Hyundai may join NACS if Tesla makes its Superchargers faster

Hyundai or KIA offer some of the fastest charging electric vehicles in the US by the virtue of their 800V powertrains. Tesla cars, however, run on older 400V systems and this is apparently giving Hyundai some pause before joining the likes of Ford and GM in adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) in the US.

That's not to say that Hyundai is reluctant to join NACS, as its president Jaehoon Chang went on record saying that Hyundai will be meeting with Tesla to determine if it can deliver faster Supercharger sessions for Hyundai EVs. "That's what we will look into from the customer's perspective," said Chang, adding that Hyundai will do what's best for the owners of its electric cars and won't be joining NACS at all costs.

Most of Tesla's current EV chargers deliver 150kW-250kW output with only a handful of V4 installed as a pilot in Europe that would theoretically sustain the 350kW that CCS chargers output at 800V. Charging a Hyundai Ioniq 5 at 150kW and at 350kW makes quite a bit of a difference as can be seen in the video below, so Hyundai will probably at least push for the rumored Tesla Supercharger V3 upgrade to 324kW.

After all, Hyundai and KIA have a lot to be proud of when it comes to fast EV charging as only 2% of the  electric cars in the US currently offer it, and these are mostly premium electric cars that cost north of US$100,000. KIA EV6 is the only relatively affordable electric car in the top 3 EVs with most efficient charging, according to P3 Group's latest Charging Index US Report. Despite that it has a much smaller battery than the top two - Lucid Air GT and Model S Plaid - that cost two or three times more, the KIA EV6 recouped almost the same range as the Model S in the first 20 minutes of charging, showcasing the power of an 800V system. 

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