Rivian Owners to improve its electric trucks and SUVs, after a software update released over the weekend. The company first, along with plans to include Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports in upcoming vehicles. These ports won't start appearing until 2025, so Rivian has also started a program to ship Tesla-made NACS adapters to current customers.
The adapters will be free, which echoes the move Ford made last month and continues to do so. Rivian will send one free adapter per customer, based on the vehicle's VIN number. The company has not announced whether this is a limited-time offer or how much the additional adapters will cost. For comparison, Ford will start charging $230 for these adapters in July.
Rivian owners can select Tesla Superchargers as a charging option through the vehicle's infotainment system or the manufacturer's smartphone app. It's all handled by Rivian, so there's no need to download or use the Tesla app to pay for charging. Rivian Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid said The edge that this will give customers across the country.
The decision to incorporate NACS charging into its vehicles will not affect Rivian's proprietary network. The company still plans to install thousands of DC fast chargers in hundreds of locations over the next few years, as part of its growing Adventure Network.
Tesla's charging standard is widely considered to be the , as these chargers are known to be . The Tesla standard is also more widely available, with more than 55,000 Supercharger stations worldwide.
It wasn't long ago that Tesla's Supercharger network was exclusive to the company's vehicles. Those days are gone. Nearly every major automaker has announced plans to join the NACS party, , , , , among many others.
As for Rivian, the company says customers can access most Tesla V3 Superchargers using the adapter, but only some V2 chargers. All of the newly announced ones will come with factory-installed NACS ports.
