It’s a replay of the VHS versus Betamax war, but with higher stakes for a warming planet: A battle over EV charging standards finds Tesla winning decisively, as major automakers abandon their Combined Charging System (CCS) plugs in favor of Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS).
It’s another black eye for a CCS infrastructure that’s become infamous for faulty or sparsely located chargers. But it’s by no means a knockout, at least for now: The switch to NACS is bringing its own teething pains and workarounds.
For EV owners, or potential buyers on the fence due to worries over charging access, a mass migration to Tesla’s largely trouble-free network does offer cause for celebration. Tesla is opening roughly 20,000 of its roughly 30,000 Superchargers in the U.S. and Canada to owners of brands such as Ford, General Motors, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Polestar, Rivian, and Volvo.
But connecting a non-Tesla model to a V3 Supercharger requires compatible vehicle hardware and software, and typically a NACS adapter. Software delays and hardware shortages have been the rule, even as Tesla cranks out 8,000 adapters a week from a Buffalo facility to meet booming demand. Kia planned to open up Supercharger access for owners on 15 January, but last week announced a delay until spring due to unspecified “technical issues.” BMW and its Mini and Rolls-Royce brands have also pushed back access to later in 2025.
“It’ll be a bit of a bumpy road, but things will settle down,” says Jim Burness, the founder and CEO of National Car Charging, which is one of the largest resellers and installers of commercial charging equipment in the United States. “We’re already seeing the era of ‘Adapt-o-rama,’ which would not be a bad business space to be in for the next few years.” Burness himself drives a Tesla with a CCS adapter, as well as a Rivian with an adapter for the NACS plug.
More Manufacturers Are Adopting Tesla’s Adapters
EV drivers can finally experiencing what they’ve been missing, as I did last week when I used a NACS adapter to charge a 2025 Rivian R1S Tri Motor SUV—a versatile 850-horsepower marvel, with its optional “Max” 140-kWh pack—at a Tesla station in Rhode Island. That went off without a hitch, despite some side-eye from a Tesla Model Y owner who had to wait for this Rivian interloper to charge-up at one of eight Superchargers.
Without an adapter, non-Tesla drivers must find a rare Tesla “Magic Dock” station that can handle cars with CCS connectors. But there are currently only about 100 total Magic Dock stalls, many of which are concentrated in Canada and the northeastern United States. Backlogs of owners are waiting for adapters from manufacturers, and some aftermarket adapters have proven wonky. Ford cautioned owners to stop using free adapters it provided, which could potentially slow down a charge or damage the car’s charging port. (Ford has promised to send replacement units.) Meanwhile, General Motors has released its own adapter, priced at US $225: Expensive, but if it works, likely worth every penny to a Chevrolet Blazer or Cadillac Lyriq owner in need of an emergency charge.
The first non-Tesla models with NACS connectors are coming to showrooms this year. The avatar is the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, already emerging from its new Georgia factory with a native NACS plug, replacing the model’s previous CCS port. Hyundai and its sister brand Kia have announced five EVs that will come from the factory with NACs ports, including the popular Kia EV6, the three-row Kia EV9 and Hyundai Ioniq 9 SUVs, and the luxury Genesis Electrified GV70. With the Ioniq 6 sedan also expected to adopt a NACS port, Hyundai Motors alone would have six NACS models, or one more than Tesla offers in its entire global lineup. The Georgia-built Ioniq 5 will come from the factory or showroom with an included Tesla adapter. The company is offering complimentary adapters to existing owners who purchased or leased an EV before 31 January.
Many auto executives have expressed frustration with the existing CCS network, and how it might be throwing a wrench into EV adoption. When owners encounter charging snafus, executives say, they tend to blame their car and its maker as much as a charging provider, a case of guilt-by-association. Miles Johnson, a spokesman for Hyundai, summed up what’s at stake for owners and the company’s currently booming EV sales.
“An entire team in HATCI has been working on this, and it’s got to work,” Johnson says, referring to the Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. near Ann Arbor, Mich. “You can’t sell the car if someone can’t roll up to a Tesla charger, use the app and make it work, every time.”
