Mercedes adopts Tesla charging, nonetheless plans personal charging community

Mercedes-Benz is the newest of a number of automakers to announce plans to undertake the Tesla charging connector and grant its prospects entry to Tesla’s huge charging community, although Mercedes remains to be shifting forward with plans for its personal upscale charging community for its prospects.

Mercedes EV house owners will have the ability to use the Tesla charging community beginning in 2024, the automaker introduced on Friday. An adapter will permit present Mercedes EVs, which use the Mixed Charging Customary (CCS) connector, to interface with Tesla’s connector, which Tesla has styled because the North American Charging Customary (NACS).

New Mercedes EVs could have a Tesla connector built-in beginning in 2025 within the North American area, however the automaker did not say whether or not it could part out CCS and use the Tesla connector completely.

Mercedes confirmed that it’s nonetheless planning its personal charging community, however now with each NACS and CCS connectors. Introduced on the 2023 CES earlier this yr, the charging community will include 400 “charging hubs” with greater than 2,500 particular person chargers in North America by the tip of the last decade. That will probably be a lot smaller than the Tesla community, which at the moment has greater than 12,000 chargers in North America.

Mercedes-Benz EV charging community

“To speed up the shift to electrical automobiles, we’re devoted to elevating the complete EV expertise for our prospects—together with quick, handy, and dependable charging options wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them,” Ola Källenius, Mercedes’ CEO, stated in an announcement.

Ford and Common Motors have made related offers with Tesla to make use of its charging community, and have additionally introduced plans to make use of the NACS connector in future automobiles. They have been quickly adopted by Rivian, Volvo, and Polestar. Hyundai, Volkswagen Group, and Stellantis have all indicated they might observe go well with.