• Kia will offer NACS adapters free of charge to certain EV6 and EV9 owners.
For just over a year, we've seen the majority of automakers announce that they would be opting for Tesla's NACS (North American Charging Standard) charging standard, rather than CCS (Combined Charging System), which is still used by the majority of current electric vehicles.
The move will give owners of other makes of vehicle access to thousands of charging stations in Tesla's network.
In the vast majority of cases, vehicles assembled from 2025 onwards will leave the factory with the NACS port. Until then, to take advantage of Tesla's charging stations, you'll need an adapter. Ford initially offered this free of charge, and more recently General Motors made it available to owners of its vehicles for a few hundred dollars.
Now Kia has announced its own adapter. It will be offered free of charge to certain customers.
Note the 'certain', as opposed to 'all'.
To get a free adapter, people must have purchased their new Kia EV9 or Kia EV6 after September 4, 2024. The offer applies to 2024 EV6s, but also to 2024 AND 2025 EV9s. These free adapters will be sent to customers in early 2025. The company has specified that access to Tesla's charging stations will be possible from January 15, 2025.
Owners of the Kia EV9, EV6 and Niro EV who purchased their vehicle before September 4 will be able to obtain the adapter from a Kia dealer. It has not been specified when the adapter will be made available.
And to make things a little more complex, Kia will be offering three types of NACS adapters.
- The first (NACS to CCS) will enable existing Kia electric vehicles to use the NACS-type DC fast chargers due to be deployed in the US from next year, as well as Tesla's existing chargers.
- A second (CCS to NACS) will enable future Kia electric vehicles, which will be equipped with the NACS port, to charge on CCS port-equipped fast chargers currently found on charging stations operated by organizations such as Electrify Canada.
- Finally, a third adapter (J1772 to NACS) will enable owners of Kia electric vehicles equipped with the NACS port to charge at Level 2 AC charging stations.
We contacted Kia Canada to find out if the terms and dates announced for the implementation of the new standard will be the same here. For the moment, the company's answer is simple: details have not yet been finalized for Canada. What it does tell us is that it's in the works, and details will be announced soon.
We'll keep you posted.