Mazda has announced that it will use the North American Charging Standard (NACS), also known as Tesla’s charge connector, on its upcoming electric vehicles in Japan.

The Japanese automaker had already announced that it would adopt NACS for its electric vehicles in North America, like all other automakers in North America, after Ford got the ball rolling.

But this new announcement is about Mazda bringing the NACS connector to Japan.

Mazda wrote in a press release today:

Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) today announced an agreement was reached with Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) for charging ports on the company’s battery electric vehicles (BEV) launched in Japan from 2027 onward.

This is will give Mazda EV owners in Japan access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.

The automaker says that NACS will be standard on its electric vehicles in Japan, and that to access non-NACS chargers, owners will need adapters:

Mazda BEVs will be compatible with other charging standards besides NACS with the use of adapters.

Mazda is actually not the first automaker to bring the NACS, which now might need a name change, to Japan.

Last year, Sony Honda Mobility’s AFEELA EV brand also announced plans to deploy its EVs in Japan with the NACS connector as standard.

Electrek’s Take

It makes sense. Japan doesn’t have a standard connector, and like in North America, Tesla has used its own connector in the market. CHAdeMO had its moment as a connector in Japan, and a few other markets, but it is getting phased out.

It would make sense for the entire Japanese market to adopt NACS.

Considering AFEELA is just getting started, I didn’t think it would create a snowball effect, but Mazda might now get the ball rolling.