Category: General

• California sees EV fast-charger creation continuing in 2025 and beyond
• Program offers funding now for “ready-to-build” charging projects at retailers
• Current $1.4B program is part of $10B EV-and-infrastructure plan

While the Trump DOT has frozen funds related to the federal EV charging buildout, that hasn’t stopped the creation of more publicly supported chargers in California—and plans for many more in the near future.  

Last week California announced a $55 million project, overseen by the California Energy Commission (CEC), supporting the installation of DC fast-charging stations at retail sites throughout the state, for locations that include convenience stores, gas stations, and hotels. 

While it’s a relatively small piece of the state’s latest $1.4 billion EV charging and hydrogen plan—all state funding—that it announced in December, its timing served to underscore a point: Much of California’s EV charger expansion is state-funded and will, simply, keep rolling with or without the rest of the country behind it. 

7-Eleven 7Charge EV fast-charging station

The latest $1.4 billion program covers 100% of the costs of approved, “ready-to-build” DC fast-charging projects, with up to $55,000 or $100,000 per charging port, depending on the power level. As the state emphasizes, disadvantaged communities and tribal land applications will be prioritized but aren’t required. 

“The CEC is reviewing the recent memo and coordinating with federal and state counterparts,” said spokesperson Harrison Reilly to Green Car Reports, regarding how the Trump move might affect future California charging funding. “We remain confident in our ability to continue serving Californians and leading the state to a 100 percent clean energy future for all.”

California’s own program, which will include new incentives for manufacturing, job training, and electric trucks and school buses, is part of the $10 billion it plans to spend on EVs and infrastructure as part of its $48 billion climate commitment by 2045. California says it’s already spent $2.3 billion since 2007 on EV infrastructure plus alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. Looking forward, it’s even considered adding its own $7,500 EV rebate that might exclude Tesla if the federal government nixes the tax credit.

While the state isn’t dependent on federal funds for building out public charging, it wouldn’t be completely unaffected. As the state noted in December’s program announcement, it has “also received billions from the Biden-Harris Administration for clean transportation.” 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in November 2021 included $7.5 billion toward EV charging, in two big bins of funding. Firstly, $5 billion for the deployment of a national EV charging infrastructure, focused around designated travel corridors, and the formation of “an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability” of charging.

EV fast-charging at Taco Bell

The second big bin of funding under the infrastructure law is sending $2.5 billion toward rural charging and underserved/disadvantaged communities. California, following its own funding distribution, has already emphasized EV affordability for low-income and disadvantaged communities—and with it, remedying corresponding EV fast-charging deserts. 

According to a report from the CEC itself, the state will need 1.2 million EV chargers by 2030 in order to meet the charging demands of the 7.5 million plug-in vehicles it sees in use by then. 

Nissan Leaf and Fermata Energy FE-15 bidirectional charger – Photo by Fermata Energy

Adding those chargers isn’t simply a matter of installing cabinets and connectors, but of grid upgrades in some cases. That same report also emphasized the importance of “vehicle-to-grid” (V2G) tech, part of bidirectional charging. It underscored that without the more widespread deployment of such tech, overall electricity consumption by electric passenger cars could boost electricity demand by 20% to 25% at peak times. 

While California will push ahead with its EV charger buildout almost unfazed, one of the biggest questions ahead may be viability of its market scenario, including higher levels of EV adoption. With weak EV sales growth expected nationally in 2025, it may be building farther ahead than it’s intended to.

Kia on Monday partially revealed production-ready sedan and hatchback versions of its EV4 compact electric vehicle.

First previewed in 2023 by a concept car, the production Kia EV4 sedan retains the concept’s sleek profile and bold, multi-faceted surfacing. The hatchback replaces the sedan’s tapered tail with a squared-off shape that also looks fairly distinctive.

New Kia EV4 sedan

Kia is only showing the exteriors of the EV4 sedan and hatch for now. A more thorough reveal will take place Feb. 24 during a Kia EV Day presentation in Tarragona, Spain, at which the automaker also says it will provide an update on its electrification strategy. Full details on the EV4 will follow on Feb. 27.

The EV4 is one of three smaller electric models Kia unveiled at its October 2023 Kia EV Day event, all of which are expected to reach production for at least some markets. The other two models were crossovers, including the EV3, which is close to the same size as the Volvo EX30, and the EV5, which is sized like the Kia Sportage, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4.

New Kia EV4 hatchback

Kia was quick at the time to say that the EV5 was not U.S.-bound, but it left the door open for the EV4 and EV3. A production-ready version of the EV3 was shown in May in of last year, and at the 2024 Los Angeles auto show last November, Kia America chief operating officer and executive vice president Steven Center told Green Car Reports that “we may see both” the EV4 and EV3 in the U.S.

A few months prior to that, a report said Kia was “developing a distinct North American model” of the EV3 targeting a $30,000 base price, to be built at the automaker’s factory in Monterey, Mexico, starting this year. The report didn’t mention the EV4, and Mexican production of any new EVs could be jeopardized by the Trump administration, which has threatened to levy tariffs against imports from that country.

