• The Volkswagen Group is the latest to confirm that it will be switching to the Tesla charging standard.
• It will be adopting the standard from 2025 for its VW, Audi, Porsche, and Scout Motors.
• Toyota also announced that it would be adopting the standard earlier in the year.

As more car makers embrace electrification for their fleets, the important question of standardisation has cropped up, with different regions adopting different configurations when it comes to the ports and cables on electric vehicles.

In recent months many car makers have been opting for the Telsa charging standard, which is also the North American Charging Standard (NACS) moving forward, and now the Volkswagen Group is the latest to do so.

Tesla developed this standard in 2012, and has made it widely available to use by other car makers. It has since proved a wise move, given the company’s network of charging stations in the United States, which has now prompted many companies to adopt a similar standard for their charging technology.

As for Volkswagen, it will be officially adopting the standard from 2025 onwards, with it appearing on VW, Audi, Porsche, and Scout Motors. The latter is an EV startup that augments the luxury EV offerings with models that are a bit more affordable.

“This is great news for our electric vehicle customers in the North American Region. This potentially provides them with access to more than 15,000 additional charging points as well as the current near-4,000 DC fast charging outlets operated by Electrify America.  It would mean that customers of our fast-selling electric vehicles like the Volkswagen ID.4 will have access to an extensive and growing charging network,” noted Pablo Di Si, president and CEO of the Volkswagen Group of America.

“Today our customers already have access to thousands of charging sites across America thanks to Electrify America, with existing stations being renewed and new sites being added weekly. We are proud to announce that in 2025 we will also partner with Tesla to significantly expand the network of chargers throughout the U.S. that will become available to our customers,” added Timo Resch, president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America.

At this point it is important to point out that this switch in charging standards will be limited to the US alone for now, but with the likes of Toyota also adopting Tesla’s standard, we could see it being adopted in other parts of the world.

Much of this, however, will be dependent on which part of the world EV makers are shipping cars to and from. In the case of South Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia are the usual points of departure, so a mixed charging standard environment is likely to remain locally.