Short answer: Convert some stalls, not all of them, and start by asking your charger's manufacturer one question: does this model take a NACS cable or cabinet as a supported option, in writing? If yes, a partial conversion that keeps CCS on most of your ports covers both vehicle types. Funding rules can tighten that: on a NEVI-funded port the CCS1 connector must stay and NACS can only be added, and California's CALeVIP Window 2 requires at least half of a site's ports to be CCS. If the maker says no, a third-party kit puts the charger's safety listing and warranty in question, and you should treat it as a replacement decision instead.
In July 2025 Rivian converted four CCS chargers to NACS at its Joshua Tree, California site. electrive says four CCS chargers were "recently converted to NACS"; RivianTrackr says four CCS cabinets were swapped to NACS. Both describe the broader plan as adding NACS alongside CCS, and neither gives the site's final connector mix. Converting some stalls in place while others stay as they are is the pattern most hosts of existing chargers will end up choosing. This guide covers the decisions behind it.
Start with the charger model, not the connector
Whether you can add NACS depends on how your charger is built. There are three situations.
Modular cable on a supported model. ChargePoint's own NACS FAQ says that "most ChargePoint stations offer cable modularity so station owners can replace, repair or exchange charging cables and connectors, including NACS connectors as needed." Its Express 250 and Express Plus Power Link 1000 can be ordered with NACS options. "Most" is not "yours," so get the model number confirmed.
A maker's conversion kit for specific models. InCharge Energy's NACS Conversion Kit for DC fast chargers is a cable swap, and its spec sheet lists only two compatible product lines, the ICE-30 and the ICE-60/120/180 All-in-One, with 200 A and 300 A NACS cables in 16 and 25 foot lengths. It is a kit for InCharge's own chargers, and the spec sheet publishes no price.
A universal kit. ChargePoint's Omni Port conversion kit, covered by Electrek in August 2025, is described as working with "any connector (aside from CHAdeMO), regardless of make and model" and as a way to update existing chargers without replacing them. The article does not say whether the kit is for AC or DC chargers, gives no price, and says there was no word yet on when kits would start rolling out. We found nothing newer, so do not plan around it for DC fast charging until ChargePoint answers those questions for your site.
If your charger's maker offers none of these, the options narrow to a third-party cable kit, which raises the listing question below, or to replacing the unit.
Cable swap or new cabinet
A cable swap changes the connector on a charger that otherwise stays as is. A cabinet swap, which is how RivianTrackr describes the Joshua Tree work, replaces the power electronics and dispenser for a stall. The cable swap is the smaller job, but it only works where the charger was designed for it. The cabinet swap is a bigger job and makes more sense for an older unit, one that is out of warranty, or one you were going to replace anyway.
One limit applies to both: a connector cannot carry more than the charger delivers. ChargePoint's FAQ puts CCS1 at up to 500 A and 1,000 V DC, a maximum of 500 kW, and says NACS has similar DC ratings, though maximums are not specified; real cables are often rated lower, so check the cable's own rating. Swapping a cable on a 60 kW unit does not make it faster. It only changes which vehicles plug in without an adapter.
How many stalls to convert
No published study tells a site host the right NACS share, and we are not going to invent one. The decision comes from three facts you can check.
- Who actually visits your site. Pull a month of session data by vehicle type if your network software records it. A site serving mostly Tesla drivers and recent NACS-native models has a different answer than a fleet depot of CCS vans.
- The installed base is still mixed. Many brands moved new models to a native NACS port for the 2025 and 2026 model years, but others are later. As our future-proofing guide notes, GM keeps CCS1 on most of its 2026 models, and a large CCS1 and J1772 fleet remains on the road.
- Funding and program rules. These set a floor on CCS, covered next.
A practical starting point, not a rule: convert one stall in a small site, or a minority of stalls in a larger one, then check usage before converting more. A modular cable makes that step easy to reverse. Electrify America's own pilot is the same cautious pattern at network scale; see our look at its 15-site NACS program.
Funding rules that limit what you can convert
Federal NEVI. Under 23 CFR 680.106(c), as shown on the Cornell Legal Information Institute copy of the regulation, "each DCFC charging port must have at least one permanently attached CCS Type 1 connector," and every connector must meet applicable industry standards. The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation says the final rule allows other nonproprietary connectors "so long as each DCFC charging port can charge a CCS1-compliant vehicle," and that adapters on federally funded chargers "should be a permanently attached connector and have been integrated by the charger manufacturer." That Joint Office page is undated and reads as 2024-era, and we could not load the official eCFR text, so confirm the current wording with your state's NEVI office before you convert a funded port. Some states add their own connector requirements on top of the federal floor.