• U.S. EV market share might be flat vs. 2024, but market expansion means 3% EV sales growth
• EV sales gained 58% looking past direct sales from Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, others
• California EV sales were close to flat for 2024, but non-Tesla EV sales gained 21%
• Policy wildcards include EV tax credit, tariffs, emissions policy, and charging infrastructure

Are U.S. EV sales still on the way up? 

The answer is yes, but there’s a complex set of factors at play, including the continued decline of Tesla sales, a rise in popularity of mainstream EV models, and all that’s potentially set to happen under a Trump administration. 

At the surface, it’s going to look like the EV market is just treading water. The analysts at the market research firm J.D. Power last week revised their EV retail market share forecast to be flat this year, with EVs at 9.1% of the U.S. retail market.

Behind that, J.D. Power cited a confluence of recent headwinds including vehicle-related tariffs, emissions policy softening, the potential removal of the EV tax credit, and the potential removal of federal charging-infrastructure funding (already in the obstructionism stage with a DOT freeze of funds). 

Looking ahead, it adjusted the entire trajectory for EV adoption in the coming years downward versus where it had been, but still on a climb after this year—to 26% of the market by 2030, with quite a wide range for variation. 

J.D. Power U.S. EV market share forecast – February 2025

An expanding market, more mass-market EVs

While there’s all that uncertainty at the surface, and might not seem like EVs are gaining traction, there’s a lot happening from underneath. As J.D. Power noted, there was a 58% rise in 2024 in what it called “franchise EV sales.” Not including direct-sales EV brands like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, and others, these sales at traditional dealerships amounted to 376,000 units during the year. 

There’s also the reality that the tide is rising and the vehicle market as a whole is in expansion. In 2025, J.D. Power forecasts 16.3 million total sales—up 3% from 2024’s total of 15.8 million sales. And a flat market share of EVs means that they’ll gain by that same percentage in the market. 

“We expect a flat retail share for EVs,” said Tyson Jominy, J.D. Power’s VP of data and analytics, to Green Car Reports. “With total sales expected to grow 3%, so will EV sales.”

EV sales by volume rose by about 7% in 2024, up from a total share of about 8% of the market in 2023. 

2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV

EV sales growth nowhere close to previous forecasts

So while growth is still happening for the EV market in 2025, it is far below what analysts had anticipated at the start of 2024. Bloomberg analysts in January 2024 anticipated that EVs would reach a 13% U.S. market share in 2024, at 1.9 million vehicles, and the International Energy Agency, in April 2024, still anticipated that EVs would rise to 11% of the market in 2024. 

Further, pent-up demand for affordable models and the pending arrival of some of them, like the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Ford’s pivot to EV affordability, led some, including S&P Global Mobility, to point to more aggressive EV growth for future years versus previous forecasts. 

But that all changed with November’s election, when U.S. voters made a strong statement against a Biden administration vision that had included a longer-lens green-energy focus, a modernization of the auto industry and supply chain around it, and incentives that rewarded U.S. manufacturing. 

And there may be some surges and stumbles yet to the market in 2025, as policy changes. For instance, fourth-quarter 2024 EV sales were up—by more than 15% year over year—as dealerships saw a run on purchases due to concern that the EV tax credit might soon be going away. 

2025 Tesla Model Y

The California factor—or Tesla factor, or Musk factor

It’s impossible to assess EV sales and not include a look at Tesla and its pronounced downward trend in sales. After many years of gains, Tesla sales and deliveries fell in 2024—both internationally and within the U.S. 

And Tesla’s California sales downturn was a key piece of that. Take Tesla out of the totals, and the California data tells a wildly different story. According to it, California sales of non-Tesla EVs rose 21% in 2024, versus 2023. So especially for California, 2024’s EV sales dip might have been a very Tesla-specific problem while EV shoppers flocked to other brands and models that weren’t 

In California, EV sales have amounted to about 30% of the sales total, according to the California New Car Dealers Association, and more than a third of all EVs sold in the U.S. are sold in the Golden State. Less than three years ago California comprised an eighth of Tesla’s global deliveries. 

While in 2022, Tesla cracked 10% of the market share in what used to be its home state, it’s now on a steep fall from favor—and considering how sharply sales of other EVs rose, it’s hard to point fingers to a sagging EV market. 

Tesla’s 2024 sales totals in California (based on registration data from Experian Automotive) dropped by 11.6% versus 2023, while its actual market share of the entire California light-vehicle market dropped from 13.0% in 2023 to 11.6% in 2024. The Toyota Camry edged out the Tesla Model 3 for the top-selling passenger car in California during 2023, while the Tesla Model Y held on to its spot as the top-selling light truck.

Does Tesla’s California burnout extend to other states? It appears so. Tesla sold 611,755 vehicles in the U.S. in 2024, down nearly 5% from the 2023 total of 642,504, according to Automotive News, based on registrations. So despite an expansion of the EV market across the U.S., Tesla’s EV sales are in contraction elsewhere too, and it didn’t manage to produce sales gains. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Cybercab event (screenshot) – Oct. 2024

While there wasn’t significant EV sales growth in California in 2024, as J.D. Power pointed out there was indeed new growth in the EV sector coming from mass-market EV models, as well as in New York, Florida, and Colorado, which have emerged as new EV sales hotspots.

