Today, Hyundai Motor Company joined the rush of automakers adding Tesla’s charging port to its electric vehicles (EVs). Tesla’s charging port, the North American Charging Standard (NACS), will debut on Hyundai models in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Hyundai says owners of its previous EVs “will have access to the Tesla Supercharging Network starting in Q1 2025. Hyundai will offer an adapter to these customers. Hyundai will also make adapters available to charge NACS-equipped vehicles at CCS chargers.”

Round Pegs and Square Holes

In these early days of electric cars, EVs have a problem. Not every car can use every charger.

So far, EVs sold in the United States have used three different charging ports. Each requires its own plug.

One of the three has largely faded from use, found only on some Nissan Leaf EVs. The other two, until recently, were fighting for dominance.

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Tesla developed its port, the NACS, and its walled-garden network of chargers that served only Tesla models.

Most other automakers used one called the Combined Charging System (CCS). A patchwork of smaller companies attempted to build CCS charging networks, but none rivaled Tesla’s in size or efficiency.

This led to a frustrating charging experience for many. EV drivers had to find the charger that would fit their specific port. They often had to download new apps or sign up for new payment systems to use unfamiliar public chargers. One study found that more than a fifth of all attempts to charge in public ended in failure.

Related: How Much Does it Cost to Charge an Electric Car?

Agreeing on a Round Hole

That all began to change earlier this year when Tesla opened its network for use by owners of other brands’ EVs. First Ford, then General Motors, and then a tidal wave of other automakers signed up to build the NACS port into their cars instead of the CCS port.

SAE, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, agreed to administer the Telsa port as a standard for the industry.

A few holdouts — notably global giants Toyota and Volkswagen — haven’t yet signed on.

Patchwork System Not Going Away

Electric vehicles (EVs) made up about 7% of all car sales in the U.S. last quarter, but that number is steadily rising.

America will need significantly more charging infrastructure to serve the growing number of EVs.

One recent study found that America needs at least 1,104 fast-charging stations located along major highways to make coast-to-coast travel seamless for the number of EVs already on the roads. As that number grows, so will the need.

While Tesla’s giant Supercharger network is the nation’s largest, it’s not big enough to serve as a single nationwide network. A patchwork system of many networks is still the likely future answer.

Hyundai is one of six automakers working together to build a nationwide charging network as an alternative to Tesla’s Supercharger system. Some electric utilities are also investing in networks of their own.

Those networks will likely offer both the Tesla and CCS chargers. Electrify America, operator of the country’s second-largest network, recently began adding the Tesla NACS cord to its chargers.