Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Announced that by early 2024 more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers will be operational with Ford vehicles. Farley also announced that next-generation Ford vehicles would come equipped with the North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, Tesla’s standardized version of its proprietary charging system.
“We don’t want Tesla’s superchargers to be a walled garden,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the Twitter Space call. According to Musk, Tesla wants Ford and other automakers to be on an equal footing when it comes to access to reliable EV charging.
“We don’t want Tesla’s superchargers to be a walled garden”
According to Ford, Tesla will develop an adapter that will be provided to customers who purchase any of Ford’s electric vehicles, including the F-150 Lightning truck, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit delivery van. Like the vast majority of electric vehicles in North America, Ford electric vehicles are compatible with electric vehicle chargers with CCS (combined charging system) plugs.
The adapter will allow Ford electric vehicles to connect with Tesla superchargers, including the version 3 chargers that have just started rolling out. And Ford’s next-generation EV platform, due to land in 2025, will be compatible with Tesla’s standard North American charging port. Tesla announced it would open up its charging standard to other automakers last year, and now Ford is one of the first companies to adopt it.
Ford will also continue to support its “BlueOval” charging network, which will add another 1,800 DC fast-charging stations by early 2024.
The Twitter Space stage held steady this time around, following the disaster that was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential announcement speech yesterday. According to the numbers shown in the Space, nearly 75,000 tuned in, compared to 600,000 trying to get into DeSantis’ stream.
Earlier this year, Tesla’s Supercharger network, once exclusive to Elon Musk customers and only Elon Musk, began opening up to non-Tesla electric vehicles. The company, which has been allowing other companies’ EVs to use its chargers in Europe for months, is now doing the same in the US, per instructions laid out in the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion plan. to expand electric vehicle charging options to more Americans. .
Tesla’s superchargers in the US use a proprietary connector – this was Tesla’s “competitive moat”, offering protection against other automakers. To allow non-Tesla vehicles access to the chargers, the company installed a device called “magic spring”, in which a CCS adapter is applied to the connector. CCS is the agreed standard that most EV manufacturers in North America have adopted for DC fast charging.
Tesla’s Supercharger network was once exclusive to Elon Musk customers and only Elon Musk
The conversation between the two automaker chief executives comes as competition from electric vehicles continues to heat up. Tesla has enjoyed its dominance at the top of the growing electric vehicle industry, but other manufacturers are finally bringing more variety and alternatives to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y. Tesla has lowered prices several times this year to spur sales, bringing the Model 3 sedan to under $40,000.
The price cuts aren’t just happening at Tesla. Ford had also lowered prices, and other manufacturers are inching closer to an industry-wide EV price war.
Ford has some of the best-selling electric vehicles (number two, to be exact), but has been hampered by manufacturing issues including faulty batteries that could catch fire (that issue was fixed, but it halted Lightning production for a while). ). Production of the Mustang Mach-E was also halted for weeks as the company improved processes at the plant.
Ford restructured the company a year ago to operate separate businesses for its highly profitable gasoline-powered vehicles, now called Ford Blue, and its electric efforts under the Ford Model E, which, incidentally, was the originally intended name for Tesla’s Model 3 ( even had to change the logo of the Model 3 to not infringe Ford’s trademark).
Farley has praised Musk before, but he’s also dished out some punches. Once last year, Farley touted how the Ford F-150 Lightning was already being built and on the road while 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 collaborative effort that brings together National Laboratories, EV equipment OEMs, and automakers to improve the reliability of charging infrastructure.
