Washington state plans to require electric vehicle charging companies to use Tesla plugs if they want to be part of a state plan to use federal funds to electrify highways, an official told Reuters on Thursday.
Washington follows Texas in moving to mandate the North American Charging Standard (NACS) for Tesla’s technology, adding fuel to CEO Elon Musk’s hopes of making it a national charging technology.
General Motors, Ford and Rivan said they will accept Tesla’s NACS, sidestepping the Biden administration’s efforts to make the Combined Charging System (CCS) the dominant U.S. charging standard.
“I’m actually very happy with NACS and the automakers finally moving toward a unified standard,” said Tonia Buell, alternative fuels program manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “We want to offer as many makes and models as possible.”
“It’s not necessarily tested and certified by other automakers, so we want to make sure it works, but we plan to require NACS at our state-funded and federally-funded plants in the future.”
Washington State Department of Transportation spokesman Kris Rietmann Abrudan said Monday that no final decision has been made on whether NACS is needed, adding that officials are still studying how market changes will affect how the state deploys chargers.
Buell said the state plans to begin a request for proposals process in the fall, a decision he said was made to “future-proof” its investments.
Buell said state officials are still trying to determine the right mix of NACS chargers based on current federal requirements. Under federal regulations, each ratepayer-supported site must have at least four CCS chargers, and Buell said the state may require at least two of them to be used with NACS or all four.
Washington’s plan could increase pressure on other states and the federal government to adopt Tesla’s NACS.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
