Nissan launched a video tutorial for Ariya house owners in the present day that exhibits learn how to use a Tesla NACS adapter with the car, and it features a utterly out-of-left-field step: insert a small piece of plastic into the automobile's CCS port earlier than plugging within the adapter. .
The Ariya is Nissan's first EV with a CCS port, and the automaker simply enabled the car's capability to connect with Tesla's huge Supercharger community in October. Different producers have additionally adopted Tesla's NACS normal, with corporations equivalent to Ford and Rivian already delivery adapters to present EV house owners. However none of those EVs require you to take a complicated additional step to get the adapter to work.
As defined within the video, the NACS adapter obtainable by way of Nissan features a “socket adapter” that have to be put in within the hourglass-shaped cavity between the 2 DC pins on the underside earlier than charging at NACS-compatible quick charging stations. Nissan assures the viewer that it's “easy” and requires no instruments. Nevertheless, you'll want to make use of the adapter they supply or from a US supplier, which can imply that different third-party choices, such because the Lectron adapter, could not work. (In all probability for the perfect, on condition that the Lectron adapter was just lately recalled.)
What's odd concerning the Ariya's charging port is that, regardless of being a normal that works on many CCS-compatible quick charging stations, there's a unfavourable hole between the 2 DC pins on the backside, which isn’t current on most different electrical automobiles. The plastic piece that Nissan desires you to insert into the opening fills the hole to extra intently resemble different CCS ports. We requested Nissan what the aim of the opening is and why the insert is required, however didn’t hear again on the time of publication.
Nissan's different EV mannequin is the pioneering Leaf, which makes use of the almost out of date CHAdeMO normal and certain gained't get a magic adapter to connect with Tesla's Supercharger community (though there at the moment are some CHAdeMO to CCS adapters).