Toyota hops on Tesla’s EV charging standard, leaving Stellantis and VW as holdouts

Another day, another convert: Toyota and Lexus electric vehicles will adopt Tesla’s chargers starting in 2025, Toyota said this week.  

The top automaker by global sales, Toyota is the latest to back the North American Charging Standard (NACS), following Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, GM and Ford, among others. In just about five months, Tesla has virtually sidelined the Combined Charging System (CCS), the standard backed by the Biden administration.

The switch should make it easier for EV buyers to access Tesla’s charging network, but it won’t happen overnight. The aforementioned automakers say they’ll start introducing EVs with NACS support in 2025, with Mercedes and GM saying they’ll drop adapters in 2024.

It also happens that Toyota’s North American EV sales (including hybrids) are way up lately — by 20% so far this year, the company said in early October.

When it comes to NACS, VW and Stellantis are the two big holdouts left. VW has reportedly been in talks with Tesla about the standard since the summer. And last we heard, Stellantis said it’s looking into it. Given the recent momentum toward Tesla’s standard, it seems like it’s only a matter of time.