In May last year, Ford made a bold move. It announced that from 2025, it would switch to using the Tesla-created NACS connector for its electric vehicles. That then left an open question—what of all the EVs Ford has already sold that are fitted with the CCS port? Ford had promised an adapter would solve this problem, and now, it’s delivering on that commitment to customers.
The switchover to NACS happened slowly at first, and then all at once. Over the last decade, efforts to build a high-quality charging network for non-Tesla EVs haven’t come to much. Drivers often find chargers damaged or otherwise out of service, with many long-distance journeys hamstrung by these issues. In late 2022, Tesla made it known that it would accept vehicles from other automakers using its Supercharger network. With a viable charging solution now on the table, the decision to get on board was inevitable for Ford. The vast majority of automakers in the US market followed suit, announcing their own NACS changeover plans throughout the rest of 2023.
So, what of Ford, and all the EVs it already sold out in the wild? Today, Ford CEO Jim Farley took to Twitter to announce that it would be sending fast-charging adapters to eligible Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners, free of charge.
When we announced @Ford EVs would get access to @Tesla Superchargers, I said we'd send customers a Fast Charging Adapter. I'm pleased to confirm that eligible #MustangMachE & #F150Lightning owners in the U.S. + Canada can reserve a complimentary adapter starting soon.
This is… pic.twitter.com/QbGjEmsA3Y
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) January 31, 2024
Ford’s existing EVs were built with CCS1 charge ports for the U.S. market, which combine the J1772 connector with two additional pins for DC fast charging. The adapter will accept a Tesla NACS charge cable and allow it to send power to a CCS1 port on a Ford EV. For customers with an adapter, charging and payment will be handled through the FordPass app, or the Public Charging App inside the vehicle.
Owners of 2021-2024 model year Mach-Es and Lightnings will be able to reserve an adapter through Ford. The automaker will verify ownership by VIN, handing them out on a one-adapter-per-VIN basis. Shipping will be covered, too. Ford has stated it will release tech specs of the adapter and how to reserve one soon.
The free adapter will be a massive boon to owners, unlocking access to Tesla’s sprawling network of 50,000 Superchargers across the United States. That’s in addition to all the existing CCS1 chargers that Ford owners can already use.
It’s not going to be cheap for Ford, with almost 40,000 F-150 Lightnings sold and almost 110,000 Mustang Mach-Es. At a low price of $100 per adapter including shipping, it figures out to around $15 million dollars or so. At the same time, that’s a low price to pay to maintain goodwill with early adopters, who could otherwise feel slighted at the sudden move to NACS. It also throws down the gauntlet for other automakers to step up and support their customers in a similar way.
Ultimately, it’s a smart move by Ford. It helps keep existing owners by ensuring they’re enjoying their EVs and talking up the company’s product to friends and family. Owners of eligible vehicles will likely be more than happy to get on board and leave the days of busted and broken CCS chargers behind.
Image credits: Ford
Hopefully the adapter design includes three or four feet of cable. Superchargers assume Tesla’s cars’ charge port position of rear left, so most chargers have short cables that nicely reach a backed-in car without the mess of a long cable. Ford’s EVs (and pretty much all other EVs) have it front left, so there will be problems with an assemblage of Teslas and Fords where the Fords are parked in adjacent spots to the ones intended — if the adapter doesn’t extend the cable length. There would likely be some inaccessible chargers in that scenario. I wonder if, in incorporating NACS ports in future models, moving ports to rear left would be a path of lesser resistance than replacing (or majorly retrofitting) 30,000+ chargers.
Damn. Now I’m wishing I had held out to find a used Mach-E under $25k rather than bought the used Kia Niro EV. Kia says it isn’t shipping adapters for another year!
