Hyundai is considering adopting Tesla’s recently revealed North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its electric vehicles (EVs), including the Ioniq 5 and the Ioniq 6.
During the car company’s recent investor day, Hyundai president and CEO Jaehoon Chang said that the automaker’s decision regarding the possibility of adopting Tesla’s charging standard comes down to consumer interest. However, Chang also said that Tesla’s chargers don’t offer the higher charging rates supported by the South Korean company’s vehicles (via CNBC). For his company to adopt the standard, this would need to change.
Hyundai and Kia’s EVs can currently handle charging speeds up to 350kW, although few chargers — especially in Canada — support this charging rate. It’s worth noting that there are also reports that Hyundai’s and Kia’s cars can’t actually charge this fast and top out somewhere in the 226kW range. On the other hand, Tesla’s vehicle can charge at a maximum of 250kW. Chang says he plans to contact Tesla to see if its NACS charging technology can be changed to support faster speeds.
Given how many Tesla Superchargers are available across Canada and the United States and the fact that major automakers, including Ford, GM and Rivian, have stated that they’ll either offer NACS adapters or start including the ports in future cars, it’s not surprising Hyundai is also considering making the switch.
During Hyundai’s investor day, the company also discussed its next-gen EV Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) system designed to replace the E-GMP platform currently adopted by its electric vehicles, which gives the company a more flexible battery system that works across vehicles of various sizes
In other Hyundai-related news, the company recently confirmed to MobileSyrup that an update/service program is coming to fix the Ioniq 5’s brake light issues and a problem related to its Integrated Control Charging Unit (ICCU).
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
