Rivian owners have spoken. Just days after the Irvine-headquartered brand announced the adoption of the Tesla charging standard, an online poll indicates overwhelming support in favor of the decision.
Rivian will ship the R1T electric truck and R1S SUV with the North American Charging Standard (NACS) adapter from 2024 – giving owners access to thousands of Tesla Superchargers across the country.
From 2025, Rivian models will have an inbuilt NACS port, eliminating the need for an adapter. Vehicles based on Rivian’s next-generation R2 platform, which will underpin a series of smaller, more affordable cars, will also support NACS when they arrive in 2025.
In the opinion poll, conducted on Rivian Owners Forum, 78.5 percent of owners voted in favor of the NACS charging plugs. 16 percent voted against the decision, while 5 percent were undecided. Although the participant base was relatively small, with just 256 total voters – so it's hard to say what the results would indicate had the voter base been larger.
While Rivian is embracing NACS, it isn’t shutting the door on CCS1. Its own charging network called Rivian Adventure Network is slated for expansion. Here’s what CEO RJ Scaringe said about Rivian’s charging roadmap:
The adoption of the North American Charging Standard will enable our existing and future customers to leverage Tesla’s expansive Supercharger network while we continue to build out our Rivian Adventure Network. We look forward to continuing to find new ways to accelerate EV adoption.
The Rivian Owners Forum had some interesting reactions following the poll. One Washington-based owner said:
Unless you're a big road tripper, for 99 percent of your driving experience the most important charger is the setup you plug into every night at home. I stopped worrying about the port wars 2 Teslas and one R1T ago.
Another one pointed out how the Rivian Amazon Electric Delivery Vans (EDV) might get affected by the switch to NACS:
I think Rivian has to keep CCS for the 100,000 Amazon vans unless Amazon requests otherwise. Amazon vans that charge at a depot every night would not benefit from access to the Tesla NACS network so I don't see why Amazon would request a change.
The Tesla Supercharger seems to have had a ripple effect across the industry. After solar car maker Aptera announced the adoption of NACS, Ford went in the same direction a few months later. Soon General Motors jumped on the bandwagon as well.
Many other brands are considering joining what Tesla CEO Elon Musk humorously called a “NACS coalition.”
