NACS vs CCS: The Difference, and Why V2 Superchargers Are Still Closed

CCS1 is a J1772 AC head with two DC pins added below. NACS, standardised as SAE J3400, does both jobs on the same two pins. An adapter between them works on V3 and V4 Superchargers, never on V1 or V2: the barrier is protocol, not shape.

The two connectors

	CCS1	NACS / SAE J3400
Housing	Two-part: J1772 head plus a DC block below	One connector
Pins	5 AC pins plus 2 DC pins, 7 total	5
AC charging	Through the J1772 half	Through the same two power pins
DC fast charging	Through the two added DC pins	Through the same two power pins
DC rating	Up to 500 A / 1000 V	500 A / 1000 V
Communication	Power-line communication over the control pilot	Power-line communication over the control pilot
Standardised as	SAE J1772 combo, IEC 62196-3 Configuration FF	SAE J3400, Recommended Practice since September 2024
Fitted to	Most non-Tesla EVs sold in North America through model year 2024	Every Tesla, plus factory ports on most brands from model year 2025

The row that explains everything else is the communication row. Both connectors use the same power-line signalling to negotiate a charge, which is precisely why an adapter between them can work at all. The pins are in different places; the conversation is the same language.

Why V1 and V2 Superchargers stay closed

Tesla’s first two Supercharger generations were built before that shared language existed, and they speak Tesla’s own protocol over a different physical layer. A car that only knows the standards-based conversation cannot negotiate a session with them. There is nothing to adapt: the connector already fits, mechanically, and the charge still never starts.

V3 changed that. From V3 onward the stations support the standard protocol, which is what made opening the network to other brands possible in the first place, whether through Tesla’s own built-in Magic Dock cable or through an adapter the driver carries.

Supercharger generation	Peak power	Works with a CCS1 car and adapter
V1, from 2012	90 to 120 kW	No
V2, from 2016	145 kW, raised to 150 kW in 2019	No
V3, from 2019	250 kW	Yes
V4, from 2023	Up to 500 kW on a V4 cabinet	Yes

One wrinkle on that last row: many V4 posts are installed on V3 cabinets and still deliver 250 kW. The 500 kW figure belongs to the cabinet, not the post, so a V4-looking stall is not automatically a 500 kW stall.

INFGO states its adapter reaches more than 15,000 V3 and V4 Supercharger ports. That number moves as the network grows, and which specific sites are open to non-Tesla cars is set by Tesla, not by the adapter, so check the station in the Tesla app, PlugShare or Google Maps before you plan a stop around it.

Three ceilings, and the lowest one wins

Three ceilings apply at once, and the lowest wins.

The limit	Value on INFGO’s adapter
The adapter’s rating	500 A / 1000 V, stated maximum 250 kW
The station’s peak	250 kW on a V3, up to 500 kW on a V4 cabinet
The car’s accepted rate	Whatever the vehicle allows, often 100 to 250 kW

On a V3 the car is usually the binding constraint, which is why two vehicles at adjacent stalls can charge at half each other’s rate through identical hardware. On a full-power V4 cabinet the adapter’s own 250 kW ceiling becomes the limit instead — worth knowing, though few cars on the road today can accept more than that anyway. The 500 A and 1000 V rating is not the same number as the 250 kW: it is the electrical headroom that keeps the adapter from being the weak link on an 800 V vehicle, and 250 kW is what INFGO states it will carry.

Checking the manufacturer’s own claim

INFGO states the adapter delivers up to 150 miles of range in 15 minutes. That is worth checking rather than repeating, because it is checkable.

Fifteen minutes at a V3 station’s 250 kW peak is 62.5 kWh. At 2.3 to 3.5 miles per kilowatt-hour — the band that reproduces INFGO’s own published figures elsewhere in its range — that is 144 to 219 miles. So 150 miles sits at the bottom of the band and requires close to peak power for the whole quarter hour.

Which is to say the claim is arithmetically sound and practically optimistic. Real sessions taper as the battery fills, and the taper is steep above roughly 80 percent, so the honest version is that 150 miles in 15 minutes is achievable on a car with a high acceptance rate arriving at a low state of charge, and not a figure to plan a road trip around.

Battery	10 to 80 percent	At 150 kW average	At 100 kW average
75 kWh	52 kWh	about 21 minutes	about 32 minutes
100 kWh	70 kWh	about 28 minutes	about 42 minutes

Before you rely on it

• Confirm the car can DC fast charge. Some plug-in hybrids and EVs built before about 2016 have no DC inlet at all, or have one that will not accept a Supercharger session.
• Confirm the site is open to your brand. The Tesla app labels sites; PlugShare and Google Maps carry the same information from drivers who have been there.
• Confirm the generation. A site with V2 stalls, or a mix, will fail on the V2 ones with no useful error.
• Check the direction of the adapter. This is the most common ordering mistake in the category. INFGO’s adapter takes the Supercharger’s NACS plug into a CCS1 car. The opposite product, a CCS1 station into a NACS car, is a different adapter entirely.

Where each one leaves you

If your car has a CCS1 inlet, a NACS-to-CCS adapter adds the largest fast-charging network in North America to the ones you already use, on V3 and V4 sites. It is a road-trip accessory and nothing more: at home the connector question is a different one, covered in J1772 vs NACS, where the two turn out to be equivalent because home charging never touches DC.

If your car has a factory NACS port, you need no adapter for Superchargers and the NACS Level 2 charger is the one that saves you handling an adapter in your own garage every night.

The transition is a decade-long overlap, not a switch. Most households will own one car of each kind at some point, which is the real argument for owning the adapter rather than replacing the hardware.