Do NACS Rivians work on non-NACS RAN?

[Riv&LetLiv]

I’m taking delivery of a 2026 Rivian with NACS in 2 weeks. This is probably a stupid newbie question, but will the NACS Rivian work on the Rivian adventure network on stalls that don’t yet have NACS if I use an adapter?

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[Joseph D]

I’m taking delivery of a 2026 Rivian with NACS in 2 weeks. This is probably a stupid newbie question, but will the NACS Rivian work on the Rivian adventure network on stalls that don’t yet have NACS if I use an adapter?

Yes

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

CCS1 to NACS DC adapter. Nothing to it. Electrons do not discriminate. Gear Shop items can sometimes take weeks to deliver. Best you order now.

 

[VSG]

Yes, NACS Rivians will be able to charge at all CCS DC fast chargers, Just like CCS Rivians can. (An adapter is required for NACS Rivians to charge at CCS chargers, just like an adapter is required for CCS Rivians to charge at NACS chargers.)

But be aware that NACS Rivians will still not be able to charge at all Tesla Superchargers. Telsa has only opened about 2/3 of Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles, and most of the unusable 1/3 will never be opened to Rivians because those Tesla chargers use a proprietary Tesla charging protocol and don't/can't support the open protocol.

 

[Riv&LetLiv]

Thank you for the answers everybody. I'm trading in my Tesla, so I already have a NACS to CCS adapter. Excited to be driving a Rivian! Just wasn't sure since it seemed like some of the Rivian Adventure Network sites were "Rivian Only," but sounds like it will work if it's a NACS Rivian.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Thank you for the answers everybody. I'm trading in my Tesla, so I already have a NACS to CCS adapter. Excited to be driving a Rivian! Just wasn't sure since it seemed like some of the Rivian Adventure Network sites were "Rivian Only," but sounds like it will work if it's a NACS Rivian.

Regarding adapter naming convention, it’s usually dispenser side first then vehicle side. A “NACS to CCS” adapter would mean you have a CCS port on your vehicle; i.e. all R1s before MY26.

 

[Thunderbolt Adventure]

Yes, NACS Rivians will be able to charge at all CCS DC fast chargers, Just like CCS Rivians can. (An adapter is required for NACS Rivians to charge at CCS chargers, just like an adapter is required for CCS Rivians to charge at NACS chargers.)

But be aware that NACS Rivians will still not be able to charge at all Tesla Superchargers. Telsa has only opened about 2/3 of Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles, and most of the unusable 1/3 will never be opened to Rivians because those Tesla chargers use a proprietary Tesla charging protocol and don't/can't support the open protocol.

Last night I was at an an event about the new Quad R1 at the Rivian Space in San Francisco and was told by some Rivian Engineers (though admittedly not from the charging team) that the NACS Rivians will be able to use *most* of the Tesla network because they will have the hardware for the Tesla charging protocol built in. They said that Tesla could still limit some charging stations to Teslas only, but it wouldn't be because it wouldn't work. It would just be a preference.

Just reporting what they told me, so...

 

[Riv&LetLiv]

Last night I was at an an event about the new Quad R1 at the Rivian Space in San Francisco and was told by some Rivian Engineers (though admittedly not from the charging team) that the NACS Rivians will be able to use *most* of the Tesla network because they will have the hardware for the Tesla charging protocol built in. They said that Tesla could still limit some charging stations to Teslas only, but it wouldn't be because it wouldn't work. It would just be a preference.

I'll definitely give that a try in 2 weeks and report back

 

[VSG]

Just reporting what they told me, so...

No other NACS vehicles do that. I find this highly questionable and extremely unlikely. And neither Rivian nor Tesla has ever claimed that to be true. Frankly, IMO it's a little irresponsible to start that sort of rumor. The OP is looking for the true and actual situation here, before spending a lot of money on a vehicle. If it turns out your rumor is false (high probability it is) then Rivian is going to be the one who gets blamed for the misinformation, and people who bought a Rivian based in part on that "promise" are also going to be screwed.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

No other NACS vehicles do that. I find this highly questionable and extremely unlikely. And neither Rivian nor Tesla has ever claimed that to be true. Frankly, IMO it's a little irresponsible to start that sort of rumor. The OP is looking for the true and actual situation here, before spending a lot of money on a vehicle. If it turns out your rumor is false (high probability it is) then Rivian is going to be the one who gets blamed for the misinformation, and people who bought a Rivian based in part on that "promise" are also going to be screwed.

I was thinking the same. While the physical port and plug are the same, Tesla’s protocol isn’t 100% identical to SAE J3400? Even if the hardware is capable, hand shaking is through software. And if vehicle isn’t identifiable as a Tesla and speaking same “language”… Business strategy alone, hard to believe Tesla would welcome all competitors to all of their charging sites.

