Ford and General Motors have already signed on to add Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) port to their future electric vehicles (EVs), giving their EV owners access to over 12,000 Superchargers in Canada and the US. Other automakers are expected to follow suit, but Rivian does not look like they will be one of them, at least not in the immediate future.
UPDATE June 20 7:50am PT: Rivian has signed an agreement with Tesla to adopt NACS. You can read all the details here.
While speaking at the Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference last week, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough said the company instead plans to forge ahead and build out its own Rivian Adventure Network (RAN). This network of DC fast chargers is slated to expand to include 3,500 charging connectors at approximately 600 sites across Canada and the US, but as of April the company had built just 30 sites. These sites utilize the Combined Charging System (CCS), which should work on most non-Tesla EVs, but the company currently restricts their use to Rivian vehicles only. That is set to change later this year or early next year, according to CEO RJ Scaringe.
Even though Rivian is continuing its build out with CCS fast chargers, McDonough left the door open for a future partnership with Tesla to add the NACS port to their EVs.
“We’re excited about the opportunity for more consumers to have access to reliable charging infrastructure. We’re dedicated to the continued build out of our Rivian Adventure Network that is enabling and allowing many of our consumers to have access to a high quality charging experience. But certainly open over the future to partnerships or approaches to work with others as we all want to help enable the acceleration of EV adoption.”
After Ford’s surprise announcement to adopt NACS, GM was quick to react and announce the same move just a few weeks later. The decision by two of the biggest automakers in the US has had a domino effect with almost every EV charging provider saying they will be adding NACS connectors to their charging stations.
When GM climbed on board we asked on Twitter who would be next to adopt NACS, and the majority picked Rivian. As an EV startup that is continuing to burn through cash at a rapid rate, now might be the perfect opportunity for Rivian to also adopt NACS with the impending launch of the R2 generation of EVs in 2025.
Who’s next to adopt NACS?
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 (@DriveTeslaca) June 8, 2023