New Charging Architectures Bring Woes
While Hyundai Motors models will work on existing Superchargers, they’ll do it with one hand tied behind their back. Like other cars with robust 800-volt architectures—including models from Audi, Lucid, and Porsche—the Hyundai delivers some of the fastest DC charging in the business: A blazing 257-kilowatt maximum for the redesigned 2025 model, up from 233 kW. But Tesla’s V3 Superchargers are optimized for its own 400 V cars, which limits how fast 800 V competitors can fill them up. Kyle Holodnick, an engineer at HATCI, says Tesla’s current V3 Superchargers cap Hyundai models at 135 kW. For the Ioniq 5’s new, enlarged 77 kilowatt-hour battery pack, a 20-minute charge from 10 to 80 percent on the speediest CCS charger will take 29 minutes on a V3 Supercharger.
“We’ve optimized the software in our charging systems to charge as fast as possible at Tesla Superchargers,” Holodnick says. “We will be able to charge at a higher power when Tesla releases their new V4 Superchargers.”
Automakers must also work to integrate Tesla’s “Plug and Charge” capability, which lets users initiate and automatically pay for a charge the instant they plug in, rather than using the Tesla app.
The 2025 Kia EV6 SUV is among cars that highlight unintended consequences wrought by a lack of standardization, including seemingly basic matters such as outlet locations and cord lengths.
Kia’s redesigned crossover EV will adopt a NACS port later this year, but will also move the outlet to the driver’s-side rear, matching its location on Teslas. Some Tesla owners, already resentful over giving up exclusive Supercharger access, are finding one or more stalls blocked by cars whose plug ports aren’t situated the same way. That’s exactly what happened at the Tesla station where I replenished the Rivian: A Ford F-150 Lightning pickup was forced to park sideways to connect the Supercharger’s too-short cord to an outlet on the front fender, blocking an adjacent Supercharger.
Mercedes has come up with a novel workaround for its next-generation, 2026 CLA-Class sedan, which it recently previewed in a camouflaged prototype form. The sedan will introduce the new 800 V Mercedes Modular Architecture that will underpin a range of new models.
As part of that, the sedan will offer both an SAE J1772 port for slower Level 2 AC charging, and a NACS port for fast DC charging. There’s only one catch: The Mercedes will be limited to fast charging through its NACS port, with Level 2 charging exclusively through the J1772. (That J1772 is one-half of a CCS “combo plug” that allows both Level 2 and DC charging.) To switch those functions, owners will need to lug a pair of adapters around, one for Level 2 charging on slower Tesla Destination chargers, and another to fast charge at CCS stations. Not the most elegant solution, but one that opens the entire universe of charging options.
“This combination is designed to provide maximum flexibility for our customers and ensure an optimal charging experience across various charging infrastructures,” Mercedes said in a statement. “As more and more charging stations convert to NACS, the CLA-Class EV will be perfectly positioned to take advantage of this growing network for faster, more convenient charging.”
Is CCS Charging an Imperiled Ecosystem?
At the same time, public CCS providers such as ChargePoint and Electrify America must race to add NACS outlets to their networks, or retrofit some current machines—all while maintaining a CCS network that’s suddenly feeling as endangered as a Betamax copy of Jurassic Park.
For any provider, “site design and cord length are the biggest changes we’re going to see,” Burness says. “If I can back in my Rivian and get charger to port, I’m not taking up two stalls.”
For Tesla’s part, the automaker has begun building new stations with longer stalls that can be approached in two directions, or with repositioned chargers to better reach cars on either side. Burness cites Kempower, a company whose chargers offer cords up to 10 meters long, enough to reach the longest cars and SUVs, or even commercial trucks. ChargePoint is rolling out its new Omni Port chargers, that dispense either a CCS/JC1772 or NACS connector to serve both types of EV.
Burness says that ultimately, Tesla’s network has proven its superiority; not just in sheer ubiquity, but for its more-elegant plug and cord design that’s much easier for users to handle, including for elderly drivers or people with physical limitations.
The NACS plug also features fewer electrical pins and has proven more robust in the field, with less breakage and fewer problems connecting.
“It’s just a lighter, less-bulky design, with fewer pins to lock in, and I think we’ll see a decrease in user and charger error,” Burness says. “As more cars convert over, you’re going to see a better connection rate. All told, this switch is not going to be as difficult as some might have you believe.”
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