First it was Ford, then GM came soon after. And while rumors that Stellantis is also considering it, Rivian has just announced that it, too, will switch to the North American Charging Standard—better known as NACS—starting as soon as 2025. What does this mean for current Rivian R1T and R1S owners and those waiting for their orders to be built?
In all honesty, with the way the current charging infrastructure is outside of Tesla’s system, the move to NACS is a smart one. Range anxiety has been taken over by Charger anxiety as owners try to find a working charger. The Tesla network is relatively reliable and flexible enough on the Level 2 side that all you would need is a J1772 to NACS adapter to charge overnight.
With Europe potentially forcing Tesla to make its DC Fast Chargers—the Superchargers—communicate with non-Tesla vehicles via the CCS communication protocol, it’s possible that an adapter will be all you’ll need for any J1772-CCS combo equipped electric vehicle to use a Tesla fast charger in the very near future. Even in the U.S. Right now, unfortunately, it’s still a gamble as we’ve seen between our Kia EV6 and our Hyundai Ioniq 5 long term vehicles. Which is why some Rivian owners will be questioning if this is a good move right now or not.
According to Rivian, adaptors for the R1T and R1S will become available “as early as Spring 2024,” while the NACS port will be the standard charging port starting in 2025. This port will also be the standard port for the upcoming small Rivian platform, the R2. For now, the Rivian Adventure Network will retain the J1772-CCS combo charger and will continue to expand to “3,500 chargers at 600 locations.” At the very least, Rivian owners will be able to charge at these stations and are still able to charge normally at home regardless of being J1772 or NACS.
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