Hyundai Motor will take into account the change from the Mixed Charging System (CCS1) to the Tesla’s North American Charging Normal (NACS) charging connector in North America.
In accordance with Reuters, the corporate’s CEO and president Jaehoon Chang mentioned that the shift will likely be thought of, noting on the identical that the very best curiosity of its clients have to be secured.
“…the corporate would take into account becoming a member of the alliance of automakers shifting to Tesla’s commonplace, however that it must decide that was within the curiosity of its clients.”
One may ask what’s the buyer’s greatest curiosity concerning charging? Nicely, there is a matter with the voltage. At the moment, Hyundai Motor Group’s (Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis) newest all-electric vehicles are based mostly on the E-GMP platform, which has high-voltage battery programs (round 600 to round 800 volts). Increased voltage permits quick charging at a proportionally decrease present (when the identical energy degree is taken into account).
For the South Korean producer, it is then essential to guarantee that the NACS commonplace will help greater voltage than at the moment utilized by Tesla (round 400 V). The second factor is whether or not the Tesla Supercharging community will likely be outfitted with high-voltage chargers to maximise the quick charging pace (and effectivity) of vehicles just like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6.
Evidently Hyundai’s boss is open to the concept and hints at doable talks with Tesla concerning the subject:
“”That is what we’ll look into from the client’s perspective,” Chang instructed analysts on the automaker’s investor day.”
“Chang mentioned Hyundai would seek the advice of with Tesla to see whether or not it may make changes to its charging system for Hyundai clients so they might cost quicker.”
We will not say something for certain, however it appears that evidently if points are solved, then the corporate is keen to make the change to the NACS.
Let’s recall that when Tesla introduced the opening of its proprietary charging connector in November, it revealed that there are two configurations 500 V (at the moment utilized by Tesla) and 1,000 V. The second ought to simply deal with all autos with greater voltage battery programs, like 600-800 V within the E-GMP and even 900 V in Lucid fashions.
The ability output can be promised to achieve the one-megawatt degree, far exceeding the present energy wants of electrical vehicles, which is kind of wonderful in comparison with the compact measurement of the connector.
In different phrases, if Tesla will launch the 1,000 V configuration of inlets, plugs, and different parts (and open the complete documentation, so different OEMs can produce these elements independently from Tesla), then Hyundai Motor Group could be way more enthusiastic about becoming a member of the NACS coalition.
It is value noting that the NACS coalition in North America already contains Ford and Basic Motors and people producers are additionally within the 800 V battery programs. GM’s Ultium platform is already working on 800 V, so there’s a huge probability that Tesla already outlined the trail to a better voltage in inner talks with different producers to persuade them to change.
We’re fairly certain that if the voltage is the difficulty, there isn’t a concern in any respect as a result of even Tesla is predicted to undertake greater voltage programs.
Hyundai Electrical-International Modular Platform (E-GMP)
The case with Hyundai Motor Group is larger than simply charging commonplace for vehicles bought in North America.
If a South Korean main automotive firm switches to NACS in North America, then what could be the purpose of sticking with the CCS1 in South Korea? In a couple of years, it could turn out to be a uncommon marketplace for the CCS1/J1772 (contemplating the scale of the market). South Korea has no actual curiosity to have a uncommon charging commonplace only for itself (assuming that CCS1 will likely be orphaned in North America).
In different phrases, the choice behind the change to NACS will likely be extra political as a result of it should seemingly embody not solely Hyundai Motor Group (its native gross sales in South Korea) however the entire nation (together with its infrastructure and different producers working in South Korea).
There’s a huge choice on the desk then, however not the primary of such sort. Within the early days, when Japan pushed with EVs (Nissan and Mitsubishi) and its CHAdeMO quick charging commonplace, South Korea was following ChadeMO for fairly a while earlier than switching to the CCS1 round 2018, if we bear in mind proper.