As the U.S. market moves away from CCS charging, automakers are putting in place concrete plans for the transition.
Long ago, three EV charging standards lived together in disharmony. Then, everything changed when NACS began to take over. Kia has now announced a timeline for adopting the standard, beginning with the EV6.
As covered by InsideEVs, the news was revealed at Kia’s first-ever EV Day, which took place in Seoul earlier this week. Kia, along with its sibling Hyundai, both plan to switch to the North American Charging Standard (NACS) in the coming years. In Kia’s case, that will begin with EV6 models starting from Q4 2024, according to Min Woo Park, Kia’s head of global product planning. From there, the plug will slowly roll out across the rest of Kia’s EV range.
Despite the changeover, Kia hasn’t forgotten about owners of its existing vehicles. For those with Kia, Hyundai, and Genesis vehicles fitted with CCS charge ports, an adapter will allow the use of NACS chargers from Q1 2025.
The main driving factor behind the NACS changeover all comes down to charging availability. Many CCS charging networks have offered poor uptime, with EV owners arriving at chargers only to find them non-functional or only capable of charging at slower rates. Tesla’s Supercharger network, on the other hand, has proven comparatively reliable. Stations are also well-located, particularly for longer trips, and the general user experience is a more positive one. Tired of being held back by underwhelming CCS infrastructure, automakers decided to make the leap.
Ford was the first major automaker that decided to abandon CCS for NACS in the U.S. market. It was quickly followed by General Motors, with Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, and Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Honda all joining the party. Transition timelines vary, with most planning to release NACS-equipped models by 2025 or so.
CCS chargers will remain around for quite some time, and there are still thousands of CHAdeMO ports still in operation, too. Regardless, with the grand mass of automakers switching to the NACS standard, it looks to become the defacto U.S. charging standard that Tesla always wanted it to be. Funny how that turns out.
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