Evaluations of Connectors, Inlets, and Adapters on Side-Load and Withstand Force

This report examines the mechanical forces that direct current fast charging (DCFC) electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) connectors and electric vehicle (EV) inlet ports experience during normal usage. As we witness the fast and growing variety of EVs, charge port locations, and bigger and more powerful EVSE configurations including the SAE J3400 North American Charging Standard (NACS), which has increased the use of adapters with J3400 and J1772 compatibility. These new conditions contribute to increased mechanical forces due to their size, weight and lever arm effect, which creates the need to study and compare these forces to the limits on UL2251 and IEC 62196-1 standards. This report focuses solely on high power DC charging EVSE connectors, EV inlets and adapters for the specific compatibility cases on J3400 with J1772. We first describe the details of the 100N and the 750N side-load evaluations as described in the standards, then present the data obtained by replicating these tests to finally go into more detail on the findings and our recommendations.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.2172/3020680
• Record URL:
  • https://www.nlr.gov/docs/fy26osti/96924.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The contents of this publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Transportation Research Board or the National Academy of Sciences.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Laboratory of the Rockies

  Golden, CO  United States 

  Department of Energy

  Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
  1000 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20585

  Argonne National Laboratory

  Lemont, IL  United States 

  Idaho National Laboratory

  Idaho Falls, ID  United States 

  Joint Office of Energy and Transportation

  ,    

  National Charging Experience Consortium (ChargeX Consortium)

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Gaxiola, Marco
  • Tolbert, Isaac
  • Meintz, Andrew
  • Moriarty, Kristi
• Publication Date: 2026-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 47p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cables; Components; Electric vehicle charging; Force; Mechanical loads; Structural connection
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01985222
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOE/GO-102025-6935, NLR/TP-5400-96924
• Contract Numbers: AC07-05ID14517; DE-AC36-08GO28308; DE-AC02-06CH113
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 7 2026 5:08PM