The first Japanese manufacturer has joined the NACS trend in North America, as Nissan will adopt NACS (Tesla’s North American Charging Standard) connectors for its new vehicles starting in 2025. Nissan has announced that in two years, it will start equipping its electric cars in the United States and Canada with NACS charging inlets for AC and DC charging scenarios.

Nissan is the first Japanese electric car manufacturer to officially confirm an agreement with Tesla and the switch from the Combined Charging System (CCS1) to NACS in North America, following a similar decision made by Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, and Mercedes-Benz earlier this month.

According to Nissan, the switch will impact the Nissan Ariya model (which is currently CCS1-compatible) and “future EV models”, while the press release remained silent about the Nissan Leaf – which is equipped with both a CHAdeMO DC charging inlet and an SAE J1772 AC charging inlet. That’s potentially because the Leaf might be retired from the market by the time of the switch, since the car was first launched in 2010.

Existing Nissan customers who use a CCS1-compatible Ariya will receive a NACS-to-CCS1 adapter option, enabling them to access the Tesla Supercharging network in North America, at some point in 2024. The new NACS-compatible electric Nissans will be natively compatible with Superchargers, while the backward compatibility with CCS1 chargers will be secured by CCS1-to-NACS adapters – the same that Tesla uses for its cars.

“From 2024, Nissan will make available a NACS charging adapter for Ariya models which are currently equipped with the Combined Charging System 1 (CCS1) for DC fast charging. This will enable customers to connect their vehicle’s charging port to NACS plugs at compatible chargers.

Starting in 2025, Nissan will begin offering EVs for the U.S. and Canadian markets with a NACS port.”

Welcome Nissan owners to Superchargers across North America ⚡️ https://t.co/j78oF1Eb1E

— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) July 19, 2023

Nissan adopting the NACS charging standard likely means the same for its premium brand, Infiniti, and the Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi brand. It also strengthens the NACS coalition and encourages other Japanese manufacturers to do the same.

Nissan intends to significantly increase its electric car sales in the coming years. Currently, the share of all-electric cars in its sales volume is just a few percent, but as part of Ambition 2030, the company would like to exceed a 40% share in the US by 2030, “with even more to be electrified” as potential hybrids.

The brand’s all-electric car sales are expected to accelerate when two all-new models, locally assembled at the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, will be launched in late 2025.