Hyundai is the latest major automaker to announce a switch to Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) on its vehicles starting in late 2024, giving owners access to Tesla's massive charger network.
Hyundai announced this morning that its new or refreshed electric vehicles in the United States will come exclusively with a NACS charging port beginning in the fourth quarter of 2024; Canada will follow in the first half of 2025. This means Hyundai EVs with NACS connectors will gain access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The move will effectively double the size of the DC fast charging network that's currently available to Hyundai EV customers.
"Our collaboration with Tesla marks another milestone in our commitment to delivering exceptional EV experiences to our customers," said José Muñoz, the president and CEO of Hyundai Motor North America. "This new alliance will provide Hyundai EV owners confidence in their ability to conveniently charge their vehicles and complements our joint venture company to create a new, high-powered charging network with at least 30,000 stations across North America."
Hyundai says Tesla's Supercharging network will fully support the ultra-fast charging speeds on its Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) vehicles, including the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, and the upcoming Ioniq 7.
As for owners of existing and future Hyundai EVs with the current CCS port, they will get access to the Tesla Supercharging Network starting in Q1 2025, when Hyundai will offer an adapter to these customers. The Korean automaker said it would also make adapters available to charge NACS-equipped vehicles at CCS chargers.
"Opening our Supercharging network to additional electric vehicles directly supports our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," said Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Charging at Tesla. "We're proud to welcome Hyundai as the latest adopter of the North American Charging Standard."
In addition to the deal with Tesla, Hyundai is partnering with six of the world's leading global carmakers to develop a new, high-powered charging network in North America with at least 30,000 chargers. The first US stations in this new network are expected to open in the summer of 2024, with Canada to follow at a later stage.
More and more automakers, fed up with the lackluster charging experience offered by many third-party companies being a known barrier to EV adoption, are simply partnering with Tesla instead. Tesla's Supercharger network is regarded as the largest and arguably best charging ecosystem, and now Hyundai—which has very ambitious EV plans—is about to give its customers a lot more charging convenience. It also means they will be able to use a much slimmer, lighter plug than the bulky CCS. Furthermore, SAE International is in the process of turning Tesla's NACS connector design into a true standard, making NACS look more and more like the future of EV charging in North America now.
Hyundai is the latest carmaker to adopt Tesla's NACS charging port, following in the footsteps of Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Infiniti, Jaguar, Honda, Acura, Fisker, and Aptera. A similar announcement from Hyundai Motor Group subsidiaries Kia and Genesis are likely to happen soon.
