This year, Tesla’s Supercharger network of DC fast chargers will open up to cater to just about every EV out there, and Ford owners will be the first non-Tesla drivers to take advantage of what is widely seen as the country’s best fast-charging network.
That’s because Ford was the first to strike a deal with Tesla to get access to the 22,000+ Supercharger stalls in North America. But for Ford EVs to actually charge at Tesla’s DC fast chargers, owners need an adapter because Tesla uses the NACS port and Ford has been using the CCS1 connection.
Get Fully Charged
Ford’s NACS adapter looks familiar
Owners of Ford-made EVs will soon start receiving their complimentary NACS to CCS1 adapter that willl enable them to top-up their cars at Tesla Supercharger stations across North America. As for the adapter itself, it looks very similar to Tesla’s own Magic Dock adapter which is used at some Superchargers in the U.S.
That adapter will come free of charge for owners of Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning EV owners in the United States and Canada, as Ford’s CEO Jim Farley said last month. Moreover, people who drive Ford EVs and want to top-up at a Supercharger won’t have to use Tesla’s smartphone app and will be able to use Ford’s app or the car’s infotainment system instead.
The blue oval automaker will start shipping the complimentary adapter this spring, and now we have a first look at what the NACS to CCS1 plug will look like, courtesy of Ford’s online parts catalog.
A photo of the adapter was posted online and X user @Eric_L_Roe was fast enough to get a screenshot of the part because the webpage didn’t survive long enough for us to witness it.
By the looks of it, it’s almost identical to the so-called Magic Dock adapter that Tesla uses at some of its Supercharger stations that are open to all EV makes. The original poster also went in the comments and said that the Ford adapter might actually be manufactured by Tesla, which would make sense since that’s the company that will be responsible if anything goes wrong during recharging.
The screenshot says the part number is VRK9Z10E805A and that it’s priced at $1, but as we mentioned earlier, owners of Ford EVs will get it for free, so it might be that the webpage that was spotted by the X user was just for testing purposes. After all, people might need extra adapters, and those will carry a cost–just not $1, we assume.
Read the full article here