FHWA: Tesla-based plug J3400 will be ‘the standard moving forward’

More details from the feds on the J3400 standard based on Tesla’s plug are coming, acting Federal Highway Administrator Kristin White announced Tuesday.

It’s officially the Tesla-based J3400

Independent standards organization SAE International announced in October that it had released J3400, the new open standard based on the Tesla charging technology. Yesterday, White said at a conference hosted by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation:

In the coming weeks, you will be seeing an update from the federal agencies on what we call the J3400 standard. That will be the standard moving forward, and we’re really happy to report that out.

An FHWA spokesperson contacted Electrek to clarify, so we have updated our headline: “FHWA did not announce a new rulemaking. Because the existing rule allows J3400 flexibilities, we intend to provide clarification on using those flexibilities. Acting Administrator White stated that new FAQs on this topic are forthcoming, and a webinar is scheduled for December 17. FHWA will provide additional details on the FAQs when that information is made public.“

Electrek’s Take

As my colleague Jameson Dow explained in a post last year, the J3400 charging connector, which is based on Tesla’s NACS plug, offers numerous benefits, so it makes sense that the feds are giving it “additional flexibilities.” Thanks to SAE’s involvement, it is now an open standard, no longer tied to a single automaker.

For example, the J3400 should make installation and charging cheaper and easier for businesses and multifamily dwellings, make charging more interoperable between commercial and personal vehicles, and create new possibilities for EV street charging. It’s worth reading Jamie’s post here.

The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program currently requires that each federally funded EV charging station must have at least four CCS ports that can charge at 150 kW simultaneously. I’m guessing this is where the flexibility will come in – some kind of integration for both types of ports. The Biden administration isn’t just going to trash the CCS port-equipped charging stations in the pipeline or are already in place as it phases in the J3400.

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