US. Tesla May Finally Be Ramping Up Charging Adapter Production

Drivers of Ford, General Motors and other non-Tesla EVs, rejoice. Your NACS adapter may soon be arriving.

In a post to the social media platform X, Tesla’s official charging account announced that the automaker’s upstate New York factory is ramping up NACS adapter production.

Adapters will allow EVs from other automakers like Ford, General Motors and Hyundai to access Tesla’s Supercharger network once the companies give the green light.

Many car companies announced they would switch to Tesla’s charging standard last year, starting with these adapters. But the rollout has been slow.

This was supposed to be the year when drivers of electric vehicles from Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia and more would have a much easier time doing road trips—or even finding plugs on a regular basis. That’s because, in 2023, pretty much every automaker operating in the U.S. announced an eventual switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, as well as access to Tesla’s charging network, starting with adapters that would let their cars physically work with Tesla’s plugs.

But as we approach September of 2024, it’s clear that this pivot is taking much longer than expected. That’s because the rollout of said adapters—which are manufactured by Tesla—has taken a long time, as have the behind-the-scenes agreements and software updates that would allow charger access to happen.

Finally, we’re getting some good news on this front—potentially. On X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter (and now owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk), Tesla’s official charging account announced that the automaker’s upstate New York factory was working to ramp up adapter manufacturing:

Beyond that, no other details were disclosed. Tesla as a company does not respond to questions from the media. It’s also not immediately clear how many adapters the Buffalo factory was making recently. It is also not clear what other suppliers the automakers may now be using.

But based on comments to InsideEVs from people who work at a multitude of automakers—many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity—Tesla has been the primary holdup around getting more chargers out and more cars on the network.

In part, sources say, this was because of Musk’s mass layoffs at the charging team earlier this year as the company now seeks to pivot to robotaxis and artificial intelligence. The lack of employees in that division has not only slowed adapter production, industry sources say, but it also meant a pause on the software updates needed to get non-Tesla EVs to even work with the Supercharger network.

Since the spring layoffs, Tesla’s charging division has slowly been re-hiring again, including many former employees who previously were let go. Opening up its charging network was supposed to unlock billions of dollars in revenue, as well as federal funding.