Instead, billing is handled through the customer’s Shell Recharge account, which is integrated into the My BMW app.
Pricing will follow Tesla’s standard rate structure for non-Tesla vehicles, which is generally higher than what Tesla owners pay unless you pay a monthly membership fee.
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