To tease out the takeaway from another angle, Tesla isn’t making up for its California sunset in those new states. Its California sales drop of nearly 27,000 lands below its national-total sales drop of 31,000. 

As several polls and market analyses concluded in 2024, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was getting in the way of Tesla sales as he became overtly political and then a participant on the campaign trail—and now a “special government employee” in the executive branch and, some have called it, an unofficial member of President Trump’s cabinet.

Based on those trends, and the quantitative trends emerging from sales data in 2024, it’s hard to imagine J.D. Power’s 3% EV market growth in 2025 happening through Tesla gains. 

As 2025 unfolds, it isn’t just Musk and his memes, but the policy he’s backing from the White House itself, that will affect how EV sales play out. 

BMW’s Heart of Joy control unit

• BMW has developed the Heart of Joy control unit for its upcoming Neue Klasse EVs
• Heart of Joy consolidates multiple separate control units—such as those managing the drivetrain and chassis—into a single, integrated unit
• Promised benefits include quicker and more precise vehicle control, plus efficiency gains

BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse family of electric vehicles, set to start arriving later this year, will benefit from a new drivetrain and chassis management system that consolidates multiple control units into a single, advanced unit. This replaces the separate control units that current vehicles rely on.

BMW calls this system the Heart of Joy, and on Sunday, the automaker unveiled the Vision Driving Experience prototype—a rolling laboratory designed to test and refine the technology.

While the prototype itself doesn’t preview any specific production model, its design hints at elements that will appear on some Neue Klasse EVs, particularly a compact electric sedan that will be part of the next-generation 3 Series family. This sedan is expected to carry the i3 badge and arrive around 2026 as the second Neue Klasse model. The first Neue Klasse EV will be a compact crossover in the X3 family, set to debut later this year. It will replace the iX3 electric crossover sold overseas, likely retaining the same name.

BMW’s Heart of Joy control unit

The Heart of Joy control unit will shape the driving dynamics of these vehicles by managing the drivetrain, brakes, charging, energy recovery, and steering. By integrating control of these functions into a single unit, BMW claims information can be processed up to ten times faster than in current vehicles, leading to greater precision and responsiveness.

Working in tandem with BMW’s Dynamic Performance Control software, the Heart of Joy system will enhance stability and smoothness even at the vehicle’s limits—improving safety and requiring fewer driver inputs. For the Vision Driving Experience prototype, whose drivetrain specifications haven’t been disclosed, a staggering 13,269 lb-ft of torque is delivered at the wheels, allowing engineers to push the system far beyond what most drivers will ever experience.

Even in stop-and-go traffic, BMW promises noticeable improvements. Features like Auto Hold and Active Cruise Control will operate more seamlessly, the automaker said.

BMW’s Heart of Joy control unit

Efficiency will also see a boost of up to 25%, as BMW aims to maximize energy recovery. In Neue Klasse EVs, braking will be handled almost entirely through regenerative braking, with conventional friction brakes needed only in emergency situations. On the Vision Driving Experience prototype, the wheels feature color-coded lighting: green during acceleration, blue during energy recovery, and orange when friction brakes are engaged.

Every Neue Klasse EV will feature the Heart of Joy control unit, including dedicated M models. Additionally, the vehicles will have three supplementary control units dedicated to automated driving, infotainment, and basic vehicle functions (e.g., climate control, lighting, and door locks).

The Heart of Joy control unit may eventually filter across to some of BMW’s gas and hybrid cars as BMW has said the Neue Klasse’s technology will be made available across its lineup, where possible. However, timing hasn’t been mentioned.

Among those considering the purchase of a new or used battery-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, or just curious about EVs, charging can still be the EV dealbreaker. 

Unless you don’t have a way to easily install or access home charging, your excuses are quickly disappearing, though. In 2024 public charging kept pace—or better—with the number of EVs on the highways. New EVs are charging quicker and more consistently in road trips; the options along the way have become more reliable; and with Tesla and other brands’ EVs all soon compatible with the same charge connectors, nobody’s excluded. 

That said, keeping EVs charged requires a different mindset than you might use in fueling up gasoline cars—even though seeing electricity as fuel isn’t off the mark. 

A familiar starting point for EV charging

If you’re an EV newbie, or someone just feeling out EV ownership, you can look forward to a lifetime free of gasoline. But in order to enjoy it and shed the anxiety, you’ll have to break out of the running-on-empty and fill-’er-up mindsets of gasoline vehicles, replacing it with the charge-nightly-or-as-you-can approach you already use for smartphones or tablets.

Becoming comfortable with the routine of charging your EV—and when and where you need to plug in—is an important part of ownership. And it all comes back to what’s likely in your pocket or right next to you, if you’re not already reading this piece on it—your smartphone. 

