Arkansas man managed to charge his Kia EV6 at a Tesla Supercharger way ahead of access being launched

This Arkansas man somehow charged his 2022 Kia EV6 at a Tesla Supercharger station despite the car not having official access there.

Tesla recently opened up all of its charging stations to all car manufacturers as its North American Charging Standard became the recognized norm.

However, not all car manufacturers – including Kia – have received access to charge their EVs at Superchargers.

And this man used an unsanctioned way to trick the charging point into charging his EV6.

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Man charged Kia EV6 at a Tesla Supercharger despite not having access

Joel Spencer from The EV Geek YouTube channel tried charging his 2022 Kia EV6 at a V3 Tesla Supercharger in Conway, Arkansas.

The EV obviously doesn’t support charging at a V3 station because all Kia cars are yet to receive access for it.

The automaker was set to receive permissions in mid-January, but the plans are now delayed due to ‘technical issues.’

EV owners of other brands, too, will be able to charge their cars at all V3 and V4 superchargers in the coming months.

Mercedes-Benz is the most recent brand to join the list of supported car brands, which is an absolute win for owners.

As for Joel’s Kia EV6, it shouldn’t have charged at the Tesla Supercharger.

But he tricked the charger into thinking it was a Hyundai Ioniq 5 with a 2022 model year — the same as his Kia.

Unlike this ‘bizarre’ charging method that divided the internet, it was just a software thing.

The big trick

He entered the car details in the Tesla app and connected the Supercharger to his EV6 using a third-party NACS adapter from Lectron.

While automakers don’t recommend using third-party adapters, this one did the job.

There was, however, one problem still — he had to precondition the battery, which he did by setting the car’s navigation to a nearby CCS charging station.

As soon as he plugged it in, the Kia EV6 started charging — albeit at a low 97kW peak charging rate.

Since neither Hyundais nor Kias officially have support for any Tesla Superchargers yet, the peak charging rate Joel witnessed was almost half of what these cars are capable of.

Moreover, all Tesla V3 cabinets are only capable of outputting 400V.

Meanwhile, the Kia EV6 has an 800V charging system — which is why it was slower.

As of writing, you cannot add a Kia EV to your Tesla app and charge it at a newer Supercharger station, but adding a 2022 Hyundai reportedly worked well for some.

That could also be because both cars share the same E-GMP platform used in their batteries.

Both car brands will receive official support in the coming weeks anyway, and owners will also get a free NACS adapter for older cars.

In addition, Joel noticed that his total cost of charging the EV6 was somewhat higher than what Tesla owners pay for charging at a station.

Take these numbers with a grain of salt because the scene might change when official support comes out.