Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 spotted charging with native NACS connector

Hyundai has partnered with Tesla to adopt NACS for its EVs and recently, IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 spotted charging with a native Tesla charging connector.

Almost every major electric vehicle (EV) maker has announced NACS adaptation by the next year. This partnership allows EV companies to access thousands of superchargers with fast charging speeds. As of July 2024, Tesla operates more than 27,000 stalls for Tesla EVs and more than 15,000 for NACS support vehicles.

Ford was the first company to adopt NACS for F-150 Lighting and Mustang Mach-E. Earlier this year, the company rolled out free adapters for these EV owners, which worked quite well. Rivian came second and also sent free adapters for R1T and R1S owners.

Last October, Hyundai signed an agreement with Tesla to debut NACS ports in the US and Canada. It confirmed that refreshed models will bring NACS by the fourth quarter. This expansion will reach Canada in 2025.

Interstingly, Ford and Rivian are using adapters to support this charging standard in their electric cars. However, Hyundai will be the first company to bring NACS natively.

A LinkedIn user named Sam Abuelsamid shared pictures of two vehicles. These two models were covered to hide their appearance but the user identified them as Kia EV6 and IONIQ 5.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 spotted at charging with Tesla NACS connector (Source – Sam Abuelsamid/LinkedIn)

Interestingly, both models were charging at a Supercharger station with a native SAE International J3400 charging connector. It means there was no adapter this time. Since these cars were camouflaged and plugged in with native connectors, the Korean car maker may have been piloting the charging statics.

It is confirmed that NACS will land on the IONIQ 6 and future EV models. Similarly, Kia America promised to bring this charging capability to EV6 and EV9. For now, Hyundai and Kia have not shared any updates on IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 with the native NACS connector release date.

(via – Driveteslacanada)