Rivian adds Tesla Superchargers to trip planning app

Over time, some people learn to have confidence in the battery level of their phone, keep an eye on it, and simply plug it in when it gets down to 20% or 10%—the low battery warning—while others get in a routine to plug in every evening to charge up all or most of the way for the next morning, depending on settings. 

While EV batteries are bigger, and you can’t plug them in everywhere, keeping your EV charged up is all about what makes the best sense to you. Not everyone is going to come to the same conclusions, and that’s fine as EV ownership can fit all sorts of routines, as long as you first understand charging. 

With that starting point in mind, be forewarned: If you’re already an EV fan, much of this will be old hat. But to make the transition easy, Green Car Reports has rounded up some tips on how, where, and when how to charge up that new plug-in vehicle.

We’ve written this piece with the tech-curious newbies in mind—maybe not hitting all the fine details, but helping provide a lay of the land as you shift away from gasoline and toward charge ports and make sure all basics are in place. 

Tesla charging

Types of Charging

AC or DC

Fundamentally, there are two types of charging, based on the format of the electricity—AC and DC. 

AC (alternating current) is what’s supplied to your home or what flows through a commercial electrical outlet—or the “destination chargers” that you might plug into for a few hours, or overnight. Whether you plug into it via a mobile connector or a wallbox, the actual charger that communicates with the battery and converts that AC current to DC (direct current) and is within the vehicle. 

The mobile connector or wallbox (sometimes called EVSE for the sake of tax credits, rebates, or electrical work) will test the circuit when you plug it in, to ensure that it’s properly grounded and the current is strong enough to power the charger. Even though these connectors and wallboxes aren’t delivering the electricity in any different format than what the outlet provides, they are confusingly often called chargers. 

DC itself, on the other hand, is typically supplied by commercial charging-station hardware designed for fast charging (or very specific uses like home backup). Hardware delivers DC current to the vehicle, with two-way communication fine-tuning exactly what voltage and current the battery pack gets in real time to get the fastest charge without overheating the pack or damaging it. 

2023 Nissan Ariya at EVgo charging station

L1, L2, and L3

AC and DC charging breaks out into a range of rates, which leads to another way to describe the types of charging: Level 1 (L1), Level 2 (L2), and Level 3 (L3). 

Keep in mind that these levels are less relevant in Europe, but they persist in North America, because of the way our AC electricity is delivered. 

These roughly correspond to:

Level 1: Up to 2.4 kw
Level 2: 2.4 kw to 19.2 kw
Level 3: 24 kw and up

Fast charging today is shifting to refer to connectors capable of delivering 150 kw or more. Many charging station connectors remain limited to 50 kw, and some older hardware may only be capable of delivering 24 kw, but they still fall under what’s called L3. 

An L1 charging rate likely won’t be enough to keep a fully electric vehicle adequately charged up at home, unless commutes are short and it’s plugged in the vast majority of the time otherwise. But it might be fine for a plug-in hybrid. These tend to correspond with 120V AC delivery and thus are usually limited to 1.44 kw (120 volts x 12 amps — and we’ll get to why it’s 12A a bit later). Figuring in a reasonable 10% losses, you’re only putting about 1.3 kwh into the battery pack per hour—or about 5 miles of range per hour in more efficient EVs like the Tesla Model 3/Y or Chevy Bolt EV. 

Lucid Connected Home Charging Station

L2 is the easiest and best option to have for EVs, as it can provide a full overnight charge for nearly all EVs—all but those with the largest battery packs. These are typically wallboxes and essentially correspond with 240V AC delivery, and if you have a charging station installed at home, it will require the same type of wiring as an electric stove or clothes dryer. Tesla, for instance, points to up to 44 miles of range recovered per hour from its Wall Connector. 

EVs and plug-in hybrids have typically come with a “charging cord” allowing you to plug into 120V AC and get that slow L1 charging when needed. But those really weren’t used very frequently. So automakers have been switching toward 120V/240V mobile connectors, which are instead often optional on new EVs (and standard on a few premium-brand models) but do at an L2 rate add a very useful amount of range if you have access to a spare 240V outlet. Tesla’s mobile connector, for instance, is limited to 32 amps, which corresponds to up to 30 miles of range recovered per hour for the Model 3, according to the automaker. 

In the interest of simplification L3 and DC fast charging are one and the same. So keep reading for that. 

Subaru Solterra EV at Electrify America

DC fast-charging basics

Fast chargers deliver direct current to your battery pack, while communicating with your vehicle. By varying the voltage and current, and accommodating for details like battery temperature and ambient temp, fast chargers deliver as much power as your battery can handle at a given state of charge—up to the rated maximum of the connector, cord, and charging cabinet. 

That effectively means that if you choose a charging location and connector rated at or above your vehicle’s maximum, generally, the hardware will be able to charge your vehicle up in as little time as possible. 

But the cells need to be in an ideal temperature zone to hit that peak rate. So leading up to a fast-charge session (and in many cases linked to its route planner), your vehicle may precondition its battery pack—which means warm it up to the low end of the ideal zone. They’ll heat up more when charging. 

