Volkswagen says that its electric cars will be able to charge at Tesla’s Supercharger network starting in March, reports PC Magazine.
In 2022, Tesla announced it would open its charging network, lured by big money promised in President Biden’s federal EV charging grants.
For a while it seemed like a bit of a hail mary, as many thought that most of the industry was already committed to the SAE CCS standard for fast charging.
But then, in 2023, Ford announced it would adopt Tesla’s connector, and all the dominos started to fall. Soon enough, basically the entire industry had announced a shift to Tesla’s charging standard.
For a time, though, VW was a holdout. It wasn’t until December 2023 – half a year after Ford’s announcement – that VW committed to switching to NACS in 2025 (though really, they were just waiting for SAE’s certification of the standard, which was completed a few days prior).
Well, now we’re here in 2025, and VW says they’re ready to step up.
Today at CES, VW PR director Mark Gillies confirmed to PC Magazine that “we get access to the network in March, but we won’t have official adapters available until early summer around June.”
This means that the VW EVs available in the US – the ID.4 crossover SUV (which just restarted sales after a door handle recall) and the brand new ID. Buzz minivan, should be able to charge within months, as long as everything goes as planned.
Currently, VW isn’t even listed on Tesla’s NACS page, which mentions that Ford, Rivian, GM, Volvo, Polestar, and Nissan vehicles can all charge on Tesla’s charging network.
But VW is surprisingly absent from the “coming soon” section of that page. The only manufacturer currently listed as “coming soon” is Mercedes-Benz, and generally manufacturers have spent more than 2 months on that page before gaining access.
So this is a bit of a surprise announcement from VW, but certainly welcome, as 2 months isn’t that far away. Then again, we have witnessed miscommunications in this respect before, so maybe Tesla just didn’t want to jump the gun again, like it did with Nissan.
But VW recognizes that the process might not be immediate, and says adapters won’t go out until summer. While activating the software to allow vehicles onto the network might happen in March, adapters have taken some manufacturers time to make and ship out. Ford, for example, not only delayed its adapter rollout, but also had to replace some adapters – so VW’s caution might be warranted.
There are third-party adapters available for those who really can’t wait that extra 3 months, but it’s generally recommended to use the official manufacturer adapter, rather than a third-party one.
VW’s confirmation today doesn’t specify whether its sub-brands, Audi and Porsche, would be on the same timeline. But since the three brands committed to NACS in a joint announcement, it stands to reason that they could be on the same timeline to get access and adapters.
Electrek’s Take
Given that VW was one of the last manufacturers to officially adopt NACS, it’s nice to see them keeping to their timeline – and possibly beating some other manufacturers to the punch too.
This could also be a sign that we’ll start seeing more of a flood of manufacturers getting access soon. The transition is supposed to happen “throughout 2025” after all, and, well, that’s where we are. But the casual nature with which VW has confirmed this timeline suggests that perhaps this transition is really about to get on a roll.
So, look forward to having a lot more interesting sights to see at Superchargers, as the menagerie gets more varied throughout the year.
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