After all three South Korean carmakers – Hyundai, Kia and Genesis – showed up at the LA Auto Show wearing their A-game, presenting no less than four new or updated electric vehicles (EVs) wearing a native North American Charging Standard (NACS) charge port, it seems all other carmakers currently releasing new EVs without it appear late to the game.
The carmaker that I’m the most curious about is GM. In the past few months, I had the privilege of covering a few of its upcoming and frankly important EVs: the 2025 GMC Sierra EV, the 2026 Cadillac Vistiq, as well as the 2025 Cadillac Optiq. GM is in a good spot right now in terms of EVs, with competitive range, charging performance and pricing.
Yet, none of its upcoming models will come with NACS charge ports. Sure, GM currently sells an adapter and allows users to find Tesla Superchargers through its mobile app, but unlike its Korean competition, the vehicles still don’t come off of the production line with NACS. Why?
Native NACS Will Arrive In 2026, GM Says
According to GM, the first NACS charge ports will be fitted onto its EVs from the factory in early 2026. Interestingly enough, this will be about six months after the release of the Vistiq, which is scheduled for next summer, and not long after the Optiq’s release next spring. However, when I saw these vehicles in the flesh, they were both fitted with a Combined Charging System (CCS) charge port. Will GM rush an update to fit NACS ports? Unlikely.
The thing is, this is all a question of timing. It clearly illustrates how quickly the automotive industry is changing and how hard it is for the traditional method of developing, testing, and building automobiles to keep up. The vehicles I saw and drove – the Sierra EV, the Optiq, and the Vistiq – were already scheduled for production when GM announced its intentions to adopt Tesla’s NACS connector. What this means is how the assembly line is set up, and how parts, which come from suppliers, are baked into the process. It would be too costly for GM to disrupt its production plans for a simple charge port.
But how did the Hyundai Group do it? Well, when carefully observing the models fitted with NACS, more particularly the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5, the 2025 Kia EV6 and the 2026 Genesis GV70 Electrified, all scheduled for next year, they’re models that were already scheduled for a mid-cycle refresh, including other changes in exterior and interior design, as well as technology. This allowed Hyundai to take advantage of the situation to justify changes on the assembly line, including the integration of an NACS port.
The Cadillac Lyriq Could Be The First GM EV Equipped With Native NACS
GM didn’t confirm this, but when it says 2026 could be the first model year to get native NACS, it could mean that it’ll be made available first on the Lyriq when it will be updated. The Lyriq has been on sale since 2023, so by 2026, it’ll have reached its three-year run, which is usually a timeframe for when carmakers update their vehicles. Cadillac is also preparing a high-performance V version for the Lyriq, which is scheduled for the 2026 model year. It would therefore make sense to assume that Cadillac would update the entire Lyriq lineup as well, integrate NACS in the process.
In terms of finding Tesla Superchargers from GM’s native infotainment system, a GM representative confirmed that either with or without an integrated NACS charge port, the process is the same. Even with an adapter fitted onto your EV, you can use the in-vehicle navigation system to locate available Superchargers. All you need to do is confirm in the system’s settings that your vehicle is equipped with an NACS adapter.
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