In a DC fast-charging session, the charge rate tends to slow as you approach about 80%. For this reason, automakers typically give fast-charging times from 10-80%—an ideal window to seek on long road trips. Unfortunately that’s only 70% of the range, so for instance to spend the least time charging you’ll need to stop about every 175 miles in a vehicle that can go 250 miles on a full charge at real-world highway speeds (which might correspond to an EPA range rating of 300 miles or more).

Under Canvas carbon-conscious camp with Rivian Waypoint chargers – Moab

Where to charge: Home, destination, and fast chargers

Distilling AC and DC, L1, L2, and L3 down to some key points, what it amounts to for real-world use is that there are three key types of chargers at which to charge: 

• Home chargers, or those that you keep at home or in your trunk (or frunk)
• Destination chargers—often meaning Level 2 chargers that may be at the workplace, a shopping center, or a parking garage and provide a significant charge in a few hours
• Fast chargers that are most likely along highway road-trip routes, to provide a significant charge in less than an hour

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

How to find chargers

We strongly recommend that you have, on the ready, a combination of methods to find your best charging-station options. So on your smartphone, install not just the official brand app for your vehicle but also an independent app focused on charging and route planning. 

Most of today’s EVs do come with some level of charger-savvy route planning that incorporates dynamic range estimates. Not all automaker apps and interfaces provide the tools for the quickest EV road trips, though. Independent EV charging apps we recommend for backing up your in-car interface and making sure you’re choosing the best stops along the way include Chargeway, PlugShare, and A Better Route Planner. Google Maps and Apple Maps do also now include some charger specs. 

You’ll then need to initiate the charging session—and pay for it, in many cases. Although in the case of Tesla, you’ll likely only need to plug in. For those with other EVs, Plug & Charge technology allows a similar level of convenience although it’s not yet working everywhere. In other cases you may need to provide a credit-card swipe or smartphone-based payment, but overall the days of separate cards, apps, fobs, and passkeys for each charging network are thankfully on the way to the history books—thanks in part to the federal government’s NEVI rules. 

Fisker Wallbox home charger

Installing a home charger

For all of these home chargers, whether they’re plugged into the appropriate socket or hardwired, the 80% rule applies—meaning that you shouldn’t be pulling a constant load that exceeds more than 80% of the max your circuit is wired for. So for instance, for a 50-amp circuit, you should be using a charger that won’t pull more than 40 amps. 

Some of today’s long-range EVs are capable of charging at up to 19.2 kw, which indicates an 80-amp charge connector, requiring (given the 80% rule) a 100-amp circuit. With 200-amp service for the entire house quite common today, and some smaller or older homes running on 125 amps or less, that’s an untenable amount to dedicate to EV charging without major (and costly) electrical upgrades. 

Circuit-breaker box showing 240-Volt circuit for electric-car charging station

To be perfectly pragmatic, a 40-amp circuit and 32-amp home charge connector will be just fine, and plenty adequate for most EVs—amounting to a charge power of up to 7.7 kw. Even for many longer-range EVs, that’s enough for a full charge in 10-14 hours if you’re near zero charge remaining.

But step up the circuit if you can. A 60-amp circuit and 48-amp charger, for instance, will get you added speed for some of the biggest electric trucks or longer-range EVs, and moving all the way up to 100 amps for the circuit and 80 amps for the charger may have advantages for some models. 

One final note: It likely makes far more sense to install a 100-amp circuit versus adding two separate 50-amp circuits, as there are dual chargers that will split available amps between EVs. But there are load-balancing and power-sharing options, too. Talk to your electrician. 

Electrify America DC fast-chargers – CCS and CHAdeMO

Charge connectors—J1772, NACS, CCS, CHAdeMO

Some of today’s EVs come with one charge port, while others come with two. The reason behind this is related to AC and DC charging, but it’s a little more complicated than that. 

Most AC charging comes via the round J1772 charge port—the “J” plug that’s become near-universal over the past 15 years in EVs and plug-in hybrids. The same port spans L1 and L2 charging, up to about 19.2 kw. 

U.S. market EV charging connectors – via ChargePoint

CCS. The Combined Charging System, in the form Americans know it, is that same J1772 port, with two stout DC-charging prongs added just beneath, to enable Level 3 DC fast charging (or perhaps, in bidirectional charging setups, other slower kinds of DC power sharing). In the U.S., CCS arrived in late 2013. 

NACS. The North American Charging System, or J3400 as it was termed as an industry-wide standard in 2023, is an adoption and evolution of the Tesla charge port that’s been used since the introduction of the Model S in 2012. NACS is noteworthy for how it combines AC and DC charging together in the same compact charge port that some may simply find easier to use. 

CHAdeMO. Conceived in 2009 and 2010 by a group of Japanese companies, CHAdeMO was first rolled out for the U.S. in the 2011 Nissan Leaf. The only two new vehicles using the CHAdeMO port in 2024 are the Nissan Leaf EV and Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid. While the port and standard were ahead of the curve with bidirectional charging fully enabled starting in 2013, CHAdeMO was shunned in Europe. What’s also been rendering CHAdeMO moot is that the big, round port does not include AC/L2 charging—so in EVs the J1772 port needs to be included separately.

