The transition from CCS to NACS will unlock thousands more fast chargers for many EV drivers, but they'll need to know their adapters to get the most out of it.

In mid-2023, just as it seemed like the North American auto industry had settled on CCS1 as the default fast-charging plug, everything upended as Ford, then General Motors, then everyone else announced they were adopting the North American Charging Standard.

Originally developed by Tesla, NACS has a different plug but uses the same electronic communication protocols as CCS, and adoption of NACS thus makes all those non-Tesla electric vehicles compatible with the extensive Tesla Supercharger network.

GM's existing EV drivers got access to those 17,000-plus Superchargers last year—something that significantly upgraded the road-tripping experience with the Chevrolet Bolt, we discovered.

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There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about electric vehicle adoption here in the US. The current administration has made no secret of its hostility toward EVs and, as promised, has ended as many of the existing EV subsidies and vehicle pollution regulations as it could. After more than a year of month-on-month growth, EV sales started to contract, and brands like Genesis and Volvo have seen their customers reject their electric offerings, forcing portfolio rethinks. But wait, it gets worse.

Time and again, surveys and studies show that fears and concerns about charging are the main barriers standing in the way of someone switching from gas to EV. A new market research study by Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid confirms this, as it analyzes the charging infrastructure needs over the next decade. And one of the biggest hurdles—one that has gone mostly unmentioned across the decade-plus we've been covering this topic—is all the junk clogging up Americans' garages.

Want an EV? Clean out your garage

That's because, while DC fast-charging garners all the headlines and much of the funding, the overwhelming majority of EV charging is AC charging, usually at home—80 percent of it, in fact. People who own and live in a single family home are overrepresented among EV owners, and data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from a few years ago found that 42 percent of homeowners park near an electrical outlet capable of level 2 (240 V) AC charging.

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