In the wake of Hyundai and Genesis announcing the adoption of Tesla’s NACS EV charging connector standard for North America, fellow Hyundai Group brand Kia has done the same, to little surprise.
This is more good news for North American EV drivers, of course. Owners of a Kia EV will soon have access to 12,000 Tesla Supercharger station across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Kia says that as of Q4 of 2024, all new EVs from the brand built for those three markets will feature the North American Charging Standard plug, as Tesla has dubbed its connector. As well, the company plans to make available adaptors that will allows current owners of Kia EVs that have the CCS connectors to plug into Tesla charging outlets. Those should be made available starting early in 2025.
Note the one exception to that is the Kia Soul EV (2015-2019 models), as it uses the CHAdeMO connecting standard. As well, Kia’s statement carefully avoids promising that those adaptors will be free of charge. That remains to be seen, obviously.
The automaker added that a future software upgrade will allow users of the Kia Connect app to use it to find, access and pay for charging on Tesla chargers.