General Motors will join Ford in adopting the North American Tesla charging plug standard and can provide GM electric vehicle buyers with access to the Tesla Supercharger network under an agreement announced Thursday.
GM’s move, which follows a similar decision by Ford to adopt Tesla’s charging plug standard, means three top electric vehicle retailers within the North American market have now agreed on a standard for charging equipment. The agreement was announced by GM CEO Mary Barra and Tesla boss Elon Musk Spaces event on Twitter.
Investors praised the deal and the prospect of a single standard of charging equipment for the North American market. GM shares were up greater than 4% after the bell and Tesla shares were up 4%.
The alliance between three of America’s leading rival electric vehicle makers has significant business and political implications.
The Biden administration has made the adoption of a competitive “combination charging system” (CCS) standard a requirement for firms to be eligible for billions of dollars in federal grants for latest charging stations on some 7,500 miles of the country’s busiest roads. The alliance between Tesla, Ford and GM is difficult the direction of the White House.
![GM CEO Mary Barra](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000011979594.jpg?w=1024)
But transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC in May following the Ford-Tesla deal that the industry would eventually come together in a single system, but adapters would allow for mutual use.
Together, Tesla, GM and Ford account for about 70% of current US electric automobile sales. Industry leadership sees different EV charging connectors as a barrier to wider consumer adoption of EVs.
“I feel it’s just going to be a good thing for electric vehicle development,” Musk said during a conversation with Barra on Twitter Spaces.
“I feel things have gotten a little higher,” said Barra.
GM could save $400 million on the deal, Barra said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
“The Snowball Effect”
From a consumer perspective, the deals with Detroit automakers appear like a win for Tesla, which has invested heavily in deploying its signature fast-charging stations in North America while most other automakers have outsourced charging to 3rd parties.
“That is pretty big,” said Consumer Reports senior policy analyst Chris Harto. “I’ve seen it form of snowball effect of increasingly more automakers jumping on board and moving towards the Tesla standard.”
![Tesla CEO Elon Musk](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000011942197-1.jpg?w=1024)
For GM and Ford, the deals are a bet that the advantages of allowing customers access to Tesla’s vast fast-charging network outweigh the chance that their customers will like what they see and select Tesla for their next purchase.
The alliance between Tesla, GM and Ford is putting pressure on other automakers and independent charging network operators to adopt the CCS standard. The US transition to the Tesla standard might be difficult for competing charging station manufacturers who’re already opening stores within the US to supply CCS-compliant equipment.
“This makes it far more likely that NACS will win over CCS in North America,” said David Whiston of Morningstar Research, referring to Tesla’s North American charging standard. He added that other charging service providers can proceed to make use of the CCS standard and depend on adapters to support Tesla, Ford and GM vehicles.
![Tesla charging stations](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012253180.jpg?w=1024)
Shares of charging firms ChargePoint and EVgo fell greater than 4% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
GM has announced that from 2025 it should equip electric vehicles with connectors based on the Tesla North American Charging Standard project. Next 12 months, current GM electric vehicle owners will give you the option to make use of Tesla’s 12,000 North American fast chargers, with adapters made available.
Musk said Tesla will “do nothing to prefer Tesla” as more competing brands have access to the Supercharger network. “It’s going to be a level playing field… Crucial thing is that we speed up the electrical vehicle revolution.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley held a similar discussion with Musk on Twitter last month, announcing that the #2 automaker within the US has reached an agreement with Tesla to permit EV owners access to greater than 12,000 Tesla top-ups in North America in early 2024 r.