Hyundai to offer free NACS DC EV adapters to enhance charging convenience

6 comments

I'm amazed there isn't more talk about how bad the nationwide charging infrastructure is. Non-Tesla public chargers are a disaster. Terribly engineered, buggy as hell, constantly failing, perpetually out of date, improperly configured, insecure. As someone who has worked with them, I would probably not buy an EV at all unless I could use the Tesla chargers, so thank god that's an option now.

Non-tesla infra has gotten a lot better over the past couple years, at least according to this one YouTube EV road trip I watched recently: https://youtu.be/ouPiwt5hxXQ

My team was working with 2 non-tesla charging vendors this summer. Terrible, couldn't get them to work, waiting weeks for the vendors to fix their shit, no support, no documentation (seriously). It was like a college intern who went through a bootcamp tried to throw one together. Wouldn't trust them to make a USB charger.

Tesla now sells them.

And there's a new >800V+ cabinet

It’s still not great. I drove I5 North for the holidays and at one stop there was an hour+ long wait at Electrify America. Only 3/4 stalls working and a queue 5 or 6 deep to charge. At the same stop there were 12+ Tesla chargers and no issue with wait and not fully occupied

I don't have an electric car (not against it in principle but waiting for the right time).

One thing that always bothers me is that, from what I've seen, queuing for charging seems to be based on coordination and trust between EV drivers. Surely it would make far more sense to have some kind of virtual queuing system built in. Then when a charger becomes free it automatically sends you an alert and gives you some period to connect to the charger.

Longer term, I would hope charging stations would be designed with a layout which lets cars queue sensibly.

queuing for charging seems to be based on coordination and trust between EV drivers.

You are correct, which is why I’m serious when I say that I’m surprised there haven’t been reports of physical altercations by now. And even if not fisticuffs, how about saving me the stress of trying to figure out the ad hoc queuing system? The chargers are often way the hell out at the edge of the parking lot, no one is losing usable parking spots by making a few painted lanes.

I've rarely had to really queue.

While it might make sense to soft lock a stall for queue, that'd be pretty hard to coordinate and wouldn't work well cross manufacturer (you now either need a universal registration protocol or some sort of physical infrastructure that enforces a queue).

IMO, the better solution and the one that seems to be happening is more chargers. These charge providers have the numbers on how many people are using their stations so it's not really impossible to map out and plan out where new charging stations are needed.

During surge usage, Tesla is deploying temporary charge stations to handle the extra load [1]

[1] https://electrek.co/2024/12/23/tesla-deploys-a-fleet-of-mega...

I suggested the same queueing system like a year ago, haven't heard of anyone implementing it. Even companies doing managed charging, they are in much more of a rush to sign a contract than make it work well.

You can tell nobody thought it through, just pushing all the chargers up against the borders of properties because that's what requires the least construction and least coordination with property owners. Customers get the shaft.

I'm curious if there's a reason why or how Tesla tend to build 10+ stations per location while EA/EVgo tend to only do 4 most of the time. I still need to wait a lot of times at EA/EVgo locations.

If Tesla charging sucks, people don't buy Teslas.

If EA charging sucks... well there's pretty much nothing you can do about it.

EA is struggling with charger outages but they're improving. The real story is the L2 players providing a lot more L3 sites (EVgo, ChargePoint).

Since you don't own an EV, you probably haven't noticed how much better they've got in the past year. There's been a huge improvement, and many of them are now considerably faster than Tesla chargers, especially if you have an 800v car.

I have a Hyundai Ioniq 5, and as such, applaud this.

That said, it won't affect my life much. I mostly commute, and for that, just trickle charge at home (very slow) or plug in at work when I need a faster boost. It's funny how little range anxiety matters if you don't drive long range.

Exact same boat here, Ioniq 5 owner. Destination charging and trickle charging at home does everything I need. I will still apply for this though! Super cool.

I wonder if this announcement applies to Canadian owners as well?

Anyone know when sign ups actually come online?

It says Q1 of 2025.

While other vendor offer a device with which you can hack and drive Hyundai/Kia vehicles within few minutes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1durgih/h...

"Offer" - for tens of thousands of dollars.

And almost every other brand of car, EV or ICE.

So this is just the adapter. That's fine I guess if doing the absolute minimum to make the thing work is the way they want to go, but some people like to express themselves by doing more.

I don't remember which car company (Ford maybe??) is paying for a home charger install at the buyer's home (I'm assuming a single family dwelling type of restriction). Clearly trying to entice more sales. So the ad kind of worked, except not so well that I remember exactly which maker it is doing this. Good job ad guys!

Absolute minimum would be working with Tesla to ensure your vehicles are permitted to charge at SuperChargers but require your customers to buy an adapter ($200) so free adapter is definitely a step up in my book.

I'm not sure what installing an L2 home charger does for anyone who has range anxiety for trips. Most people who have an EV and can install an L2 charger (ie, life in a SFH that they own) probably already have done so.

