The NACS coalition in North America is almost complete, with Lucid to adopt the NACS charging connector for all of its electric cars by 2025.

The company said that vehicles built with the current Combined Charging System (CCS1) will be able to charge at stations in the Tesla Supercharger network by using an adapter starting in 2025. In parallel, Lucid will integrate the NACS into its future vehicles during the same period so they will be natively compatible with NACS.

This move basically mirrors what other EV manufacturers have previously announced. However, in the case of Lucid, the support of high-voltage battery systems –some as high as 1,000 volts– is especially important. Otherwise, the switch to the NACS and access to Tesla Superchargers would not be an optimum solution. It was already seen that a Lucid Air could only charge at just around 50 kilowatts at V3 Tesla Superchargers (which are rated at up to about 500 volts) with an integrated CCS1 adapter. That’s roughly six times slower than at high-voltage CCS1 chargers, which charge at 300+ kilowatts.

The Tesla-developed NACS will eventually be able to offer high-voltage charging matching CCS1, according to Tesla, but it’s not commonplace yet. Until such chargers are introduced and deployed in volume, Lucid and other EV manufacturers using high-voltage battery systems don’t have any reason to hurry up the switch.

Peter Rawlinson, the CEO and CTO at Lucid, underlined the importance of “the nationwide rollout of future-ready higher-voltage charging stations”:

“Adopting NACS is an important next step to providing our customers with expanded access to reliable and convenient charging solutions for their Lucid vehicles. We believe that a unified charging standard, backed by the nationwide rollout of future-ready higher-voltage charging stations, will be a critical step in empowering American consumers to adopt electric vehicles.”

Lucid currently offers only one model, the Lucid Air, which will soon be joined by the Lucid Gravity – an all-electric SUV.

With Lucid on board, the automaker joins others including Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Fisker, Honda, Jaguar, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, BMW Group (BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce), Toyota (with Lexus), and Subaru. We are now waiting for the Volkswagen Group and Stellantis (and all of their accompanying brands) to catch up.