Nearly a year ago, GM began selling an adapter to allow existing electric vehicles use the North American Charging Standard plugs at Tesla Supercharger stalls. EV owners rejoiced in their newfound freedom.
Now, GM is announcing three more adapters. The additional adapters, which help GM customers access EV chargers with different charging rates and standards, is a win for flexibility, but at the cost of simplicity. It’s entirely possible that two-EV households could own four different adapters.
Several years ago, the majority of EV models in the U.S. used the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard. That is, with the exception of Tesla. In 2022, the automaker opened up the design for its charging connector and charge port — which it now calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) — in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America.
And they did. Today, nearly all automakers are offering adapters to access Tesla Supercharger stations. They’re are even integrating the NACS design into their own vehicles.
“GM has already committed to essentially transitioning our whole EV portfolio over to NACS,” Tim Ash, director of hardware products for GM Energy, told TechCrunch. “We believe that moving to that unified standard simplifies the experience for our customers.”
But this shift has created an awkward transition — and an abundance of adapters.
In addition to the existing NACS-to-CCS adapter for fast charging, GM will sell a NACS-to-J1772 adapter for Level 2 charging. (J1772 is the part of the CCS plug that handles slower charging speeds.) For future GM EVs that are built with NACS ports, the automaker will make a J1772-to-NACS adapter for Level 2 charging and a CCS-to-NACS dongle for fast charging.
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The new adapters “make sure EV drivers — regardless of what charging type they have on their vehicle — can access essentially any charging wherever they need it,” Ash said.
This problem isn’t GM’s alone. Hyundai, for example, sells NACS-equipped 2025 Ioniq 5 EVs with two adapters, one each for Level 2 and fast charging at CCS-equipped chargers. But it is a sign the transition between EV charging standards will make public charging more confusing before it gets better.
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