I still use a L1 charger in a SFH because an overnight charge at L1 speeds is 3x my daily driving usage, so I haven't bothered to hire an electrician.

A while back my 240v plug burnt out so while I waited for my electrician to fix it, we were forced to use 110v (we have 2 EVs) and it was manageable (I have a long commute but hybrid in-office).

> working with Tesla to ensure your vehicles are permitted to charge at SuperChargers

Permitted is a funny perspective. You should be demanding compatibility in charging infrastructure.

Incompatible infrastructure makes EVs worse than ICE vehicles. All brands of charger must charge all brands of EV, just as all brands of fuel station fuel all brands of ICE vehicle. Anything less is backward and primitive.

Europe sorted this out a long time ago. Slowly North America is getting there by standardizing on CCS with the J3400 plug.

This very thing is something that just shows me how not serious "the country" is about EV. Could you imagine the uproar if you had to go to a Ford fueling station but could not go there if you had a Chevy? There would be rioting in the streets.

bigAuto and bigOil are just sitting back laughing at the entire situation.

> That's fine I guess if doing the absolute minimum to make the thing work is the way they want to go

They're also switching all of their EVs to use native NACS ports next year for the North American market. New customers won't need this adapter, their cars will come with an adapter in the other direction (CCS to NACS).

They also have various offers at different times for including a home charger + installation and/or free charging credits at Electrify America stations.

https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/3945

https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/special-programs/electrify-...

They are also part of the IONNA group which is going to be building a lot of DC fast chargers across North America.

https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/4071

This has nothing to do with at-home charging. This is so that Hyundai’s that have already been sold can utilize NACS high speed chargers (Tesla). And to future proof them as other vendors move to the NACS standard.

I never claimed this had anything to do with at-home charging. I'm comparing this incentive to another car company's incentive. Hyundai is trying to make charging the EV less of a hassle. That incentive is still much less convenient than the other car company paying for a charger in your home.

Hyundai does have an in home charger incentive.

But again, that has literally nothing to do with this. This isn’t about “making charging more convenient”, it’s about ensuring owners are future proofed.

The people this is targeted at already bought a Hyundai, this isn’t about enticing new buyers.

You said they are "doing the absolute minimum to make the thing work is the way they want to go" which is a strange thing to say about offering a free adapter for DC fast charging for their existing customers.

Maybe it makes sense if you assume that's the only thing Hyundai is doing in the realm of making EV charging easier.

it was a very strained reference to Office Space and pieces of flair

What “incentive”? Hyundai already has my money, and they are going to give me an adapter anyway. Why derail the conversation?

Ford is offering the home charger installation, or a $1000 public charging credit. I'm trying to shop for one of these trucks right now, and my sense is that the dealers are not a big fan of EVs and are almost actively working against Ford. The buying process is extremely painful compared to my last two purchases from pure EV manufacturers.

In the last 5 years the only real service my EV has had is a 12V battery replacement (done under warranty), cabin air filters, wipers/wiper fluid, and tire rotations.

And those can pretty easily be done DIY or at a local tire shop.

I can imagine why dealerships may not be pleased, and have heard about other EV brands having things like recommended $300 annual service visits where the dealership basically does the above items and checks for software updates. I guess some people will pay it and that might help keep the dealerships from being too mad about the changes.

It’s not your imagination. GM and F are awful about this. They even significantly curtailed their plans for training and updating dealers to support EVs better.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/13/ford-ends-ev-dealership-prog...

It’s an under-appreciated intangible “innovation” from Tesla that you can order a car as simply as you can order from Amazon. People hate car dealers with good reason.

Well of course dealers don't want to sell you EVs. They have far far less maintenance than an ICE car. There are less options on many of them. And the biggest reason is that they know their customers who try 'non-dealer' sellers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid are far happier overall. And the EVs plus dealers are clearly not matching the good things that come from Tesla or Rivian. Another example, there's basically no need for an annual service visit. The dealers are trying to make kind of silly service visits, charging $100 to rotate the tires. https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/s...

There are problems with no-dealer companies, when they are in initial stages it can be hard to get repairs if there is no local service center. Rivian is still growing a lot and can get behind, Tesla seems to have basically built out enough service in a lot of places but also can get behind. But even real auto dealers can get behind too.

I have a Tesla and my interaction with the local service center has been pretty much as good as my prior interactions with a trusted mechanic.

The dealer model is just regulatory capture. It's a dumb middle man that provides no value beyond what the manufacturer can do. It's only there because dealers tend to be over represented in state and federal officials. So, of course, they keep and create regulations which penalize direct sales.

And of course they legally bribe politicians with campaign donations.

Sure they’re against them - they’re much simpler to service and most likely significantly more reliable. Given that dealers typically make most of their money on service (repairs) than on sales of vehicles, it’s no wonder they’re more likely to be biased against EVs. I have an ICE F-150 (2016) and I can’t fathom only having 240ish miles of range. I’ll wait 5 years for the 450 mile version.

depending on model, already have 320 miles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F-150_Lightning.

