Hyundai and Kia announced Thursday that they’re adopting the NACS standard.
My, this bandwagon’s getting awfully crowded, isn’t it? Joining a host of other manufacturers, Hyundai and Kia simultaneously said they would adopt the Tesla-developed North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its electric vehicles. The move will give cars sold in the U.S. and Canada access to Tesla’s 12,000 Supercharger stations, doubling the number of public DC fast-charging plugs available to Hyundai Group’s EV owners.
“Having this kind of sprawling access to chargers will no doubt boost customer satisfaction,” said Kia North America and Kia America president and CEO Seungkyu (Sean) Yoon.
Both Hyundai and Kia will begin installing the NACS port into its newly-built cars later next year, while existing CCS (Combined Charging Standard) drivers will be able to charge by adapter in early 2025. Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury brand, will also join in on the switchover to the NACS. The move will expand charging access to nearly every electric car the automakers have built in the past several years, with the sole exception of the CHAdeMO-equipped 2015-2019 Kia Soul EV.
Tesla’s advanced Supercharger V4 network can also take full advantage of the charging capabilities for Hyundai’s E-GMP vehicles, like the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and upcoming Ioniq 7, as well as Kia’s EV6, EV9 and upcoming EV5.
While Hyundai will adopt the NACS standard moving forward, it’s also working with six other global automakers to establish a new DC fast-charging network in North America. The first stations from that joint venture should go live next summer, and should ultimately expand to cover 30,000 charging stations throughout the continent.
