Tesla announces four new automakers getting access to Superchargers in “Spring 2024” following the onboarding of Ford EV drivers.
Today, Ford and Tesla announced that Ford EV owners now have access to over 15,000 Superchargers in North America.
Ford was the first to sign a deal with Tesla to adopt NACS, Tesla’s own charge connector that it opened up to the market, on its future EVs and give its EV owners access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.
But virtually every other automaker has since followed with NACS adoption.
However, it looks like the onboarding is going to be done gradually. Tesla updated its website with a new page about NACS enabling “Charging for All” and it lists 4 automakers getting onboarded this spring:
- Rivian
- General Motors
- Volvo
- Polestar
Tesla had previously said that Ford and GM, the two first to jump on board, would get access in February.
Therefore, we expect GM to be next and soon.
Electrek’s Take
This is awesome. It’s one of the few examples I see these days of Tesla staying true to its mission to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
It’s admittedly debatable, but I think Tesla would have been better off financially keeping the Supercharger network for itself in North America. I think charging infrastructure is a big part of why Tesla is still dominating the EV market here.
The Supercharger network is such better than anything else in North America that it is a massive reason to buy Tesla over anything else.
Now, Tesla is removing this advantage by opening it up to other automakers. To be fair, it is gaining a bigger Supercharger business since now more EV owners are going to pay to use the network, but I think it was more profitable for Tesla to use the network as a moat. At least for now.
Top comment by CMG30
These days I'm about 80% annoyed by Elon's antics, but opening the SC network is not one of my issues. It's good for EVs and it's actually good for Tesla in the long run.
Having the SC network be exclusive is good for Tesla in the short term because it will sell more cars, but with time others will catch up. At that point, the SC network no longer becomes an advantage, it becomes a prison unless your customers can access outside networks. By opening it now, not only can Tesla take advantage of federal funding to accelerate construction, but they grab a large slice of the future HVDC market.
Anyway, I like it. It’s cool to just see non-Tesla EVs on Tesla’s own website:
But I think it’s important to warn that the transition likely won’t be smooth. It will put more stress on the network. Tesla knows that and it did not include some of its busiest Supercharger stations in the deal because of that.
Also, other EVs, including Ford’s, don’t have the same charge port location as Tesla vehicles, and most Supercharger stations are optimized for Tesla vehicles. So that could create some unpleasant situation where Ford EVs block more than one stall.
This situation should be solved over time as Tesla adapts the network to the wider variety of EVs it supports.
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