Ford EVs gain access to Tesla Superchargers starting today
Enlarge / Ford was the first OEM to announce it was switching to J3400, and it's the first automaker to gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network. (credit: Ford)
Today, Ford electric vehicles gained access to the Tesla Supercharger network. LastMay, the Blue Oval was the first automaker to throw its lot in with what was then called the North American Charging Standard and is now known as J3400. Ford proved to be the first domino falling, and with Stellantis' announcement earlier this month that it too would move to J3400, the more compact DC fast-charging plug will be the de facto standard in the next couple of years.
Until Ford made the switch, every non-Tesla EV in North America had settled on the Combined Charging Standard 1 plug (with the exception of the Nissan Leaf, which still uses CHAdeMO). CCS1 and J3400 use the same electronic communication protocols-only the actual plug and socket are different.
But it will take some time for car makers to start building J3400 ports into their EVs. That should begin next year, probably with the introduction of model year 2026. This means that EVs older than MY26 will need to use a passive adapter to mate a J3400 charger cable with a CCS1-equipped EV.