By Hyunjoo Jin and Samrhitha A
(Reuters) -SK Signet said on Thursday it will introduce electric-vehicle chargers compatible with Tesla’s technology this year, following recent moves by major automakers Ford and GM to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS).
Electric vehicle charging companies are cautiously embracing Tesla’s charging design, as they are in danger of losing out on customers if they offer only the Combined Charging System (CCS) backed by automakers like Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor.
SK Signet, which counts charging station operators Electrify America, EVgo and others as its customers, said it has started development of its ultra-fast chargers that will be able to simultaneously charge EVs using NACS and CCS.
The White House last week said that EV charging stations that offer Tesla plugs would be eligible for billions of dollars in federal subsidies as long as they included CCS connectivity. The White House aims to spur deployment of hundreds of thousands of chargers, which it sees as integral to EV adoption.
“SK Signet will continue to expand charging options for EVs, including those with NACS standards, to support the build-out of a robust U.S. charging network,” said Seung-June Oh, president of SK Signet America.
SK Signet, acquired by South Korea’s conglomerate SK Group in 2021, is one of the major charging equipment makers. Earlier this month, the company opened its first U.S. manufacturing center in Texas, with the capacity to make more than 10,000 ultra-fast chargers a year.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Samrhitha Arunasalam in BengaluruEditing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)