Tesla Supercharger

NACS or CCS: Two takeaways

The future of American EV charging is NACS. Throughout 2023, starting with Ford, every single volume U.S. automaker committed to the Tesla-based NACS format for future EVs—and, in the meantime, access to the Tesla Supercharger network with CCS-NACS plug adapters. But many of these EVs that switch to that format aren’t due until later in 2025 or 2026, 

Get used to adapters. While the future is NACS, you may be perfectly fine with CCS for home charging for many years to come. If you rely on public charging, even on road trips, you’ll probably want to have an approved adapter on hand. 

WiTricity and Siemens wireless charging station

Some of the future of charging will be wireless

Cables and connectors might always remain a way of charging your EV, but they won’t be the only way. The technology for fully wireless vehicle charging—also known as inductive charging—has already arrived, and if you fast forward a few years into the future it’s quite likely some U.S. EV drivers won’t ever need to worry about remembering to physically plug in each night. 

The technology relies on a set of copper coils at either end—one in a pad on the garage floor, driveway, or parking space, the other at the bottom of the EV. The lower pad creates an oscillating magnetic field, which is then captured by the car’s coil and converted back to electricity. 

Why isn’t it everywhere? For one, it’s expensive, with the price tag of a complete wireless charging installation costing several times what a wallbox costs. When luxury EVs—and Tesla—adopt wireless charging, they’ll pave the way to economies of scale, and eventually public wireless charging stations that might make your road trip even easier.

Fast forward even farther into the future and dynamic inductive charging could mean that some EVs, on certain routes, might never need to stop to charge—as the tech might gradually charge your vehicle as you drive, through smaller embedded coils in the road.

Toyota RAV4 Prime – Electreon dynamic wireless charging

Bidirectional charging is the wildcard

In most cases, today, EV charging involves energy flow in one direction—from the grid to your vehicle. But in the future there might be much more give-and-take to charging as EVs, home hardware, and your public utility, perhaps, embrace bidirectional charging. With it, called out as V2H (vehicle to home), V2G (vehicle to grid), V2X (vehicle to everything), EVs might send power out to campsites or construction sites, power homes during brownouts or blackouts, or help balance energy at different costs or different levels of demand. 

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Intelligent Backup Power

Farther off, a range of companies, with different terms, technical differences, and proposed rules, have floated the idea of an “open market” for bidirectional charging—in small amounts, over wireless charging. For instance, maybe the grocery store borrows just a kilowatt-hour or two from most of the vehicles in the lot—wirelessly, based on your settings—and in return gives you a discount for lowering its use of more expensive grid electricity on a hot afternoon. 

Some forms of bidirectional charging are here right now. CHAdeMO has been fully compatible with bidirectional charging for more than a decade, with the right hardware and software, of course. CCS has also offered this capability for several years. General Motors has expanded bidirectional charging capability to the entire GM EV lineup and it’s readied a GM Energy ecosystem including energy storage. And at present, the Ford F-150 Lightning, Nissan Leaf, and Kia EV9 and EV6 are among the EVs that are compatible with at least some bidirectional hardware. In 2023 Tesla said that within about two years—that’s this year—all Teslas will get bidirectional charging functionality. 

charging etiquette note – DC fast charger, Olympia WA

P.S. Don’t forget your manners: EV charger etiquette

The goal is for all of us just to get along. 

Green Car Reports has dug into this issue far more in the past, when driving an EV felt like an exclusive club of tech early adopters in the know. In 2025, it’s a very different scene than it was in say 2015—and the days of leaving passive-aggressive Post-It notes on vehicles or distributing zines to fellow EV drivers (I’ve seen both) are mostly left to stories of how it used to be. But some rules of politeness hold as much now as then. 

Don’t overstay your welcome. First and foremost, make sure that you don’t occupy the space longer than it takes your car to recharge. You wouldn’t abandon your car at a gas pump when it’s not fueling, would you? Most charging networks charge idle fees if you remain plugged in, and charging spots aren’t there to provide parking.

Match EV and connector. If you can avoid it, don’t use a connector/charger rated at much higher power than your EV can take advantage of. So Chevy Bolt EV owners, please don’t use the 350-kw connectors, if you can avoid it, while the Lucid Air or Chevy Silverado EV drivers who can make full use of it wait.

Respect! Don’t unplug anyone’s vehicle until the charge is complete, even if it’s just to insert the five minutes of charging you need to get home. Most EVs have interlocks that let you choose whether or not releasing the charge port requires the key present, so make sure you know your vehicle. 

• Chevy Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype debuts at Daytona 500
• 2025 Blazer EV SS serves as first electric pace car for signature NASCAR event
• NASCAR remains tied to gas-guzzling V-8s

No major racing series revels in inefficient internal combustion quite as much as NASCAR, but this year its biggest race will kick off with the silence of an all-electric powertrain—and the debut of another glimpse of its fully electric future.

The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS won’t be racing, but it will serve as the official pace car, leading the field of gas-guzzling V-8 race cars to green flag at this Sunday’s Daytona 500, the kickoff race for the 2025 NASCAR season and the most prestigious event on the calendar.

