Hyundai to offer free NACS DC EV adapters to enhance charging convenience
hyundainews.com
hyundainews.com
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.
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...
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.
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.
If EA charging sucks... well there's pretty much nothing you can do about it.
And there's a new >800V+ cabinet
I've been vicariously experiencing the adjustment to EV life through a busy of mine who recently got an Ioniq 5 (2024, so not the tesla charging port). He does not have access to charging at home but does have the 2 years of free* charging at Electrify America (EA) stations. The charge infrastructure isn't that bad for him. While EV stations aren't nearly as prevalent as gas stations, he has multiple EA station options within his regular driving radius, and far more of he were to leave the EA network. Though it's LA, so it's probably the best in the US.
The biggest issue isn't finding a station or being confronted with nonfunctional chargers, it's the variability of charging duration among users and the pre-charging wait logistics. He gets 30 minutes of charging per day for free, but as long as he goes to a 350V charger, he'll hit 80% regardless of his initial charge state in under 30 minutes. Often, he's charging from around 40% to 80-something in under 15 minutes.
The trouble starts with the uniqueness of his car's charging rate. Plenty of EVs are not designed to charge at that rate, and it's a waste to have them slowly stopping electrons from the fire hose of the highest voltage chargers.
Combine mismatch that with the initial considerations of charge points/stations, when EVs took so long to charge that there was no point in considering a queue waiting to hook up because no one would ever wait for potentially hours and hours for the one car let along two or more car's ahead of them to charge and depart. So EV stations weren't designed like gas stations, they just get stuck in little pockets of empty space or on the periphery of a parking lot, probably marketed to the lot owners as a was to lie in potential shoppers who are going to have to spend the hour or more while they wait for their cars to charge doing something, so why not spending money at the mall or grocery store the chargers are in the lot of.
Unfortunately, while that's how the EV stations have developed, that's not really how the cars have. Sure, he might get stuck at a charging station in line behind a Nissan Leaf on 10% battery, but it seems easy more likely he'll be in line for 1 of 3 chargers with 4 or 5 other fairly fast charging EVs. So now he's in the supermarket parking lot awkwardly positioned with a bunch of other EV drivers vigilantly minding a virtual queue communicated through raised eyebrows, grimaces, and expressive stink-eye. There's often probably enough time waiting his turn to go on and do some shopping, but there's no way to do that and maintain the queue. Once he's hooked up, there's usually only enough time to run through like it was a gas station convenience store.
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.
https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1durgih/h...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Maybe it makes sense if you assume that's the only thing Hyundai is doing in the realm of making EV charging easier.
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.
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.
bigAuto and bigOil are just sitting back laughing at the entire situation.
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...
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 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.
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.
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.
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.