Really chomping at the bit for this. Several locations nearish to me only have level 2 J1772 connections, but do have a bank of level 3 Superchargers. Most places I’ve seen decent availability at Superchargers, and Tesla is by far the most popular EV. Someone said 50% but I bet in California(especially my area near Silicon Valley) it’s higher. Congestion shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but I guess we’ll see. It really helps that most banks of Superchargers have way more chargers, vs 3 or 4 at a typical CCS setup.
might be worth 100-200 up front? maybe resell or have a spare when you get the free one?
In a time where you have to pay extra for floor mats for your new $50,000 car a free adapter seems like a win.
Sending „adapters (…) free of charge“?
What a pity. Up to that, it seemed like good news 🙂
So are Supercharger sites starting to get clogged up other brands now? I used to see the Superchargers as the biggest plus of buying a Tesla. If you are waiting in line behind a F150 Lightning and a Ioniq 5 now, what is the point?
Not in the Midwest, Tesla stations have 10 spots at least – up to 50 at larger stations, and I generally see maybe 1-2 other cars on average.
But that’s going to change as the brands that are moving to NACS get connectors out there. Since Ford is at the front of that pack, this move is the start of a shift in the cars at those stations.
At this point only a few locations have the chargers with the Magic Dock that allows you to charge CCS cars and those are the only adapters in the wild right now. So not yet but I do expect it to get worse.
I’d much rather see standardized charging than a brand advantage. But, yeah, the Tesla charging advantage is going to disappear.
Tesla has apprx 50% market share on BEVs. If all other automakers get access then there are about double as many cars that can use them. Then, if you consider PHEV as well you can add a few more cars. So, demand should go up but it’s really a matter of what the supply looks like on Tesla’s side that will determine how crowded it gets.
If your spot is crowded now this isn’t going to make it any better.
My guess is that in the near future the regs for charger subsidies will change to include NACS only chargers as well, then a bunch of private companies and possibly the government will contract Tesla to make a ton of NACS chargers, and Tesla will put in a few Tesla only coded chargers at the same locations on their own dime.
Tesla still has a massive advantage over the other brands when it comes to the EV experience and it’ll be several years before the other’s catch up, though them being unable to use NACS was a massive hurdle in their way.
I think the regs already did change, or if not, they fulfilled the requirements by turning NACS into an SAE standard.
C’mon GM! Let’s get some news like this!
$100 retail doesn’t mean that’s how much it costs to build…
I don’t expect it costs more than $20 for Ford, It is just a hunk of plastic with 4 conductors and 8 terminals.
Expect used prices to go up, great news and makes these EV far more usable. The network is the best part of owning a Tesla, and if it works as well for Fords as it does with Tesla (no apps, plug in and flowing electrons in 2-3 seconds) this will sell a lot of cars – new and used.
As a Mach-E owner I’ll believe it when I see it. We also were promised blue cruise with lane changes via over the air updates in summer 2023 and are still waiting.
As a surprise bonus the latest over the air update prepping the cars for updated blue cruise actually broke the existing version of blue cruise disabling all lane keeping functions.
So yeah. Ford may say this is coming soon but I’ll believe it when it shows up in my mailbox.
Software is much harder to get right, especially anything related to any level of autonomous driving, when compared to hardware.
These are easy. Getting enough of them ready to mail out to feel safe making the announcement was probably the longest part about getting them ready
An argument that would be much more persuasive had I not just taken my MachE in for a hardware recall they announced they had enough parts to implement, only to discover that they didn’t actually have enough parts, and they might have them by April or May but no promises.
So yeah. I’m unenthused by ‘soon.’
Oh the line was ‘Ford didn’t anticipate the demand for the part… yeah I know it sounds stupid too, they know how many cars they built and they all needed a replacement, but that’s what Ford corporate told our service department.’
So unless they’ve figured out how to count better, my guess is that adapter roll out may be a long time coming after the sign ups.
This news definitely makes a Lightning or Mach-e a more attractive purchase. Not that I’m in the market myself, but I could see recommending one to people who ask my advice.