DETROIT — General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the charging deal with Tesla announced on Thursday will save the automaker up to $400 million on a planned investment to construct electric vehicle charging facilities in the US and Canada.
GM said in October 2021 that it plans to spend $750 million on electric vehicle charging infrastructure in each countries. This includes home, workplace and public charging across the US and Canada, GM said at the time.
“We imagine we will save up to $400 million of the original three-quarters of the billion dollars we committed to this because we were able to do it faster and more efficiently,” Barra said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s Phil. LeBeau on the show “Quick Money”. “We’re really taking a look at ways to increase capital efficiency as we go forward.”
Barra, in response to an issue about licensing Tesla’s other technologies, said the Detroit automaker “will at all times look for tactics to increase capital efficiency” and “if there are other opportunities for collaboration, , we’ll be very open to them.”
Elon Musk and Mary Barra
Getty Images; NYSE
The deal between GM and Tesla will give GM EV owners access to greater than 12,000 Tesla fast chargers starting next 12 months via an adapter. It will also include GM’s adoption of Tesla’s charging port as a substitute of the current industry standard.
The GM deal comes after rival Ford Motor announced an identical deal with the automaker owned by Elon Musk. The CEOs of each Detroit automakers announced the deals together with Musk on Twitter.
Wall Street analysts hailed the Tesla-Ford deal as “win-win” when that deal was announced last month.
Each GM and Tesla shares were up greater than 3% during prolonged Thursday trading.