Improving Public Charging Convenience
Over the past few months, automakers have made amazing progress in making charging easier for people who purchase a new electric car. With the latest EVs offering much more driving range than before, “range anxiety” is less of a concern for buyers – making charging the number-one concern. Electric car buyers want to know they can charge easily at home and have flexible, convenient access to public charging on the go. Nissan is the latest brand to invest serious efforts in charging convenience by launching access to an integrated network of over 90,000 public EV chargers.
Nissan Energy Charge Network
The Nissan Energy Charge Network, as it’s called, is not a brand-new charging network that has sprung up overnight. That 90,000 charger total includes stations from Electrify America, Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, and EVgo, among others. What Nissan has done, just like Ford, General Motors, and a couple of other automakers, is signed deals with these networks so that their EV drivers only have to have one app, and one user account, to be able to access and pay for charging on any of them – making life on the road a lot simpler and more convenient.
Drivers simply use the MyNissan app, where they store a default payment method. Drivers can search for chargers using the app or the vehicle’s navigation system to locate chargers on the network – and use just one on-screen button to start a charging session on any compatible charger starting in November 2024.
Tesla Supercharger Access Coming Soon
Nissan says that additional networks will be incorporated into the Nissan Energy Charge Network in the future, which should only make life with a Nissan EV like the Ariya even easier. But what about Tesla Superchargers?
Almost every car brand selling vehicles in the U.S. has announced that they will also open up access to Tesla’s excellent Supercharger network, which has close to 15,000 fast chargers across the U.S. and Canada. Nissan is one of them, and has said that it will begin shipping Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) adaptors by the end of 2024 – and that the Ariya and other Nissan EV models will have a native NACS adaptors starting in 2025.
We anticipate that when those adaptors do start shipping, that the Tesla Supercharger network will also become part of Nissan’s ecosystem, meaning that charging and billing can all be handled through one simple account.
Nissan Ariya Base Price Lowered
One vehicle that won’t have access to Tesla Superchargers, or to the Nissan Energy Charge Network, will be the Leaf, which uses an old-school CHAdeMO charging plug, which is not widely supported anymore – but Leaf drivers can still search for compatible charging locations through the NissanConnect EV and Services app.
Right now, drivers of the Ariya will get the greatest benefit. And in addition to now having access to 90,000-plus chargers, the Ariya’s MSRP was recently lowered to start at $39,590, opening up access to a wider range of electric car buyers. With up to 304 miles of EPA-estimated range, the Ariya Venture+ is one of the longer-range electric SUVs you can buy, and is one of our favorite electric family haulers.
Conclusion: Nissan’s Electrified Future
The Ariya is just the beginning for Nissan’s EV onslaught; the company has committed to launching 16 new electrified models globally before the end of 2026, so a lot more Nissan drivers will be able to access those 90,000 chargers – as well as Tesla chargers soon.
