- Rivian will soon start to roll out a native NACS port in its R1 platform.
- The first vehicle to receive NACS will be the upcoming R1T Quad.
- It’s unclear when other R1 trims will receive the update.
For all those waiting for Rivian to slap a NACS port in the R1, I’ve got some good news for you: it’s coming.
Technically, we knew this. Rivian has been touting that it would adopt NACS since 2023. It’s since launched support for an adapter, but has yet to integrate it into a production vehicle. But that’s about to change, and we know that thanks to a popular YouTuber who spilled the beans early.
MKBHD’s now-deleted video shows the Rivian R1T Quad with a native NACS port.
Photo by: YouTube
Marques Brownlee—better known by his YouTube handle, MKBHD—showed off the NACS port in the upcoming Rivian R1T Quad in a social media post made over the weekend. He’s since deleted it, but not before some eagle-eyed forum-goers noticed the NACS port and archived the video. The video also shows some sweet teal-colored brake calipers, the new Quad branding (with teal accent colors) and a cool Gear Guard Gary badge on the back.
Rivian confirmed to InsideEVs that the upcoming Quad will, in fact, launch with the NACS port when deliveries begin later this year:
“As we announced in June 2023, Rivian will incorporate North American Charging Standard (NACS) charge ports as standard in R1 vehicles, starting in 2025,” a Rivian spokesperson told InsideEVs. “We can confirm that the upcoming Quad will have an NACS charge port.”
The spokesperson declined to comment when (or if) non-Quad trims will receive the NACS port.
Now, it’s worth noting that, unfortunately, the NACS port is still on the wrong side. We can’t exactly fault Rivian for this—after all, it was Tesla that decided to make its chargers so short before opening up the charging network. And with the R1 platform already being tooled for its charge port to be in this location, it would take a significant amount of effort to relocate it. Thankfully the R2 has already done that heavy lifting.
The automaker told us that it will reveal additional details and specs closer to the Gen 2 Quad launch, but has remained pretty tight-lipped about when or what any of those Quad-specific details might be. But for anyone waiting on NACS availability to make their R1T or R1S purchase, it seems like your time may be coming very soon—just hold out a little bit longer.