A flood of Tesla Supercharger access for non-Tesla cars is coming, but automakers certainly aren’t unified on the subject of charging adapters. Ford just gave free Supercharger adapters to everyone with an F-150 Lightning or a Mustang Mach-E, while GM is making its electric vehicle owners pay $225 per adaptor. As for Kia, the Korean brand is taking an approach somewhere in the middle and is really only giving out some free Tesla Supercharger adapters. It’s a weird strategy on the face of things, but dig a bit deeper, and it starts to make a little bit of sense from a sales perspective.
If you’ve bought a Kia EV6 or EV9 from Sept. 4 onward, then congratulations, you’re getting a free Tesla Supercharger adapter early in 2025. However, if you’ve bought a Niro EV, or bought an EV6 or EV9 before Sept. 4, you’re going to have to wait until, as Kia puts it, “a later date,” and once availability opens up, you’ll have to purchase an adapter rather than be sent one for free.
At first, it seems odd that Kia EV owners who’ve had their cars for years won’t get free adapters, but the brand could have a fairly good reason for doing this. See, several Kia electric vehicles could soon adopt Tesla-style NACS ports as the native standard in North America. We’ve seen it on 2025 model year Hyundai models, and given platform-sharing, it’s possible that a similar initiative rolls out at Kia soon, with added credibility due to Kia’s media release mention that a “J1772 to NACS adapter allows NACS-equipped Kia EVs to AC-charge on existing Level 2 chargers.”
If this happens for 2025, there will be a batch of 2024 model year cars with CCS ports sitting on dealer lots, and there’s a good chance Kia will just want those out of there. There’s a chance the free adapters could just be an incentive of sorts, like putting a few hundred dollars on the hood.
In any case, we finally have a date when Tesla Superchargers will be available to Kia electric vehicle owners, and that’s Jan. 15, 2025. Kia claims the move will expand DC charging access by 83 percent, and it should have all the kinks of payment worked out too. After a software update, the Kia access app will let you pay for charging and see pricing at nearby DC fast charging stations, a nice touch for owners looking to stay away from surge pricing.
It’s taken a while, but the ball is officially rolling on Tesla Supercharger access for more brands than just Tesla and Ford. While this move is likely to put more strain on Supercharger stations, for non-Tesla EV owners, reliable DC juice for road trips will have them breathing sighs of relief.
(Photo credits: Kia)
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Guess the Hyundai announcement is just around the corner?
Also learned that the charging speeds on Tesla’s network aren’t as awesome vs. CCS. Can’t complain about more options overall, but the Magicdock stations are giving max 100kW vs. the 350kW most of these cars are capable of.
It depends on the generation of the Supercharger. The latest (gen4) are able to go to 600kW (600A at 1000v) but currently software limited to 250kW. Earlier ones are lower (150kw-250kw), but can’t reach full potential in the Kia EVs because of the voltage differential: New Kias are in a “800v architecture” (actually about 650v), and older chargers only go to 480v. The Kias can upconvert the voltage so they can at least charge, but it’s very slow / at a significantly lower kW.
Sweet! My ladywife just changed from a KIA PHEV Niro to a Niro EV and we were using the PHEV as the road trip car. Problem solved. (I’ll buy the adapter).
Niro PHEV only have 11kwh battery.. Yes availability is great, but you probably don’t need to speed or battery degradation that high speed DC brings along.
Some important details to note: the EV6 and EV9 charge at a maximum of 97kw on Superchargers due to voltage limitations of those chargers. And in order to charge through the Kia app owners will need to pay the $200/yr subscription for Kia Connect.
I wonder if the Kia Connect requirement will still be in place when the cars switch to NCAS from the factory?
I can guarantee it. Presumably owners will be able activate charging through the Tesla app, but any plug and charge capability will be behind a paywall.
This seems reasonable to me. The opening of the supercharger network is a relatively recent development, so people who bought cars before that were sold the vehicle without the promise of supercharging.
Also, if you’ve had the EV for two years without supercharger access then the adapter is not critical to your use of the vehicle.
The whole thing seems a bit sloppy, and I’m fine with the EA chargers near me both because they are free to me for 2 years and because they are fast AF. I’ll probably obtain a supercharger adapter at some point, but it will take some desperation for me to install yet another stupid single-function app. Why can’t they just put CC readers on the chargers?
“Ford just gave free Supercharger adapters to everyone with an F-150 Lightning or a Mustang Mach-E”
Bought a Lightning in March, still waiting for the free adapter.
I requested my free adapter at the end of February. It arrived last week, so yours should arrive soon.
I hope. 🙂
EV ignorant here, surge pricing?
Can someone explain to me this one for someone accustomed to simply random fluctuations of liquid fuels?
Grid operators fluctuate electrical pricing based on the time of day and/or actual demand on the grid. If Tesla pulls a lot of power out of the grid during peak times, they may incurre “demand” surcharges from the utility. Demand surcharges can be extremely expensive, so some Tesla Superchargers have variable pricing to incentivize users to use the network when it is less congested and electricity demands are lower.
For example, the price might be 42¢/kWh between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., but only 23¢/kWh from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. this information is clearly conveyed in Tesla’s navigation as well as the app.
Thank you.
I read this as “pass-through” surge pricing from the utility based on electricity demand, is this compounded with availability of chargers (akin to Uber’s surge pricing for demand, unrelated to costs)?
I just got my Ford adapter in the mail, 2 days after I returned the Lightning per lemon law. I guess I will just have to buy another Lightning to go with this adapter!
It surprises me that they aren’t getting ahead of the messaging better. I would have expected them to push these as a limited time giveaway starting whenever they announced instead of going slightly retroactive. Would have still irked some recent buyers, but might have made it go down easier for the early adopters.
Ford did it right. Everyone with an eligible vehicle gets one. Early buyers aren’t punished and new buyers know they’re set up. Everyone should be happy (except some shortsighted bean counters, but I think Ford knows there is value in ensuring customer loyalty).
So, Ford starts the whole thing off with free adapters. Then everyone else decides they aren’t going to automatically give free adapters to all of their customers. Own goals giving Ford a big win.
How long will the supercharger reliability advantage last since the team was nuked and hundreds of thousands of other cars will now be using them?
I thought they eventually hired many of them back once the ketamine started to wear off.
Also, as long as they continue to report “site up time” the way they do it probably won’t drop much.
Availability will drop, but they don’t report on that that I know of.
“Only Some Kia EV Owners Will Get Free Tesla Supercharger Adapters”
And the rest will get a power only USB charging cable.
Visible prices and comparison shopping is the norm for gasoline. How does that compare with electric chargers?
At 0.$43/kWh you bend over and insert charger.
Fast charging was about equivalent to a regular gas truck, in terms of miles per $, when I was driving an inefficient Lightning in the dead of winter. Charging at home saved money.
At $0.43/kWh and gallon of regular at $3.40 you’re paying a lot more per mile for a F150 lightning than either a HEV or even a regular F150 4WD:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=47818&id=47612&id=47616&#tab1
Granted much cheaper home/workplace charging will change that math IF you have it.
You can look up prices on google maps, which may or maybe not be accurate, but they certainly don’t have a big sign that tells you the kW/h price. Not sure if maybe the apps you use to pay also show charger locations and prices? Then again, most places probably don’t have enough charger density for you to have multiple choices in a small area, so unless you’ve got the range to go several more miles, you’re likely stuck paying whatever the price is at the one you show up at.
There are map apps that include the prices for each charger. Also the charger companies have their own apps with the same info.