 

[VandalSibs]

I was thinking the same. While the physical port and plug are the same, Tesla’s protocol isn’t 100% identical to SAE J3400? Even if the hardware is capable, hand shaking is through software. And if vehicle isn’t identifiable as a Tesla and speaking same “language”… Business strategy alone, hard to believe Tesla would welcome all competitors to all of their charging sites.

This. The v1, v2 & Tesla Urban Chargers (not Destination chargers) use a communications protocol that is based on ChaDemo. v3 and v4 chargers can use that too, but primarily use a protocol based on the CCS standard. v2, v2 & Urban chargers either can't be updated or won't be.

The NACS port on the 2026 Rivians and other NACS-equipped vehicles are based on the SAE J3400 standard, which only uses that CCS-based communications protocol.

 

[Thunderbolt Adventure]

I too thought this was unlikely, which is why I pushed back when they said this to a bunch of folks (many of whom do not yet own Rivians). If someone has a contact who works on the charging team at Rivian they should let them know that this rumor was started by colleagues from the Palo Alto office.

 

[CharonPDX]

I was thinking the same. While the physical port and plug are the same, Tesla’s protocol isn’t 100% identical to SAE J3400? Even if the hardware is capable, hand shaking is through software. And if vehicle isn’t identifiable as a Tesla and speaking same “language”… Business strategy alone, hard to believe Tesla would welcome all competitors to all of their charging sites.

Tesla's protocol is *NOTHING* like SAE J3400. It's based on CANbus like CHAdeMO; rather than PLC which is what CCS and SAE J3400 use (for DC.) J3400 uses the same exact signaling as CCS. The two communication protocols are electrically and data-wise completely different.

"Legacy Tesla" is not even 100% CHAdeMO compatible, requiring a little bit of "translation".

V3 and V4 Superchargers that either have a Magic Dock or are at least "open to non-Tesla vehicles" are "bilingual" in that they can speak "legacy Tesla CANbus" or "CCS/J3400-compatible PLC". When you plug in a Tesla vehicle, it speaks CANbus like a pre-V3 Supercharger. When you plug in anything else, it speaks fully-CCS-compliant PLC.

While Tesla could have made Superchargers compatible with CHAdeMO, allowing Nissan Leafs, early Kia Soul EVs, Mitsubishi I-MiEV to charge with a simple adapter, but they didn't.

When Tesla did their "NACS is now open" announcement in late 2022, they only released the physical design of the port/plug. They did not release their customized CANbus communication protocol. Yes, in theory their really old promise of "open access to Superchargers" could have let carmakers adopt full legacy-Tesla-compliant CANbus, that required patent cross-licensing agreements that no carmaker had been willing to agree to.

So when SAE adopted the standard as J3400, they adopted it as the "NACS plug" with CCS-based PLC signaling (Specifically the ISO 15118 variation that includes Plug & Charge, V2G, and other enhancements over "original CCS".)

Tesla's "third party compatible" stations are those that can "speak PLC." No non-Tesla vehicle will (without a major change to Tesla's licensing and back-end software) ever be able to charge on a pre-V3 CANbus-only Supercharger.

So, no, that San Francisco "Rivian Engineer" was talking out his… tailpipe. Although strictly speaking, if he only said "most" of the Supercharger network, that would be strictly true - more than 50% of Supercharger dispensers are now third-party-compatible. (I think it's still less than 50% of locations, but the locations with more dispensers tend to be newer, thus compatible, thus more-than-50% of all dispensers.) But any implication that Rivian has access to more Supercharger locations than Ford or GM is flat out wrong. Most of the "not third party compatible" are outright incompatible with J3400-only vehicles like new Tesla-quads.

 

[Riviot]

https://gearshop.rivian.com/products/j1772-ac-adapter

https://gearshop.rivian.com/products/combo-ccs1-dc-adapter

 

[VSG]

So when SAE adopted the standard as J3400, they adopted it as the "NACS plug" with CCS-based PLC signaling (Specifically the ISO 15118 variation that includes Plug & Charge, V2G, and other enhancements over "original CCS".)

I want to add that J3400 does not *require* chargers or vehicles to support the CCS protocol(s). That is an exemption for Tesla, so that the new specification is compatible with Tesla's existing legacy network and proprietary protocol. Technically J3400 only guarantees the physical connector. Or as Tesla itself put it: "(NACS is) a purely electrical and mechanical interface agnostic to use case and communication protocol" https://www.tesla.com/blog/opening-north-american-charging-standard

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