Today, GM announced three additional adapters to help EV owners charge at home or in public. And while I’m sure that GM thought it was presenting the information as clearly as it could, I can’t help but wonder what normal, non-EV owners must think of all this.
The new adapters are intended to help customers transitioning between the old CCS way of charging to a future dominated by Tesla charging. The vast majority of automakers have committed to adopting the NACS standard for charging, acknowledging that Tesla’s Supercharger network is superior to the mostly CCS-equipped third-party charging stations that exist today.
I can’t help but wonder what normal, non-EV owners must think of all this.
The automakers said they would begin manufacturing EVs with NACS ports built in, but non-Tesla EV owners could access Tesla’s Superchargers by using CCS-to-NACS adapters in the meantime.
But the changeover has been slow going. The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 was the first non-Tesla EV to go on sale with a native NACS port. But to the best of my knowledge, there haven’t been any others. GM says its upcoming Cadillac Optiq-V will be its first EV with a built-in NACS charging port, but that vehicle won’t be available until later this year. The 2027 Chevy Bolt will also have a native NACS port, out next year.
In the meantime, there’s a growing family of dongles to address this weird, in-between place we’re in right now with EV charging. There’s the typical CCS-to-NACS adapters that most automakers are selling to their customers. And now there’s the NACS-to-J1772 adapter for Level 2 charging — J1772 being the part of the CCS plug used for slower charging. And when GM starts producing EVs with native NACS ports, there will be two more adapters available: J1772-to-NACS dongles for slow charging and CCS-to-NACS ones for fast charging.
Here’s GM’s infographic that “explains” all this:
Again, what’s a normal, non-EV-owning — but perhaps EV-curious — person to think about all this? Are they really going to give up the warm embrace of gas pumps for this adapter hell? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that GM is offering more adapters to its customers for added flexibility for all levels of charging. That is undeniably a good thing.
But we already know that EV charging can be a bit of a head-scratcher. EV owners have complained about varying charging speeds, non-standardized plug types and networks, a lack of price transparency for public charging, and issues with communication between car and charger. It’s getting better, and most people who do most of their charging at home shouldn’t have too many problems. But if you’re trying to bring new people into the experience, this isn’t helpful.
I’m worried that the growing list of adapters that EV owners will need to acquire to account for any charging scenario could be a significant roadblock in the path to EV adoption — one that is already littered with significant obstacles. I’m trying to imagine my mother, who owns a Ford Mustang Mach-E and who struggles with the basics of smartphone operation, navigating all these adapters while on the road to Palm Springs to visit her friends.
It’s a lot to ask! Let’s hope there’s a whole world of simplified EV charging just over that next hill.