They now test them doing things like going 70 mph without stopping, got 270 miles https://insideevs.com/reviews/598000/ford-f150-lightning-ran.... EPA doesn't drive them that steadily that fast on their test run. The new Tesla model 3 (highland) gets 370 miles on that test.

Chevy’s RST Silverado can do 450 miles, but it’s nearly $100k.

Wow, that's high $. The Honda Prologue, which is a rebadged GM blah, can do 230 miles at 70mph (95% of battery), which is a slightly different strategy than out of spec reviews does (https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-honda-prologue-elect...).

This is a rebadged chevy blazer ev, except it (1) doesn't have onstar (yay!), (2) had android auto and apple carplay unlike GM cars.

What's the best tradeoff for cost vs range? It's about $60k before discounts. The tesla model 3 highland (recent refresh) can do an amazing 370 miles at 70mph. The only problem is it's a tesla.

Out of spec drives until the battery is dead. They haven't tested the honda prologue yet.

My wife drives a ‘23 Blazer RS (non-EV). We killed OnStar as soon as the trial ended. Still has CarPlay. At $44k with all the discounts (my dad is a GM retiree), it was hardly a bargain. I can’t imagine paying $60K for the EV version of it. Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice car, but it’s a Chevy.

When I was shopping for a new car, Hyundai had an offer for a free Lvl 2 home charger (though not installation) with the new car purchase on the Ioniq 6.

To be fair, a Level 2 charger probably costs them less than $200, it's not a crazy thing to throw in with a $50 000 car.

Your argument is correct, but you're overestimating the actual price of the car by 10%+, and underestimating cost of a level 2 charger by about the same amount (or rather, a level 2 plug or adapter. Unlike DC-DC charging, the AC-DC charger is installed in the car itself: the on-wall device just handles handshake and various safety shut off mechanisms).

It was Hyundai. Hyundai gives you a free ChargePoint charger and $600 towards installation. (or at least they did a year ago when I got my Ioniq 5)

They did not offer that with my Kona Electric purchased this year. Probably because they are offering a $7500 rebate to match the rebates for US produced cars.

At various times, Hyundai offered purchasers of their e-gmp models rebates of $7.5k-10k, or 2 years of free charging at Electrify America stations, or level 2 home adapters/chargers, sometimes including some costs towards installation. With a bit of patience and haggling, you could've gotten at least two of the three, if not all.

The Kona EV, like the Niro EV and non-numeric Ioniq models, isn't based on the electric e-GMP platform, but is using the old gas vehicle platform, and incentives on those models are lower, probably because there is less need to increase sales of those.

Hyundai also had an in-home charger installation incentive.

> doing the absolute minimum to make the thing work is the way they want to go

It isn't the way they are going, no. Hyundais and Kias in the USA will have native NACS ports in all 2025 models onwards. Starting with Ioniq 5 shipping in Q1 2025, I believe.

Adapters are the short-term "stopgap".

Sources:

"Hyundai Is About To Have More EVs With NACS Plugs Than Tesla ... In the United States, all-new or refreshed Hyundai EVs will come exclusively with a NACS port, beginning in Q4 2024."

https://insideevs.com/news/742221/hyundai-kia-genesis-nacs-c...

"Hyundai’s first EV with native Tesla Supercharging is the new Ioniq 5"

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/3/24235272/hyundai-2025-ioni...

So they are not selling the rest of the 2024 inventory anywhere? That's the incentive on getting people to buy the '24 model. They need all the help they can get to clear the '24s out so more '25s can take their place on the lot.

buyer: "I like the '24, but the charging port is inconvenient"

seller: "Fret not, we offer this handy dandy adapter. Please please please buy this car"

No, this isn't how this all works.

No one cares about the plug itself. The thing people care about is access to charging networks.

Tesla recently decided the moat of having their network available only to their own cars isn't worth it anymore. Some of it to get federal money that can only get on stations that serve multiple vehicle brands, and not just their own.

They could've do the costly things, and made their charging stations with multiple plugs, like other networks do. Or they could've used the same plug as other cars, as they do in Europe (because there the regulator was ahead of them, and forced them to actually be compatible with everyone else). Instead, Tesla did the ingenious thing, and got other manufacturers to bear the cost of making their vehicles compatible with Tesla's chargers.

> So they are not selling the rest of the 2024 inventory anywhere?

You know that they are selling, or you can confirm that online, so why even ask? What is the actual nature of your complaint?

I don't see this case as fundamentally different from any "next years model is coming soon" sales scenario. Except that, you know, this time there is an adapter to give to the people who bought 6 months ago.

Salesmen have well-worn playbooks to deal with it.

It's in the sales interest to keep the changeover window short. Manufacturing would disagree. Nevertheless, the window appears to be closing soon.

The comment about selling "access to charging networks" is exactly right. And also making use of them the exception via at-home overnight charging.