Texas sparks infighting with deferred plan to add more EV charging stations — here’s what it means for other states

Jeremiah Budin
·2 min read
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The state of Texas is set to install 50 electric vehicle charging stations along its highways, using money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This law established a program that will provide a total of $5 billion in funding over five years for a nationwide network of EV charging stations.

Unfortunately, the process of getting those EV charging stations approved is currently being held up due to industry infighting over the dominant type of chargers.

Reuters reported that the Texas Department of Transportation deferred a vote on the charging stations until August 16 after a group of EV chargers and operators “pushed back” against the state’s plan to mandate that Tesla’s North American Charging Standard plugs be included in each station.

The two predominant types of chargers in the U.S. are Tesla’s NACS plugs and the Combined Charging System plugs that most other electric cars use. These are not the only types of chargers in the world — China, for example, has its own standard type — but they are the two main rivals in the current American charging war.

While CCS is still the most common, NACS has recently seemed to be gaining ground and even made deals with automotive giants Ford and GM to integrate NACS ports with those companies’ EVs.

However, the companies that make money off CCS chargers are apparently not going down without a fight, having now stalled Texas’ efforts to roll out the new charging stations in an effort to derail the state’s stated goal of including NACS chargers.

It is unclear whether their efforts will be successful, but other states that plan on installing EV charging stations using federal funding are now looking to Texas to see how this all plays out.

“Texas is a bit of a bulwark. What they do sets a precedent for other state transport departments,” one anonymous executive from an EV charging company told Reuters. “The clout that they can throw around is pretty powerful.”

Now, many other states may delay their own plans until such a big state like Texas resolves the matter. As Reuters noted, Washington state is actively exploring similar measures, while Kentucky has already required Tesla’s NACS plugs to be included at EV charging stations.

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