Tesla’s proprietary charging connector has become the default plug for electric vehicles across North America, and the automakers that once backed a rival standard are now racing to adopt it. Ford began routing its EV owners to Tesla Superchargers in early 2024, General Motors committed to building the connector into new models starting in 2025, and the federal government formalized the design as an official standard. What started as one company’s hardware advantage has turned into an industry-wide shift that reveals how Tesla’s influence extends well beyond its own vehicles.
How Ford and GM Fell in Line
Ford became one of the first legacy automakers to give its customers direct access to Tesla’s charging network. Beginning February 29, 2024, Ford EV drivers gained Supercharger access through an over-the-air software update paired with a NACS-to-CCS adapter that owners could order directly from the company, as described in a detailed Forbes report. Ford also pointed drivers to so‑called Magic Dock locations, which accommodate non-Tesla vehicles without an adapter. The speed of the rollout was notable: rather than waiting for new vehicle models to ship with a different port, Ford used a software update to bridge the gap immediately and reassure hesitant buyers that charging access would not be a barrier.
General Motors followed a similar path. In a June 2023 announcement, GM said it would give customers access to 12,000 Tesla Superchargers, initially through an adapter and then by integrating the NACS port directly into new EVs starting in 2025. The practical effect is that two of Detroit’s largest automakers, companies that spent years promoting the competing CCS connector, conceded that Tesla’s plug had effectively won the North American market. That concession was not purely voluntary. Drivers consistently rated Tesla’s Supercharger network as more reliable and easier to use than the patchwork of CCS stations, and both Ford and GM recognized that charging anxiety was suppressing EV sales more than any shortcoming in their vehicles. By aligning with Tesla’s connector, they signaled to customers and dealers that the charging experience would begin to converge on a single, familiar standard.
A Federal Stamp of Approval
The industry shift gained official backing when SAE International published the J3400 standard based on Tesla’s NACS design, a move highlighted on the federal DriveElectric connector page. That publication did two things at once: it gave non-Tesla manufacturers a formal specification to build against, and it signaled that the federal government viewed the connector as fit for publicly funded infrastructure. With an SAE standard in place, suppliers can design cables, inlets, and charging hardware confident that they are building to a recognized norm rather than a proprietary spec controlled solely by Tesla. For automakers, the standard reduces legal and engineering uncertainty as they retool platforms to support the new inlet.
Federal policy has reinforced that direction. Under Federal Highway Administration rules, federally funded DC fast chargers can now include J3400/NACS adapters as long as a CCS1 option remains available, a dual-port approach codified in the NEVI program regulations. This framework ensures backward compatibility for the millions of CCS-equipped EVs already on the road while clearing a path for NACS dominance in future installations. A separate Request for Information published in March 2024 sought public input on the J3400 connector and performance-based charging options, with the Federal Register notice asking stakeholders to weigh in on reliability metrics, uptime requirements, and how best to structure federal funding. Together, these steps show regulators trying to standardize not just the plug, but the expectations around how well public charging should work.
Tesla’s Software Moat Runs Deeper Than Hardware
The charging connector story tends to dominate headlines, but it obscures a more consequential advantage that rivals have found much harder to replicate. Tesla’s financial filings reveal the scale of its software and services business. As of March 31, 2024, the company reported $3.50 billion in deferred revenue tied to Full Self-Driving (Supervised) access and maintenance, connectivity services, free Supercharging programs, and over-the-air software updates, according to its quarterly filing. That figure represents money customers have already paid for features Tesla will deliver or recognize as revenue over time, and it functions as a recurring income stream that no other automaker has matched at comparable scale.
The deferred revenue balance matters because it shows Tesla monetizing vehicles long after they leave the factory floor. Traditional automakers generate most of their profit at the point of sale or through financing and parts. Tesla, by contrast, treats the car as a platform for ongoing software transactions. Its annual report for the year ended December 31, 2024 details remaining performance obligations that stretch well beyond a single fiscal year, with the SEC filing underscoring how deeply embedded these revenue commitments are in the company’s business model. Ford, GM, and others have announced their own over-the-air update capabilities and subscription features, but none has disclosed deferred revenue figures in the same range, suggesting the gap between aspiration and execution remains wide. Even as competitors adopt Tesla’s plug, they still lack the software stack and customer base willing to pay for continuous digital upgrades.
Why Copying the Plug Is the Easy Part
The most common misread of this story is that adopting NACS puts legacy automakers on equal footing with Tesla. It does not. The connector is a piece of metal and plastic. What sits behind it (the software that manages charging sessions, routes drivers to available stalls, processes payments seamlessly, and pushes feature upgrades to vehicles already on the road) is where the real competitive separation lives. Tesla now lists multiple automakers as supported or coming to its Supercharger network, but the company retains control over the user experience, from how drivers authenticate to how pricing and congestion are displayed. For rivals, plugging into that ecosystem solves a near-term customer pain point while deepening their dependence on a competitor’s infrastructure and software.
Public policy is evolving in parallel. Federal agencies are investing heavily in charging corridors, grid upgrades, and battery supply chains, with the U.S. Department of Energy highlighting how national labs and grant programs are supporting EV infrastructure. Those initiatives may eventually foster more open, interoperable networks that dilute any single company’s influence over charging. For now, though, the rapid move toward J3400/NACS shows how a private design can become the de facto public standard when it is paired with a superior real-world experience. Copying the plug is relatively straightforward; matching the years of software iteration, data collection, and customer trust that made that plug ubiquitous is a far more difficult task for Tesla’s rivals.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
