You Can Run Over Ford’s New NACS EV Adapter With an F-150 Lightning Because It’s Built Ford Tough

What’s Ford’s tagline, “Built Ford Tough?” That doesn’t only apply to its trucks, apparently. Ford was the first legacy automaker to work out a deal with Tesla so that its electric vehicles could use Tesla’s Supercharger network with a North America Charging Standard (NACS) plug adapter. Now, Ford is selling an adapter, and it promises to be as tough as the trucks themselves, as Ford claims it can survive being run over by an F-150 Lightning.

When Ford first announced the NACS adapter, it said it would ship one for free to any customer who ordered one between February and June 2024. After sending out over 140,000 adapters on the house, Ford revealed its new second-generation Ford Fast Charging Adapter and is charging $200 for one. The new adapter will allow any current Ford EV to change at any Tesla Supercharger station, so all 2021-2025 Mustang Mach-E, 2022-2025 F-150 Lightning, and 2022-2025 E-Transit customers can gain access to thousands more stations than before.

Additionally, Ford also announced that it designed this new adapter to handle the weight of its own electric pickup truck. That might not seem like a big deal, but some customers could forget to put charging plugs back on their docks, which could lead to some expensive accidents when backing out of the driveway. Since the Lightning can weigh as much as 6,892 pounds, that charging adapter needs to be plenty strong.

Along with the nearly indestructible adapter, it’s integrated the Supercharger’s Fast Charger Routeing planner into the Apple Maps, via CarPlay. So if you use Apple Maps, you can quickly reroute to a charging station, and even create a charging route, that will take you from charger to charger on long road trips. However, it’s worth noting that the adapter doesn’t work for any AC charging stations, including Tesla’s level 2 Destination Chargers, it only works on DC fast chargers at Supercharger stations, so plan your route accordingly.

It might be a bummer for current customers to know they could’ve had the charger for free but $200 isn’t bad in the scheme of things, considering it unlocks countless Superchargers across the country. According to Ford, nearly 20% of its EV customers visit supercharger stations to fill up on electro-juice. That number is likely to go up, now that more customers will be able to buy this adapter and use Superchargers.

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