Hyundai, Kia and Genesis autos have been noticed doing a photoshoot whereas “charging” at a Supercharger right now, resulting in hypothesis about whether or not the manufacturers could also be able to announce a joint transfer to Tesla’s NACS charging connector.

NACS has been taking on the charging world ever since Ford’s announcement that it might undertake the connector again in Might. Quickly after, GM made the identical announcement, and since then many different producers have joined in.

Nevertheless, heretofore, the Korean automakers haven’t made the same announcement. Hyundai and Kia have an advanced relationship, with Hyundai proudly owning a couple of third of Kia and Kia proudly owning a giant chunk of key Hyundai suppliers. And they also find yourself promoting many comparable autos – notably their EVs, which exist on shared platforms (the Ioniq 5/EV6 and Ioniq 7/EV9 are each on the shared E-GMP platform).

This platform is identified for its fast-charging prowess, and between effectivity, fast charging pace and a broad cost curve, the platform may be the fastest-charging on the highway proper now, relying on the way you measure it.

However the issue is that it makes use of SAE CCS charging, which is just inferior to Tesla’s community. Not essentially due to the gear, however as a result of Tesla’s Supercharger places are simply higher general.

So, if vehicles on Hyundai/Kia’s wonderful E-GMP platform have been related to an easy-to-use, ubiquitous, and quick charging community…

Certainly the businesses have considered the identical factor, and right now we now have a reasonably clear indication that they’ve, and that an announcement could also be imminent.

Unreleased Hyundai/Kia autos noticed taking photographs at a Tesla supercharger

A submit appeared on reddit right now exhibiting a Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, Genesis GV60 (Genesis is a division of Hyundai), and Kia EV9 “charging” at a Tesla Supercharger, with photographs being taken whereas they do.

The shoot occurred on the San Clemente supercharger, which is a reasonably low site visitors charger by Southern California requirements. The vehicles have been occupying the older v2 superchargers, probably each in order that they wouldn’t should compete with charging autos and for the aesthetic background:

Notably, the EV9 continues to be unreleased (it’s anticipated to hit the highway this quarter, and we simply discovered its $54,900 beginning worth this week), so whereas we are able to’t see whether or not it has producer license plates, this automotive have to be owned by the corporate. So we all know that Kia was concerned on this photoshoot.

u/Baayta, who posted the photographs to reddit, mentioned that the vehicles had a “thingy” within the charging port to “pretend” charging for the photoshoot. The poster additionally said that the photographers did verify they work for Hyundai, and Hyundai’s US headquarters is comparatively close by in Fountain Valley, CA.

So, why might these vehicles be taking photographs at a Tesla supercharger? Particularly if they’re presently not able to charging there?

It appears probably that an announcement is coming quickly from the businesses, fairly presumably/in all probability a joint announcement of a shift to NACS.

We don’t know but what kind this is able to are available in – another producers have mentioned they’ll begin by providing an adapter within the coming yr or so, after which placing the connector on the car within the 2025 mannequin yr.

We reached out to Hyundai and Kia for remark, and Hyundai responded saying that “we’re at all times evaluating accessible expertise options that might enhance the client expertise, however don’t have something to announce presently.”