Mercedes-Benz to adopt Tesla’s EV charging standard in North America

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Mercedes-Benz announced its electric vehicle drivers will be able to use Tesla (TSLA) superchargers starting next year and that it will fully adopt the company’s charging standard in 2025.

It joins a growing list of automakers who have made similar deals with Tesla. The Mercedes-Benz arrangement moves Tesla another step towards becoming widely adopted as the EV industry standard.

The German luxury automaker will fully integrate what Tesla calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) in its electric vehicle line-up, it said on Friday. There are more than 12,000 Tesla supercharger stations North American drivers can access starting next year.

Superchagers are Tesla’s name for its fast charging stations.

Mercedes also will build its own charging network that will be accessible for a “wide range” of EV owners. It plans to make more than 2,000 charging hubs in North America, Europe and China by the end of the decade. North America will have 400 of these.

Long stretches without EV chargers

As many US states push for electric vehicle adoption, some critics have pointed out that long stretches of highway lack the charging infrastructure to make the cars a viable option for many Americans. The issue is growing in urgency: Several states, including California and New York, have passed bills to restrict the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

In November, Tesla CEO Elon Musk invited other EV makers to build vehicles that could use Tesla charging ports.

In May, Ford (F) announced its vehicles will gain access to Tesla’s vast EV charging network. Rivian and GM have also joined. Now, Mercedes.

“With the development of Mercedes-Benz’s new North American High-Power Charging Network, we are ready to redefine the electric vehicle charging experience,” Andrew Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz HPC North America said in a statement.

Mercedes said it’s the first German manufacturer to implement the NACS ports into its new electric vehicles. It will also offer a plug adapter for vehicles with the Combined Charging System made before 2025.

CCS chargers are used by most other EV makers, including General Motor, Audi, and Rivian, but Tesla’s charging stations outnumber CCS stations in the United States.

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CNN’s Peter Valdes-Dapena and Samantha Delouya contributed to this report.