Pace cars are used to keep the field in formation ahead of the start of the race, as well as during caution periods when cars circulate at slower speeds due to on-track hazards. A 2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle previously handled these duties at a 2015 NASCAR race, but this will be the first time a battery-electric vehicle has served as pace car at Daytona.

2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS

Due to reach dealerships later this quarter with a $61,995 base price, the Blazer EV SS is the sportiest version of the Blazer EV, boasting 615 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque from an uprated version of the dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain. Chevy says it will do 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds, while Brembo front brakes and stiffer suspension tuning aim to deliver a livelier experience in corners.

Ahead of this weekend’s race, Chevy on Thursday revealed an electric NASCAR prototype, dubbed Blazer EV.R, that will make its formal debut at the event. The three-motor model has produces more than 1,300 hp combined and has a 78-kwh battery pack. The EV.R was built with chassis components lifted from NASCAR’s Next Gen chassis, and Chevy says that it’s already completed consistent laps with the EV.R at race speed—although of course it’ll be there for show only.

Chevrolet Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype

Chevrolet Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype

Chevrolet Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype

This follows Ford’s unveiling of a NASCAR prototype branded as a Mustang Mach-E earlier this month. Ford’s prototype seemed to take cues more directly from the generic electric SUV NASCAR first showed in 2024. Organizers still haven’t committed to an electric racing series, but first Ford and now Chevy showing EV prototypes indicates the idea hasn’t gone away.

That leaves Toyota as the only automaker currently participating in NASCAR’s top-level Cup Series to not show an electric SUV prototype. Could a NASCAR bZ4X also be waiting in the wings?

Ford is looking at charging EV battery packs from multiple charge ports simultaneously in order to shorten charging times.

The concept is outlined in a recent patent filing published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Nov. 12, 2024, but originally filed by Ford back on Dec. 8, 2021. It shows a setup with dual charging ports that would each be responsible for charging a portion of the battery pack from a single power source.

Ford dual charge port patent image

The filing discusses a “partition” system that would allow two or more sections of the battery pack to be decoupled and charged individually, or coupled together for conventional charging. The tandem charging would be accomplished with an adapter that would split power from one connector to reach the two charge ports on the vehicle.

Partitioning of the battery pack don’t necessarily entail the double-layer approach used by General Motors in the GMC Hummer EV, GMC Sierra EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV. In those trucks, each layer is essentially an individual pack connected to the other in parallel.

In a 2022 patent filing, GM discussed adding a second port to help get the most out of this setup, including a configuration that allowed both layers to be charged individually from different ports.

Ford dual charge port patent image

The GM patent filing also covered the idea of using multiple ports to help charge other EVs, something Ford also discussed in a 2023 patent filing. But that’s not necessarily in play here. This most recent patent filing mentions charge ports placed on opposite sides or the same side of a vehicle. The latter wouldn’t be very convenient for charging another vehicle.

Some EVs already have dual charge ports. The Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT have AC ports on both sides, with a DC fast-charging port on the right side as well. But this is only for convenience; you can’t use both ports at the same time. The 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA will also have dual ports—one J1772, for AC, and one NACS, for DC—to give drivers more flexibility. Ford’s concept would be something different, if it reaches production.

• Trump can’t end EV tax credit; Congress can
• Proposed bill would end new EV, used EV, and commercial EV credits
• EV leasing loophole goes away with commercial credit (45W)
• Up-front federal EV tax of $1,000 proposed in addition to state EV surcharges

As bold as President Trump’s initial executive actions relating to EVs might be, they don’t yet directly affect car shoppers’ ability to claim the $7,500 EV tax credit, or to access bargain EV leases. 

For that, it would take an act of Congress. And based on bills introduced this week, that act may be quite close. 

On Wednesday, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo, with a group of 14 Republican senators signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, introduced legislation that could effectively end the EV tax credit. 

If adopted by Congress it might take effect as soon as 30 days after enactment. That might be a hard pill to swallow for a number of automakers; GM and Ford are reportedly among those seeking a gradual EV tax credit phaseout. 

2025 Ford F-150 Lightning

The EV tax credit isn’t just one tax credit, but three different EV affordability credits—and, some would say, subsidizing the American industry behind them. In addition to IRS 30D, commonly known as the EV tax credit, the bill includes the Used Clean Vehicle Credit (25E) for used EVs, and the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (45W) for fleet EVs.

The commercial vehicle credit contains one of the most controversial pieces of the EV tax credit—the so-called “leasing loophole,” which was the result of a Treasury Department interpretation that many lawmakers said doesn’t keep to the original intent of the law. It effectively allows automakers’ captive credit companies to capture a $7,500 tax credit for each EV they lease—regardless of the sticker price of the EV or where it was built. 

That fueled a leasing boom for EVs over the past couple years, allowing automakers to offer attractive lease prices that in many instances undercut those of hybrids or other gasoline models, and allowed shoppers to bypass stricter rules about income and vehicle origins that applied to purchases. 

