If you've been waiting for Hyundai or Kia to bring NACS to its EVs in the U.S. before you buy your next car, you'll be happy to know that it sure looks like that will be soon.
A pair of camouflaged Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 were spotted testing at a Magic Dock-equipped Tesla Supercharger near Ypsilanti, Michigan. However, they weren't using the Magic Dock's CCS connectors since the Korean vehicles were equipped with native NACS inlets.
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The Industry-Wide Shift To NACS
Last year, Ford shocked the world by announcing it would adopt rival automaker Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) inlet for its electric cars. Whether it be FOMO or innovation-seeking, other automakers jumped on board and soon announced their own shifts to the standard. The industry has chosen its winner of the competing standards war, leading to planned NACS adoption by automakers and charging providers.
Hyundai and Kia EVs currently use the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard. That means every vehicle on the road today uses the bulky connector to connect to any public DC Fast Charger while on the road. That's about to change, though.
Plans to move to Tesla's now-open NACS standard have been on the drawing board for nearly a year. Both automakers announced in October 2023 that they would join the wave of manufacturers adopting the NACS standard this year. The automaker said that it planned to bring the tech to the frontlines in the fourth quarter of 2024—so it would be right on target to spot the vehicles testing the new standard in the wild.
We also knew Kia's plans would begin with the EV6. One of the vehicles under wraps at the supercharger was clearly an EV6 in camouflage, giving would-be owners a glimpse of what's to come. We also expect the EV9 and potentially the Niro EV to feature native NACS support in the future.
As for Hyundai, the automaker has confirmed that the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 will be equipped with NACS. It also says that upcoming models on the E-GMP platform will also feature the tech, meaning that CCS will soon be a thing of the past for the brand.
Even though the automakers were spotted testing out native NACS, their vehicles with an adapter like Ford or Rivian don't yet have supercharging access. We're betting on that happening soon, though, especially since the automaker may want to do some quality assurance testing with charging adapters ahead of its full NACS-native launch.
The only wrench in the gears might be Tesla, which fired the entirety of its Supercharging team earlier this year. Other automakers, like General Motors, have been slated to gain access to the network in "Spring 2024"—a date set by Tesla—yet still can't plug in.
A person familiar with the matter told InsideEVs that "certain agreement-level details" had yet to be finalized, among other last-minute hurdles.
The nice thing is that GM still has fully functional CCS ports that work on just about every other charging network. With Hyundai and Kia readying a NACS-native car, it's likely everyone's hope that there will be no delay in Supercharging access so that the vehicles equipped with the charging inlet will launch without any major hiccups.
