Kia’s NACS adapters available now; Supercharger access still pending

Kia’s official first-party NACS adapters are now ready to ship out, but owners will have to wait to use them on Tesla Superchargers until later this quarter.

The rollout of Supercharger access to non-Tesla brands is hitting a fever pitch this year, with several brands added to the “coming soon” list, and even beyond that, VW and Honda have both made their own announcements that access is coming soon.

But for most vehicles, charging on Superchargers will require an adapter for the time being, as most brands aren’t adding native NACS ports to their vehicles until a future date (the current exceptions are the 2025 Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 which have native ports).

Each manufacturer is dealing with adapter rollouts separately, and Kia’s ready to announce that their adapters are ready to go.

Kia told us today that shipments of first-party adapters are currently en route to dealerships, and certain owners will be getting a notification soon to claim their adapter.

In Kia’s previous announcement about adapter availability, it said that any 2024 or 2025 EV6 or EV9 owners who took delivery after September 4 would get a free NACS adapter. Those owners should receive a push notification soon in their Kia Connect app through which they can claim their adapter.

For other owners, adapters will be available from Kia dealers for $249, which is roughly in line with the average cost we’ve been seeing for these adapters. Dealers should be getting the adapters any day now.

However, these adapters will be of limited usefulness for the next several weeks, as Supercharger access still requires a handshake between the car and the charging network, and that handshake is currently disabled.

Originally, Kias were going to gain access on January 15th, but that was pushed back until the “back end of this quarter.” Some owners found out a loophole to allow for charging on the network, but that loophole was closed just yesterday.

As a result, Kia is also including “definitive instructions” on how to use the adapters along with each shipment. It wants to ensure that everyone is using them properly, especially given the recent back-and-forth about, uh, unsanctioned methods to access the network before official availability.

Kia’s EV6 with the native NACS port has also taken longer to arrive than Hyundai’s 2025 Ioniq 5. Ioniq 5s are already shipping (and can even charge faster than Teslas at a Supercharger, a feat the EV6 should also achieve), but EV6s haven’t yet hit dealerships. They should be on around the same timeline as Supercharger access, and ought to be available in the back half of this quarter.

So… Kia fans will still have to wait a little bit, but at least you’ll have the adapters ready to go for when the floodgates open later this quarter.

If you’re looking to buy one of the fastest-charging EVs on the road today, use our link to check local dealers and get in line for when they get the new 2025 Kia EV6s in stock.

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