2025 BMW iX

That aside, the latest iteration of the EV tax credit—for those who buy rather than lease—has narrowed the number of shoppers and vehicles eligible. To claim a credit of up to $7,500, buyers must meet household-income requirements, and the vehicle must meet a set of criteria for American assembly, EV battery sourcing, and battery materials. The vehicle must also be offered below a price ceiling of $55,000 or $80,000 depending on the vehicle type. 

But in serving its purpose of aiding affordability up front, the EV tax credit did become a point-of-sale rebate that can be claimed at the dealership starting in 2024. 

The oil industry appears eager to see the tax credit end. A release on the bill from Barrasso included a quote from Chet Thompson, the president and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), emphasizing that “it’s time for EVs to compete on a level playing field.” 

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the U.S. provides about $20 billion in fossil fuel subsidies annually, with about 80% of that going to natural gas and crude oil.

2024 GMC Hummer EV

Meanwhile, a companion bill, introduced Wednesday by Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, aims to tax EVs $1,000 at the point of sale for road use—which the bill says is the average amount consumers currently pay through gas taxes over a span of 10 years. A different, tiered structure would apply to heavy-duty electric trucks. 

Such a one-size-fits-all strategy for paying for EV road use, however, ignores the fact that in the U.S.—according to the federal government itself—EVs are driven less. According to the DOE, they cover 12% fewer miles on average than gasoline vehicles and 29% fewer miles than diesel models. 

The federal fee would impact EV buyers in addition to premiums already levied for EV use or ownership by individual states. It’s an issue that many have stepped up to address with various solutions, nearly all ultimately sidestepping the question of whether there could be an “electric fuel” tax for EVs that, like gasoline, is based on real-world use.  

Hyundai and Kia are looking to combine battery-pack cases with vehicle structural components for greater packaging efficiency.

In a patent filing published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Nov. 14, 2024, and first submitted by the automakers to that agency Oct. 26, 2023, Hyundai and Kia discuss having a vehicle’s floor double as the upper panel of a battery pack case. This would make better use of available space, allowing more modules to be fitted, the automakers argue.

Hyundai and Kia battery case floor patent image

This would more closely integrate the battery pack with the vehicle’s structure, several major components of which would attach to the floor panel that also serves as the upper battery case panel. These include side sills and cross members, with some of the latter potentially blended with the floor panel by using an extrusion fabrication method.

Battery modules would be placed underneath the floor, potentially in voids not occupied by crossmembers, with front and rear barriers protecting the pack and integrated with the side sills, the automakers say in the filing.

Hyundai and Kia battery case floor patent image

Other companies have also explored structural battery packs. Tesla outlined its own design at its 2020 Battery Day, claiming at the time that a structural battery would offer a 10% mass reduction, a potential 14% range increase, and 370 fewer parts with battery cells essentially incorporated as part of a honeycomb against the underside of the vehicle floor. Startup Canoo made structural batteries part of its unique skateboard platform, but retained modules while still claiming a 90-pound weight reduction.

Last year, Chinese startup Neta Auto said it was working with battery supplier CATL to ditch battery packs and integrates cells directly with a vehicle’s chassis, taking CATL’s cell-to-pack tech one step further. Beyond that, researchers have also looked at using body panels as batteries, although the various structural battery pack concepts are likely closer to production.

Electric vehicles improved in the 2025 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study but plug-in hybrids got worse.

Released Thursday, the annual study focuses on the rate of problems with new vehicles, as reported by owners, with scores assigned based on problems per 100 vehicles. The new results are based on problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles going back to the 2022 model year. The sample included 34,175 responses from owners gathered from August through November of 2024.

EVs improved by 33 problems per 100 vehicles compared to the previous year’s study, while plug-in hybrids saw an increase of 26 problems per 100 vehicles compared to last year, when EVs were found to be the most trouble-prone vehicles.

2024 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid

The gap between EVs and gasoline vehicles also narrowed significantly, J.D. Power noted, now standing at 223 problems per 100 vehicles and 200 problems per 100 vehicles, respectively. Plug-in hybrids were the most problematic, at 242 reported issues per 100 vehicles. Hybrids fared the best; such models without a plug experienced the fewest problems, at 199 per 100 vehicles.

In a previous study, J.D. Power underscored that the powertrains aren’t to blame for all these issues; rather it’s been all the other tech that debuts in EVs. The 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study indicates that tech-related issues are becoming more prevalent across the auto industry, with software connectivity issues among the most frequent owner complaints, and just 30% of owners saying that they saw improvements after over-the-air updates.

2022 Audi Q5 55 TFSI e plug-in hybrid

That contributed to a worse performance, as averaged across the entire industry, in this year’s study. The industry as a whole saw problems per 100 vehicles increase by 6%, averaging 202 problems per 100 vehicles.

But EVs continue to perform more poorly than other vehicles in these studies. J.D. Power also noted a higher rate of owner-reported problems for EVs, compared to the industry average, in its 2024 Initial Quality Study. Consumer Reports’ annual reliability survey in late 2023 found that vehicles that plug in, overall, are more trouble-prone—and it noted that especially applies to plug-in hybrids.