There are a lot of EV charging adapters out there, but there's never been one that will allow non-Tesla EVs to charge at Tesla Superchargers in North America - until now. That's because even if such an adapter was developed, it wouldn't work because Tesla Superchargers have an authentication process that ensures only authorized vehicles get sent power from the station.
Tesla vehicles are currently the only vehicles that are authorized to drink from the coveted Supercharger network, but that's about to change. Once Ford announced it would be transitioning to Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector, the industry followed and Acura, Fisker, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Polestar, and Volvo have all followed Ford with similar announcements.
The automakers will be installing the NACS charging ports in their respective vehicles starting in 2025, but in order for the existing electric vehicles they have sold to also gain access to the Superchargers, an adapter will be needed.
Tesla is engineering its own NACS to CCS1 adapter, but there will also be many companies doing the same, and trying to get a piece of this very large electric vehicle adapter market.
One such company is A2Z EV, a Canadian-based firm that sells a variety of EV charging adapters. A2Z reached out to me and offered to send me an early version of its NACS to CCS1 adapter for my review. Since the agreements the automakers have forged with Tesla for Supercharger access don't begin until 2024, there's no way to properly test the adapter while charging a CCS1 EV on a Tesla Supercharger.
However, I did charge a Tesla Model 3 with the adapter by using both the NACS to Tesla adapter, coupled with a CCS1 to NACS adapter, just to watch the power transfer through the adapter.
In the video, I was at a V2 Tesla Supercharger that was power-sharing with another vehicle at the time, so my vehicle only pulled 72 kW through the adapter (and I had a bit of a brain-fart and wondered why it wasn't pulling more). I do plan to go to a V3 Supercharger and perhaps a magic dock location to see how it works there.
I also had the opportunity to interview Amine Zitour, the founder and CEO of A2Z EV, for this video, and learned quite a bit about it.
It's important to note that this isn't the final version of the adapter. A2Z has given samples to a few automakers and is getting comments back from them. Zitour said they will incorporate all of the improvements that the OEMs ask for, in an effort to have his adapter officially approved by multiple automakers. I'll be doing a follow-up video to discuss with Zitour, the improvements that were made.
The adapter is rated at 300-amps, so it will be able to deliver about 120-kW continuously to an EV with a 400-volt battery and 240-kW to a vehicle with an 800-volt system. However, Zitour explained to me that it can support more than 300-amps for short periods without overheating. In many cases, an EV will accept a lot of power for 5-10 minutes before ramping down its power intake, and the adapter will be able to deliver it.
Zitour promised to keep me updated with the improvements as they are implemented and provide me with the final product before the end of this year. The exact pricing and the release date for ordering haven't been established yet but will be in the next couple of months.
So check out the video and let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
