Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers will be in use in Ford vehicles by early 2024. Farley also announced that next-generation Ford vehicles would feature the North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector, Tesla’s standardized version of its proprietary charging system.
“We don’t want Tesla superchargers to be a walled garden,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in the Twitter Space call. Musk said Tesla wants Ford and other automakers to have an equal footing when it comes to access to reliable EV charging.
“We don’t want Tesla superchargers to be a walled garden”
According to Ford, Tesla will develop an adapter that will be made available to customers who buy Ford electric vehicles, including the F-150 Lightning truck, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit van. Like the vast majority of EVs in North America, Ford EVs are compatible with EV chargers that use CCS (Combined Charging System) connectors.
The adapter allows Ford EVs to be connected to Tesla’s Superchargers, including the Version 3 chargers that have just begun to roll out. And Ford’s next-generation electric vehicle platform, due out in 2025, will be compatible with Tesla’s North American charging standard port. Tesla announced last year that it would open its charging standard to other automakers – and now Ford is one of the first companies to do so.
Ford will continue to support its BlueOval charging network, which will grow by an additional 1,800 DC fast charging stations by early 2024.
After the disaster that Gov. Ron DeSantis unleashed with his presidential announcement speech yesterday, the Twitter space stage has remained steady this time. Nearly 75,000 tuned in, compared to the roughly 600,000 who tried to get on the DeSantis stream, according to numbers released in Space.
Earlier this year, Tesla’s Supercharger network, once reserved for Elon Musk’s customers only, began opening up to non-Tesla EVs. The company, which for months has allowed other companies’ EVs to use its chargers in Europe, is now doing the same in the US — under instructions in the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion plan to expand EV charging to more to expand Americans.
Tesla superchargers in the US use a proprietary plug – this was Tesla’s “competitive moat” that provided protection from other automakers. To give non-Tesla vehicles access to the chargers, the company installed a device called the “Magic Dock,” which attaches a CCS adapter to the connector. CCS is the agreed standard that most electric vehicle manufacturers in North America have adopted for DC fast charging.
Tesla’s Supercharger network was once exclusive to Elon Musk customers and Elon Musk only
The call between the CEOs of the two automakers comes at a time when competition for electric vehicles continues to increase. Tesla has enjoyed its dominance at the forefront of the growing electric vehicle industry, but other manufacturers are finally bringing more variety and alternatives to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y to market. Tesla has cut prices several times this year to boost sales, launching the Model 3 sedan under $40,000.
Price reductions are not only at Tesla. Ford had also cut prices, and other manufacturers are approaching an industry-wide price war on electric vehicles.
Ford has some of the best-selling electric vehicles (number two, to be exact), but the company was paralyzed by manufacturing issues that included faulty batteries that could catch fire (this issue has been fixed, but it knocked out Lightning production for a while). to a standstill). Production of the Mustang Mach-E also stagnated for weeks as the company improved processes at the plant.
Ford restructured the company a year ago to run separate businesses for its highly profitable gasoline vehicles, now called Ford Blue, and its electric efforts under Ford Model E — which, by the way, was the original intended name for Tesla’s Model 3 (they even did). I had to change the Model 3 logo to avoid infringing on Ford’s trademark.
Farley has praised Musk before, but he’s also thrown out some punches. Last year, Farley pointed out that while the Ford F-150 Lightning was already being made and hitting the streets, Tesla’s Cybertruck was nowhere in sight (and still isn’t). “Take that, Elon Musk,” Farley said at the time.
Both Tesla and Ford have also joined the National Charging Experience Consortium, a collaboration that brings together national laboratories, EV equipment OEMs and automakers to improve the reliability of charging infrastructure.