In a critical moment, the North American electric vehicle market has received a major boost.
Japanese automaker Mazda announced that it has adopted the North American Charging Standard for its EVs in partnership with Tesla, according to Teslarati. Widely considered the standard for electric vehicle charging and already used by most major EV manufacturers around the globe, NACS will be adopted for Mazda's Japanese battery electric vehicles beginning in 2027.
This news comes after months of Tesla boycotts have led to its sales and stock falling precipitously in 2025. The company's pioneering in the EV space may be leading to some ongoing advantages through profiting off NACS and its public charging network, even if car sales do not return to their previous highs.
For fans of electric vehicles, it is still good news that EV manufacturers are standardizing their charging platforms worldwide, and the NACS tech is becoming widespread enough that this streamlining could encourage more widespread adoption of EVs.
In July 2023, seven of the world's major global automakers announced plans to create an unprecedented new charging network joint venture that will significantly expand access to high-powered charging in North America, with at least 30,000 high-powered charge points in urban and highway locations. The first stations were scheduled to open in the summer of 2024.
"NACS becoming the standard in Japan (and South Korea) seems like only a matter of time now," wrote Max de Zegher, Tesla's director of charging, in an X post. "It's also great to see other fast-charging networks starting to install NACS in Japan. Tesla Charging is accelerating the transition to NACS, for the industry to get clarity faster. Vehicle manufacturers also don't want to build market-specific variants."
While this development makes charging while on the road easier than ever, EV drivers will still often charge their cars at home.
Drivers looking for an even more energy-efficient way to charge at home should consider installing rooftop solar panels. While there's an upfront investment that takes several years to pay off before it all turns to profit, fueling with solar energy is even cheaper than using public charging stations or relying on the traditional power grid. One of the best ways to add solar is by using EnergySage, which makes it easy to compare quotes from vetted local installers and save as much as $10,000 on solar projects.
Of course, drivers can't rely on at-home charging for 100% of their miles if going on longer road trips, so the continued increase in public charger accessibility is still a major win for anyone driving or in the market for an EV.
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