Honda has confirmed that its and Acura’s vehicles in North America will adopt NACS, a charging connector designed by Tesla’s NACS.
That move is driven by GM’s own adoption of th charging standard and Honda’s dependence on GM’s EV platform in North America.
Honda has been expected to announce its adoption of NACS – not just because of all the momentum behind the standard, but because GM has already announced it would adopt NACS in its electric vehicles starting in 2025.
Considering that Honda’s next two electric vehicles to come to the North American markets, the Prologue and Acura ZDX, are both using GM’s Ultium platform, it made sense that Honda would have to follow.
Sure enough, Honda officials have confirmed the move in an interview with Autoblog.
American Honda Motor Co. President and CEO Noriya Kaihara said about the move to NACS:
“It is quite important. We also have to push NACS, as well. It is clear.”
Shinji Aoyama, Executive Vice President of Honda Motor Co., added:
“We clearly depend on GM. Once they [switch to NACS], this will follow for ZDX, as well.”
This would mean a switch to NACS in 2025, but the company has yet to announce a deal with Tesla to use the Supercharger network or get adapters.
But it sounds like this is the plan since Jay Joseph, American Honda’s Vice President of Sustainability and Business Development, praised the Tesla Supercharger maintenance:
“If you look at what’s so great about the Tesla Supercharger network, it’s the maintenance. They stay on top of it, they’ve got someone onsite monitoring the equipment, they’re monitoring it electronically and remotely, and they fix it – fast. That’s probably the most important thing.”
While access to the Supercharger network would certainly help Honda EV buyers, the Japanese automaker was also one of seven auto giants to announce that they will partner in building a new EV charging network in North America.