Ford is now shipping a new North American Charging Standard (NACS) adapter to customers to help provide access to Tesla Supercharger stations more quickly.
First reported by InsideEVs, the new NACS adapter comes from Lectron, and will be distributed alongside the existing design from Tesla. They have the same specifications as the Tesla-provided adapters, with ratings of 500 amps and 1,000 volts, InsideEVs reports. But they have a slightly different appearance.
Ford Mustang Mach-E at Tesla Supercharger station
The new adapters aren’t replacements for the original design, which Ford began shipping to customers in March, but rather an “incremental” addition to get adapters to customers as quickly as possible, the automaker confirmed to Green Car Reports. The Lectron adapters began shipping Oct. 31, and customers in line for an adapter may get either one of those or one of the previous design.
Ford offered one free adapter per vehicle to all new and existing EV customers who enrolled in its charging aggregator by Jun. 30 of this year. Adapters are otherwise priced at $230, and Ford has set up a different process for fleet customers through its Ford Pro division. Those terms remain in place.
Ford EVs at Tesla Supercharger
The new adapter is also unrelated to a replacement program being undertaken by Ford after the automaker discovered a problem with a specific batch of the Tesla-sourced adapters that could result in reduce charging speeds, or potentially even damage to a vehicle’s charge port. The automaker has told certain customers to stop using affected adapters pending shipment of replacements, which was scheduled to start this week.
Ford led the industry last year in announcing a shift to the Tesla charge port, with nearly every other major U.S.-market automaker following suit. So far, though, only General Motors and Rivian have also begun shipping adapters to customers, with Volvo and Polestar announcing plans to do so earlier this week.