Elon Musk Says Toyota “Should Join The NACS Coalition”

Tesla's outspoken CEO replied to a tweet about a lackluster charging experience with a Toyota bZ4X.

Toyota bZ4X electric crossover

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 15, 2023 at 7:53am ET

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks that Toyota – the maker of the bZ4X electric crossover – should join the so-called NACS coalition, according to a Twitter reply posted yesterday.

Musk refers to the group of automotive brands that recently decided to ditch the CCS1 connector in their electric vehicles in favor of the Tesla-designed North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. The partnership also lands them access to Tesla's Supercharger network of over 12,000 charging connectors across North America, which is widely regarded as the most reliable in the industry, with near-perfect uptime statistics.

Ford was the first to change things up, announcing that its EVs will be able to top-up their batteries at Supercharger stations with the help of an adapter starting next year. Then, starting in 2025, the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and E-Transit will be fitted with the NACS inlet from the factory, thus eliminating the need for an adapter.

General Motors soon followed in Ford's footsteps, announcing a similar deal with Tesla and saying that its EVs will also integrate with the Supercharger pay system, resulting in a seamless experience for GM vehicle owners, just like Tesla drivers have experienced from the beginning. Or at least that's the plan.

Several other companies such as Freewire and EVgo also hopped on the NACS wagon, and now Elon Musk appears to invite Toyota to do the same thing.

In the tweet embedded below, which links to a Business Insider article that describes the story of a nine-hour road trip with a Toyota bZ4X that needed an additional three hours for charging the batteries, Elon Musk replied: “They should join the NACS coalition!”

The Business Insider piece says that the Toyota was unwilling to charge at rates above 35 kilowatts, even when the battery's state of charge was at 37 percent, which is a far cry from what a Tesla is usually capable of accepting from a Supercharger.

Now, it's worth noting that even if the bZ4X had a NACS inlet instead of a CCS1 plug, it would still charge at the same rate, but with access to a much wider charging network, it's possible that the experience might have been a bit better.

What do you think?

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In any case, if Toyota decides to take up Elon Musk's offer, it would be another nail in the coffin of CCS1, considering that the Japanese car group has an ambitious plan of manufacturing 1.7 million EVs per year by 2030, which will benefit from a new, purpose-built platform and state-of-the-art battery tech that Toyota says will ultimately lead to driving ranges over 900 miles on a single charge.

As always, we'd like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.