When Ford inked a deal with Tesla to adopt its charging standard for electric vehicles back in 2023, it was a watershed moment for the U.S. auto industry. One by one, all major car makers followed suit, giving their EV customers access to the gold standard of charging, the Tesla Supercharger network.
But now at least one of the suppliers that produces the NACS-to-CCS adapters is caught in the tariff crossfire.
Christopher Maiwald, the CEO and founder of charging equipment maker Lectron, told InsideEVs that the adapters are made in China. The U.S. has slapped 104% tariffs on all Chinese goods whereas China has retaliated with 84% tariffs on American imports. Lectron plans to move some production to Vietnam by Q3, but the Trump administration has imposed a 46% tariff on Vietnam, too. (On Wednesday, President Trump increased the tariffs on China to 125% and paused his reciprocal tariffs on other nations by 90 days.)
The $200 Ford-branded NACS adapter is available on the automaker’s website with just two to three days of shipping time. Now, the must-have accessory for EV owners could become more expensive if the tariffs stick.
“Even if the adapter is assembled in China, some of the resins that we use to make the plastic come from an American supplier,” Maiwald said. “Are those going to become more expensive now, too?”
The adapter connects Tesla’s charging cable to EVs with CCS ports. Several companies make them. Tesla churns them out of its Buffalo gigafactory, A2Z makes aftermarket versions and Lectron is one of the largest OEM suppliers apart from Tesla—building adapters for Ford, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz.
Lectron also sells its own version, called the Vortex, but the adapters it builds for automakers are made to tougher standards for durability and design.
Despite being a somewhat boring, nondescript, piece of equipment, the NACS adapter became a hot commodity last year. A demand frenzy was triggered by limited supply initially. In the early phase of the rollout, Ford and Rivian EV owners couldn’t wait to get their units so that they could finally road trip freely. Plus, an early batch of the adapters made by Tesla turned out to be faulty, with Ford notifying its EV owners to stop using them until they got a replacement. The automaker announced that it would diversify its adapter supply chain, roping Lectron in.
“When you have people live tweeting ‘Where’s my adapter?’ 20 times a day, it’s a lot of pressure,” Maiwald said.
Now that pressure could intensify. If production costs rise in China and tariffs inflate import prices in the U.S., EV buyers could end up paying more, which can hurt demand.
“It's too early to say what exactly the impact is,” Maiwald said. “We are studying this right now. But it will definitely make stuff more expensive.” That’s bad news for this transition away from polluting gas cars.
Lectron has so far shipped roughly 200,000 NACS-to-CCS adapters—most of them to the U.S. and some to parts of Canada, Maiwald said. That includes both its Vortex adapter and the one it supplies to automakers. Despite the tariffs, he expects business to grow this year, but he’s not forecasting any demand fluctuations.
“We could spend a lot of time forecasting and then an announcement gets made from the policy side. And then we spend another week reforecasting,” Maiwald said. “It's not very good news, right? But let's see what happens.”
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