Mazda Bites Bullet And Adopts Tesla's Superchargers Globally
Mazda may have been one of the last carmakers in the U.S. to announce it was adopting Tesla's Supercharger system — better known as NACS (North American Charging Standard) — but it just happens to be one of the first to reveal it will employ the world's best, quickest, most efficient charging system in its home country of Japan.
Last year, Sony Honda Mobility's Afeela EV brand announced plans to use the NACS system in Japan, making it the first carmaker in Japan to make the switch.
And that's quite an announcement for Mazda given that the Hiroshima-based carmaker has only debuted one dedicated electric vehicle so far. The fully electric MX-30 SUV launched in the U.S. in 2020 but was withdrawn after only two model years due to its poor 100-mile EPA-estimated range.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - JANUARY 10: Mazda 6e mid-size battery electric car on display at the AutoSalon ... More on January 10, 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Sjoerd van)
And while it has launched the new electric Mazda EZ-6 sedan in China, co-developed in partnership with China's Changan Automotive, and will debut the new Mazda 6e in Europe in summer, the brand does not have plans for an EV in the US before 2027. Mazda was considering an SUV derivative of the 6e for North America — rumored to be called the Mazda CX-6e — but the current stiff tariffs don't bode well for vehicles built outside the US. The company does however offer the plug-in hybrid models including the CX-70 PHEV and CX-90 PHEV variants (with electric-only range of up to 26 miles) which will be able to use the NACS system.
CHAdeMO, Japan's fast-charging network, had its moment as a connector in Japan, and a few other markets, but it is getting phased out simply because it does not offer quick enough charging. CHAdeMO may offer several types of charging options, with some faster than others, but the majority of these Japan-centric chargers are only able to charge at up to 50kW while NACS delivers between 150kW to 250kW, which means that NACS can recharge batteries up to 80% in 20 minutes where as CHAdeMO can take well over an hour to deliver the same amount of charge.
Meanwhile in North America at present, Mazda says on its U.S. website 'thanks to our partnership with ChargePoint, you can speed up your at-home charge time to just 1.5 hours with the installation of one of their Level 2 in-home charging units.'
The NACS collaboration announcement means that Mazda owners in the US will get access to a much quicker and easily accessible charging system when it starts the program in 2027.
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