Electric trucks do not all use one connector. Light trucks — pickups, vans and box trucks — charge through the same inlets as electric cars: CCS1 or NACS in North America, Type 2 and CCS2 in Europe, fitted by each maker. Heavy long-haul trucks are getting a dedicated connector of their own, the Megawatt Charging System (MCS). The right first step with any truck is to read its own inlet, not its badge.
Key Takeaways
- Light trucks use car connectors — CCS1 or NACS in North America, Type 2 and CCS2 in Europe — as each maker fits them.
- Heavy trucks are the MCS segment: a dedicated connector, still at an early rollout stage.
- The vehicle’s own inlet and order specification decide the connector — never the badge or the body style.
- EVDANCE sells no truck or MCS charger; its DC and AC stations serve vans and light commercial vehicles at depots.
Light Trucks Charge Where Cars Charge
The trucks fleets buy in volume today are built on car-class running gear, and their makers fit car inlets. A van or pickup with a CCS1 inlet uses ordinary DC fast chargers; one with a NACS inlet uses the NACS network; European models carry Type 2 for AC and CCS2 for DC. Nothing about the connector is truck-specific: the batteries and dwell times are car-like, the vehicle parks at a depot for hours, and AC or modest DC covers the shift.
Depot planning for vans and light commercial vehicles is therefore a sizing exercise, not a connector hunt — our guide to sizing AC chargers for vans and light commercial vehicles works through it. Whatever inlet the maker fitted is what the depot must serve.
Heavy Trucks Are Getting a Connector of Their Own
Heavy long-haul trucks break the car pattern. Their batteries are several times larger than a car’s, and a freight schedule only pauses for loading, unloading and driver rest breaks. Charging has to fit inside those pauses, well above the U.S. DOT’s 50–350 kW band for car DC fast charging. No car connector was designed for that duty, so the industry is developing a separate standard for it: the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), a dedicated heavy-duty connector programme led by the CharIn industry consortium. The name states the class it targets — megawatt-scale charging — and the connector is physically different from CCS or NACS.
MCS is at an early stage: pilot sites and first corridors rather than a finished network. Heavy trucks ordered today state their inlet on the maker’s specification, and site planning follows that document. Treat launch dates as forecasts, and check the current specification before committing a design.
The Connector by Truck Class
| Vehicle class | Connector | Where it charges |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup, van, light box truck | The car inlet the maker fitted — CCS1 or NACS in North America; Type 2 / CCS2 in Europe | Depot AC and DC, plus the public car network |
| Medium truck on car-class running gear | Maker-fitted car-class inlet, as specified for the model | Depot DC and public fast chargers matching that inlet |
| Heavy long-haul truck | MCS, the dedicated heavy-duty connector, as trucks built for it arrive | Dedicated truck sites — depots and freight corridors — as they open |
In every row, the inlet on the vehicle decides. Two trucks with the same badge can carry different inlets in different markets or model years, so the order specification outranks any general statement, including this one.
What EVDANCE Offers Truck Fleets Today
To be plain: EVDANCE sells no MCS or heavy-truck charger; its commercial range serves the light end of today’s market. The EV-RHDC30K-L is a compact DC charger of 22 kW with OCPP 1.6J, suited to turning vans and light trucks around at a depot. The EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station shares up to 43 kW between two vehicles that dwell overnight. Both sit in our commercial EV charging range, and neither should be specified for a heavy truck.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a heavy truck plug into a car DC fast charger?
Only if that truck’s maker fitted a car-class inlet, as on many light and medium trucks. A truck built for MCS has a different inlet that fits neither CCS nor NACS plugs, just as a car cannot use an MCS connector.
Can a car charge at a megawatt charging site?
No. The MCS connector is built for trucks; a car’s inlet and battery are not designed for it. Cars stay on the DC fast network in the DOT’s 50–350 kW band.
How do I confirm which connector a truck uses before buying chargers?
Read the inlet on the vehicle and the connector line on the maker’s order specification for the exact model, market and year. If the two disagree, get the maker’s answer in writing — charger orders placed on an assumed inlet are expensive to unwind.
Related Reading
- Fleet Depot Charging: How to Size AC Chargers for Vans and Light Commercial Vehicles
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- How Do DC Fast Chargers Work?
- What Is the Best Commercial EV Charging Station? How to Choose
