Rivian is looking to supercharge its sales and make the lives of its owners easier by getting into bed with rival Tesla.
Starting in 2024, current and future Rivian owners will gain access to Tesla’s Supercharger network of roughly 12,000 fast charging points across North America.
The Supercharger network is widely seen as the most convenient and reliable fast charging network in the US and Canada, and until recently it was — with the exception of a few locations featuring CCS adapters — only available to Tesla vehicles.
Rivian currently has its own smaller charging network, dubbed the Adventure Network, with around 600 locations, mostly located near off-roading areas. Outside of this Rivian owners are reliant on home or location charging, and the assortment of charging networks that have sprung up over the last few years.
Following on from GM the other week, and Ford last month, Rivian is the third automaker to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug in that part of the world.
Mirroring plans made between the legacy car makers and Tesla, Rivian will begin shipping new cars with a NACS adapter around the second quarter of 2024, before producing vehicles with a built-in NACS port and charging gear in 2025.
Rivian confirmed to Automotive News that today’s deal between the two EV manufacturers is limited to the current R1S SUV and R1T pickup, as well as the R2 series of smaller, more affordable vehicles it is developing.
The other vehicle Rivian currently produces, a high-roof delivery van for Amazon, will not gain NACS support. We understand Amazon runs its own charging infrastructure for these delivery vans.
With Rivian joining Ford and GM, the chances of NACS becoming North America’s de facto standard have grown substantially. Rumours continue to swirl that other automakers will soon switch their allegiance from CCS to NACS in North America.
On top of this, rival EV charging networks, including Chargepoint, EVgo and FLO, have announced they will begin to support NACS soon.
