Mercedes-Benz has agreed to install the Tesla charging port in all its EVs sold in North America, becoming the first German car brand to do so. Despite this decision, the company is still planning to expand its own network of rapid-charge stations on the continent.
Mercedes will proceed in the same fashion the other companies did when they agreed to adopt the NACS standard. Starting next year, all Mercedes-Benz cars with the company’s proprietary CCS charging port on board will enjoy access to Supercharger stations thanks to a special adaptor plug released this spring. This will give Mercedes EV owners 12,000+ new charging locations across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Starting from 2025, the adaptor will go obsolete for all newly produced cars, which will be manufactured with Tesla’s NACS port by default.
At the same time, the German company hopes to expand its own High-Power Charging network. The strategy envisions over 2,000 stations with over 10,000 individual charging terminals worldwide by the end of the decade. The term ‘worldwide’ refers here to what the brand considers its high-priority markets in terms of EV expansion; countries less focused on electric cars may be left out.