California CALeVIP Window 2. The Implementation Manual dated September 18, 2026 says "both CCS and J3400 Charging Port connectors may be installed and considered for an incentive allocation," with at least 50% of a site's charging ports required to be CCS. The manual words this as connectors in one place and ports in another, and it accepts CCS/J3400 adapters only if they are fully integrated into the charger, so confirm with CALeVIP how a dual-connector port or an adapter counts before you rely on a mix. The rules also differ by window: the Resource Guide asks for at least one CCS port per site in Window 3. It also says "replacement installations (where the DCFCs are being installed as a replacement for existing EVSE) are not eligible." A retrofit of chargers you already own is therefore not something Window 2 pays for. If you are adding new ports under the program, the 50% CCS floor decides your mix. For the full equipment rules, see CALeVIP Window 2 Equipment Rules.
The federal rule cuts the other way for funded ports: converting a NEVI-funded port from CCS to NACS would break the one-CCS1-connector requirement, so on those ports NACS is an addition, not a replacement.
If you took grant money for the original chargers, read that award's terms before changing connectors. We have not seen a program rule on swapping connectors after commissioning and are not claiming one exists.
Warranty and safety listing: get it in writing
This is the part where the public record is thinnest. The Joint Office's J3400 page says J3400 connectors and cables "will need to be certified for safety via the UL 2251 certification standard," but that page is undated and its timeline is out of date. UL Solutions' field evaluation page says only that "modifications may affect existing certifications" and that an authority having jurisdiction may require a field evaluation before equipment is energized. We found no primary source that says whether installing a third-party NACS cable on a listed charger changes its listing or what relisting is needed.
So the question goes to the manufacturer, and the answer should be written into your purchase order or an email you keep:
- Is this connector or cable assembly an approved option for this exact charger model and firmware?
- Does installing it keep the charger's safety listing and warranty intact, and who is responsible if it does not?
- Does the swap require a technician, a firmware update, or a network configuration change, and does your charging network software support a NACS connector on that port?
- What is the downtime per stall, and who covers lost revenue if the install overruns?
- What is the price per stall, installed? No vendor we found publishes one, so a quote is the only honest source for a figure. We are not putting a dollar amount in this article.
If your inspector or utility asks for documentation after the work, a manufacturer-approved option gives you something to hand over. A homemade swap does not.
What to do now
- Find your charger model numbers and ask each manufacturer whether a NACS cable or cabinet is a supported option, and get the answer in writing.
- Pull usage data and convert the smallest number of stalls that serves the NACS drivers you already see.
- Keep CCS on at least half your ports at any site funded by CALeVIP, and keep one permanently attached CCS1 connector on every NEVI-funded port.
- Do not count on a retrofit grant. CALeVIP Window 2 excludes replacement installations; check your own program for anything similar.
- If a new build is coming, specify swappable or dual connectors from the start, as our future-proofing guide recommends. For a network-run alternative, see Tesla's commercial charging programs. For the grant landscape, see NEVI, CFI, and IRA programs.
Last factually verified: November 9, 2026 against ChargePoint's NACS connector FAQ (chargepoint.com/drivers/nacs-connector-faq, read November 9, 2026; undated page), the InCharge Energy NACS Conversion Kit for DC Fast Chargers spec sheet v1.1 (PDF dated December 2025), Electrek's August 21, 2025 report on the ChargePoint Omni Port conversion kit, RivianTrackr (July 2025) and electrive (July 28, 2025) on the Joshua Tree conversion, 23 CFR 680.106 (Cornell Legal Information Institute copy, undated; a reviewer later read the eCFR text and it matched the quoted paragraph (c)), the Joint Office's SAE J3400 connector page (driveelectric.gov/charging-connector, undated), UL Solutions' field evaluation page (undated), and the CALeVIP Fast Charge California Project 2 Implementation Manual (September 18, 2026) and Equipment Eligibility Resource Guide (September 2026). Sources we could not read: ChargePoint's June 2023 press release on BusinessWire (blocked), and SAE's own J3400 pages (returned no content), so the Joint Office wording on adapters and J3400 status rest on the pages named above. We found no price for any NACS retrofit kit from any vendor, no primary source on how a third-party connector affects a charger's UL listing, and no source on whether federal NEVI guidance changed in 2025 or 2026. The Joshua Tree detail is as the two outlets describe it (electrive: four CCS chargers converted; RivianTrackr: four CCS cabinets swapped); neither gave a total stall count or the final connector mix. UL 2251 covers connectors and cables, while the charger itself carries its own listing, so the listing question has two parts.
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