SAE International earlier this week released a new Technical Information Report (TIR) for a standard that the organization says will dramatically increase access to charging for North American electric vehicle (EV) drivers. The SAE J3400 North American Charging Standard (NACS) Electric Vehicle Coupler Technical Information Report (TIR) was developed through broad-based industry consensus in the SAE Hybrid-EV J3400 NACS Electric Vehicle Coupler Task Force, which was formed after SAE announced it would standardize on the Tesla-developed NACS connector in June 2023.

“The J3400 task force represents government and industry collaboration at its best: working tirelessly to complete this milestone in reliability for EV drivers in six months,” said Christian Thiele, Director, Global Ground Vehicle Standards at SAE International.

The J3400 announcement follows months of momentum for North American region’s industry-wide adoption of NACS. Also this week, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Scout Motors were just the latest brands to announce that they planned implementation of the NACS for future products in the North American region beginning in 2025. This allows the VW Group brands to expand customer charging access to more than 15,000 Tesla Superchargers and the more than 3800 DC fast charging outlets currently in operation by Electrify America and Electrify Canada. Electrify America had already announced it will work to offer the NACS connector at charging stations by 2025 in North America while continuing to support CCS (Combined Charging System) couplers.

“Earlier this year, the North American Charging standard was just an idea,” said Rebecca Tinucci, Senior Director of Charging at Tesla. “Today, with the VW Group’s commitment, almost every major automotive manufacturer is onboard, rallying behind a shared vision of improving charging experiences for all EV drivers. This is only the beginning of our industry-wide efforts to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

SAE credits the U.S. government’s Joint Office of Energy and Transportation for fostering the SAE-Tesla partnership to expedite plans to standardize NACS, which plays a key role in building an interoperable national charging network that will work for EV drivers with multiple kinds of charging connectors.

“As the Joint Office supports the buildout of a convenient and reliable national charging network, open and interoperable standards are crucial to ensuring that every EV can charge at any station,” said Gabe Klein, Executive Director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.

According to SAE, the standardization process involved experts from the automotive, EV charging, academic, and government sectors. The consensus-based approach is key for maintaining NACS and validating its ability to meet performance and interoperability criteria and is an important step in building an interoperable national charging network that will work for all EV drivers.

“Standardizing the NACS connector will provide certainty, expanded choice, reliability, and convenience to manufacturers and suppliers and, most of all, increase access to charging for consumers,” said Frank Menchaca, President of Sustainable Mobility Solutions, an innovation arm of SAE affiliate Fullsight, when the process began.

The new NACS connector standard is one of several key SAE initiatives to strengthen the North American EV charging infrastructure. This includes SAE-ITC’s Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for cybersecure charging and its close cooperation with National Labs to contribute to reliability design for the national ChargeX Consortium.

“Taken together, these efforts will contribute substantially to SAE’s commitment to secure, clean, and connected transportation accessible to everyone,” said David L. Schutt, CEO of SAE International.

In addition to benefiting EV drivers, SAE says the standard will help ensure that any supplier or manufacturer can use, manufacture, or deploy the J3400 connector for EVs and charging stations across North America.

“SAE J3400 provides a blueprint for cost-effective mass electrification of transportation in North America,” said Dr. Rodney McGee, Chairman of the SAE J3400 NACS Task Force, and Research Engineer at the Transportation Electrification Center at the University of Delaware. “It facilitates broad interoperability for EV charging solutions by providing a unified, compact connector for both AC and DC charging. It is compatible with bring your own cord solutions that make J3400 an optimal approach for AC power transfer for street charging, parking garages/lots, and multi-unit or mixed-use buildings.”

This standardized approach also means that the same utility power feeds for DC fast charging can be used for single-phase AC charging, eliminating the need for separate circuit panels and additional step-down transformers at charging sites, resulting in lower infrastructure costs and higher efficiencies.

 

Kevin Jost contributed to this article.