Volvo is the first foreign automaker to announce the adoption of Tesla’s NACS EV charging standard.
With a Tuesday confirmation, Volvo said that future Volvo models, starting in 2025, will get the NACS connector for North America.
Volvo appeared to indicate that the upcoming $35,000 EX30 EV and U.S.-made EX90, which are both due to arrive for first U.S. deliveries before 2025, will still have the CCS interface. It said those models—as well as the XC40 and C40 Recharge already offered, will be able to be charged on the Tesla Supercharger network with an adapter that will be available in the first half of 2024. At that time, the Supercharger network will also be included in the Volvo Cars app.
Volvo EX30 charging
The sheer number of additional charging options is the advantage this announcement brings to owners. Volvo drivers will have access to 12,000 Tesla Superchargers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the company said. Although it bears emphasis that in the U.S., while there are more Tesla connectors, there are more CCS locations.
Green Car Reports has reached out to Volvo to clarify how this will affect its plug-in hybrid models, which have been a significant and important portion of the lineup, topping 20% of U.S. sales for the past couple years in the transition toward full-electric vehicles.
Volvo doesn’t currently have any models that charge at 800 volts—a potential issue for automakers such as GM as Tesla’s current Supercharger V3 standard doesn’t allow that. V4 of the interface, which is just starting to arrive, will.
Tesla Supercharger
Volvo follows Ford, GM, and Rivian—all U.S.-based automakers—in adopting the NACS standard. It’s shift that has acted as a wake-up call for the charging industry, which has, as a whole, failed to act quickly enough amid widespread technical issues and downtime. Volvo plugged into CCS in 2016 and was the last major European automaker that sells vehicles in North America to jump on the CCS bandwagon.
