Global Courant
TESLA logo on a charging station on May 26, 2023 in Merklingen, Germany.
Harry Langer/| Defodi Images | Getty Images
Within weeks, Ford Motor, General engines And Tesla appear to have turned the tide on electric vehicle charging infrastructure in North America.
Tesla owners have long enjoyed reliable out-of-home charging at the company’s Supercharging stations, by far the largest charging network in North America. But the charging industry as a whole is fragmented, and non-Tesla owners haven’t had it so easy.
That will all change soon.
Last month, Ford announced it had struck a deal with Tesla that would allow Ford EVs to use Tesla’s charging stations with an adapter — and that it will make Tesla’s charging technology standard on its own EVs from 2025. It was a surprising collaboration between rivals, and on Thursday General Motors said it had struck an almost identical deal with Tesla.
So why would Ford and GM join forces with Tesla, a company long seen by investors as a threat to established automakers?
And what does it mean for EVs?
Uniform charging
Tesla’s Superchargers use a proprietary plug design called the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, that won’t work with non-Tesla EVs. Most other EVs and charging stations in the US use the public domain Combined Charging System (CCS) plug standard.
Currently, Tesla EVs can use CCS chargers with an adapter, but only Teslas can use NACS chargers.
That means while Tesla owners have access to the company’s plentiful and reliable fast-charging stations, drivers of non-Tesla EVs using CCS have had to deal with a hodgepodge of networks and often unreliable equipment.
CCS’s shortcomings are a growing concern for Detroit automakers as they ramp up EV production in hopes of selling their electrified models to the masses.
In a study last year, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley checked 675 CCS fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that nearly a quarter of them were out of order. An August 2022 study by JD Power found similar results for CCS chargers in other parts of the country. Notably, it also found Tesla’s charging network to be much more reliable.
Tesla originally built the Supercharger network to address potential buyers’ concerns about road trip charging. The size and reliability of the fast charging network was a key part of the initial sales pitch to customers nervous about going electric – and it’s been a key part of the company’s success in the US ever since.
In contrast, the spotty and less-than-stellar reliability of the CCS network has challenged Ford and GM (and other automakers) as they look to ramp up sales of their own EVs.
Potential buyers of a Ford or GM EV may like what they experience during a test drive, but without a reliable charging network, both are at a Tesla disadvantage. These new deals should go a long way in leveling the charging field.
Another reason to choose Tesla’s NACS standard over CCS: Tesla’s plugs are significantly smaller and lighter than CCS fast-charging plugs, which can be cumbersome for elderly or disabled drivers.
With both Ford and GM keen to win over customers new to EVs, improving accessibility is a high priority.
Shortcut savings
For automakers like Ford and GM, who are betting billions on a major shift to EVs, reliability issues with CCS chargers are seen as a potential barrier to wider adoption. GM said in 2021 it planned to issue $750 million to improve electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the US and Canada.
But then Tesla opened the NACS standard published the technical specifications last November and invited charging network operators and other car manufacturers to use the plug design.
For both Ford and GM, that change offered a shortcut—and the potential for big savings.
“We think we can save up to $400 million in the original $3-quarters of a billion dollars we spent on this because we’ve been able to do it faster and more effectively,” Barra said in a Thursday interview with CNBC’s “Fast Money” following the announcement. of the Tesla deal.
For Ford CEO Jim Farley, these deals also mark what he sees as a new era of automaker collaboration beyond individual components.
“We[worked with other automakers]on transmissions and engines without anyone noticing in the ICE world,” Farley said at a Bernstein conference on May 31. most interesting new dynamic.”
What about Tesla?
So what does Tesla get out of the deal to let its competitors use its superior charging network?
The EV leader is sure to enjoy the additional revenue it receives from Ford and GM EV owners every time they charge at a Supercharger station.
It will also enjoy the implicit endorsement of its technology by incumbent rivals, and is likely to receive some of the public grants for electric vehicle charging made available under last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law.
But the agreements don’t mean Tesla will gain a monopoly on public charging in the US, even if all automakers eventually adopt the NACS standard.
The EV giant’s decision to make the NACS standard public means rival charging network operators are also free to add chargers with NACS plugs – and they almost certainly will.
In fact, the major players are already reacting in the wake of the Ford and GM deals. Swiss electrical equipment giant ABB, a leading manufacturer of commercial EV chargers, said Friday it will soon offer NACS plugs as an option on its products. FreeWire Technologies, a California-based startup that builds fast chargers, announced similar plans following Ford’s deal with Tesla last month.
Tesla’s primary motivation – at least in public – may be even simpler.
“Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy,” Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s senior director of charging infrastructure, said in a statement announcing the GM deal on Thursday. “Giving every EV owner access to ubiquitous and reliable charging is a cornerstone of that mission.”
