MotorTrend Best Tech 2025: NACS, the Deeply Innovative North American Charging System
Customer satisfaction and improved usability help make NACS our pick of the best public charging experience technology.
Public charging of electric vehicles got off to a rocky start as non-Tesla EVs first began proliferating. Given that no competitor decided to expend the effort to develop its own bespoke charging network as Tesla had, third parties were left to fill in the gaps with networks that have largely lagged in customer satisfaction. That is changing at last, with other automakers switching to Tesla’s network and various automakers and consortia opening new, elevated charging centers—all of which we considered for our Best Public Charging Experience award. Of these, the recently rebranded and now SAE-blessed North American Charging System (NACS) was the clear winner, pointing the way forward for all public charging.
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The simple user experience of manipulating and attaching the slimmer, smarter NACS cord has always been vastly superior to the struggle one faces when connecting a clunky combined CCS plug for DC fast charging. And although a J1772 AC Level 1 or 2 connector is no harder to handle than the (all-levels) NACS connector, the Tesla-developed one is vastly superior here, too, because it's so much smarter. If a ground-fault interruption in your power supply disrupts a charging session, the NACS communication protocol will detect and communicate this, sparing drivers any uncertainty that could result in an unnecessary service call or dealer visit.
The recent SAE J3400 NACS framework includes a host of error-code diagnostics recommended by the National Charging Experience Consortium (ChargeX) and is capable of reporting a much wider array of faults, including whether the cord-to-vehicle lock is responding. (If it’s not, the cord has probably been vandalized.) This innovation promises to greatly improve the charging network user experience.
To speed future charging sessions, the NACS network is prepared to support 1-megawatt charging, either at 1,000 volts and 900-amp current when cooling is provided only on the charger side, or at 1,000 amps when both the charger and vehicle socket are cooled. (No vehicle has yet provided a cooled socket.)
A huge value proposition built into NACS, which may or may not lower costs for end consumers but certainly benefits them by encouraging proliferation of chargers, is its ability to deliver Level 2 charging using a wider variety of input voltages. The J1772 network was developed primarily for residential 208- to 240-volt power, but NACS can handle up to 277 volts. That’s the two-phase voltage that naturally arrives with a commercial building’s 480-volt three-phase feed. Because NACS can accept this higher AC voltage, building owners need not install costly transformers to power Level 2 chargers. (NACS also directly supports three-phase AC fast charging at 52 kW via a different J3068 vehicle-end plug, which could be a boon for commercial EV fleets that only charge at their home base.)
A final NACS innovation that also promises to greatly improve user experience and value is its support of the global “bring your own cable” Level 2 charging concept, which greatly lowers the cost of making electricity publicly available and hence may ultimately be the key to attracting apartment dwellers to EVs. In this concept, infrastructure like streetlamp posts can include a simple socket that accepts an IEC 62196-2 Type 2 connector of the type broadly used throughout Europe. NACS supports communication (and billing) via this type of connector, which locks itself to both the post and the car using the vehicle’s locking system to prevent theft.
America is at an interesting point in its electrification journey, in terms of government push versus customer pull to market. We think NACS will encourage customer pull by making EVs more inherently attractive, and hence it wins our 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech Award: Public Charging Experience.
2025 MotorTrend Best Tech Award Public Charging Experience Finalists
Electrify America Indoor Flagship Station: Located near the Bay Bridge, this flagship station offers 20 of EA’s fastest 350-kW towers to charge as customers relax in a climate-controlled lounge area with food and beverage vending and complimentary Wi-Fi, restrooms, and 24-hour monitoring and security. We look forward to EA (and Mercedes-Benz below) bringing this concept closer to our (and everybody else’s) stomping grounds.
Mercedes-Benz Charging Hub: Similar in concept to the EA station, Mercedes-Benz has opened roughly 20 of a planned network of 2,000 global charging hubs. Open to all marques, the hubs offer 400-kW max charging rates, delivering 100 percent green electricity, some of which is gathered by rooftop solar arrays. All offer one uncovered pull-through spot for those towing tall trailers, and one disabled access space closest to the lounge.
Rivian Charger Reliability Score: Rivian now leverages its connectivity to passively assess and rate all the public fast chargers its vehicles use, noting average and peak speed, payment ease, and overall session success, then endeavors to route vehicles to top-ranked chargers. We’d love it even more if Rivian pooled data from other connected fleets and shared it with other brands.
Superchargers opening to non-Teslas: Tesla opening its network to other manufacturers for use with plug adapters was headline news promising to broaden the available network of reliable charging. But not every Tesla charging station works with every non-Tesla EV, and integrating this information into every charging app and vehicle navigation system has proven challenging.
More 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech Winners
Infotainment • Driver Assistance • Chassis Tech
I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
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