Rivian said today that it will join GM and Ford in supporting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). Rivians will now be able to use Tesla’s network of Superchargers. The R1T and R1S won’t have NACS ports built in until 2025, but adapters will be ready the following year. Next year, NACS will also be added to the R2 model. Tesla says that the growing number of companies that use its chargers will benefit both of them, which may be true. Regarding the Rivian launch, Tesla’s senior head of charging infrastructure Rebecca Tinucci remarked, “We look forward to welcoming Rivian owners at thousands of our Superchargers across North America.” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe was happy to hear the news. He said, “The adoption of the North American Charging Standard will allow our current and future customers to use Tesla’s extensive Supercharger network while we continue to build out our Rivian Adventure Network.” From a positive point of view, everyone will benefit if every electric car can use every charger. Right? Yes, unless you have an older car that doesn’t have a charging port anymore. In particular, a Tesla. At the charging station, it looks crowded The news could be better for Tesla’s customers, who now have to deal with more people at the limited number of Superchargers. On the other hand, the fact that Tesla’s competitors are adopting NACS gives Tesla hundreds of thousands of new charging customers (and manufacturer licence fees). Grant Larsen, who owns a 2020 Model 3, said, “It’s pretty surprising that they’re letting other companies in.” Superchargers are already busy, and if someone is right next to you, the charging rate will slow down. I’m not happy about this because Tesla drivers can’t charge their cars anywhere else in the same way. Other chargers are known to take a long time. But if you’re on the other side of this news and the Supercharger drawbridge is about to fall, the possibility of reliable, fast charging would make owning an EV much less stressful. Neil Mandt, who drives a 2023 Mercedes EQS, says the biggest problem with this car is that they can’t get fast chargers. Every time, I have to wait in line like it’s the 1970s and there’s a gas shortage. It would be so cool if everyone could use Tesla charges.
