Building a North American EV Charging Standard: The Moment of Truth
6 hours ago
- #Sustainability
- #Infrastructure
- #EV Charging
- Raj Jhaveri is CTO of Greenlane Infrastructure.
- EV charging in North America lacks reliability and standardization, unlike gas stations.
- A convergence of technology, policy, and market forces presents an opportunity to improve EV charging infrastructure.
- Automakers are adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), potentially unifying plug standards.
- Federal NEVI funding mandates reliability, credit card access, and uptime transparency.
- Megawatt charging for freight is emerging as a priority with the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) standard.
- Companies like Pilot, Love’s, Greenlane, and Prologis are investing heavily in charging infrastructure.
- North America’s EV charging challenges differ from Europe’s due to longer distances and fragmented regulation.
- Standardization benefits utilities, manufacturers, and investors by lowering costs and improving grid stability.
- By 2026, NACS, OCPP, and NEVI could form a de facto North American standard.
- Wireless charging and V2G face hurdles but may become viable in the future.
- North America risks a fragmented system if alignment fails as EV demand peaks.