Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk declared By early 2024, 12,000 Tesla superchargers will be working with Ford vehicles. Farley also announced that next-generation Ford vehicles will come with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, a standardized version of Tesla’s proprietary charging system.
“We don’t want Tesla Superchargers to be a walled garden,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a Twitter space call. According to Musk, Tesla wants Ford and other automakers to be on an equal footing when it comes to accessing reliable EV charging.
“We don’t want Tesla Superchargers to be a walled garden”
According to Ford, Tesla will make an adapter for customers who buy any of Ford’s EVs, including the F-150 Lightning truck, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit delivery van. Like most EVs in North America, Ford’s EVs are compatible with EV chargers with CCS (Integrated Charging System) plugs.
The adapter will allow Ford EVs to connect to Tesla’s Superchargers, including version 3 chargers that are just starting to roll out. And Ford’s next-generation EV platform, due to land in 2025, will be compatible with Tesla’s North American charging standard port. Tesla announced last year that it would open up its charging standards to other automakers — and now Ford is among the first to take it up.
Ford will continue to support its “BlueOval” charging network, which will deploy another 1,800 DC fast charging stations by early 2024.
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Earlier this year, Tesla’s Supercharger network, once exclusive to Elon Musk and Elon Musk’s customers, opened 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 U.S. — under instructions from the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion plan to expand EV charging options to more Americans. .
Tesla superchargers in the U.S. use a proprietary connector — Tesla’s “competitive moat” that provided protection from other automakers. To allow non-Tesla vehicles to access the chargers, the company installed a device called “”Magic Dog,” in which a CCS adapter is used in the connector. CCS is the agreed upon standard that most EV manufacturers in North America have adopted for DC fast charging.
Tesla’s Supercharger network was once exclusive to Elon Musk’s customers and only Elon Musk.
The conversation between the two automakers’ CEOs comes as EV competition continues to heat up. Tesla enjoys its dominance in the growing electric vehicle industry, but other manufacturers are finally bringing variety and alternatives to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y. Tesla brought out the Model 3, slashing prices several times this year to spur sales. Sedan under $40,000.
Tesla isn’t the only one with price cuts. Ford has also cut prices, and other manufacturers are approaching an industry-wide EV price war.
Ford has some of its best-selling EVs (number two, to be exact), but it’s been plagued by manufacturing problems involving defective batteries that could catch fire (that problem has since been resolved, but it stopped production of the Lightning for a while). Mustang Mach-E production was also halted for weeks as the company improved processes at the plant.
Ford restructured the company a year ago to combine its most profitable gas vehicles, now called Ford Blue, and its electric efforts under the Ford Model E — the name originally intended for Tesla’s Model 3. The Model 3 logo had to be changed Does not infringe on Ford’s trademark)
Farley has praised Musk before, but he’s also thrown some punches. Once last year, Farley talked about how the Ford F-150 Lightning was already in production and on the road while Tesla’s Cybertruck was nowhere to be seen (and it still isn’t). “Take that, Elon Musk,” Farley said at the time.
Both Tesla and Ford have joined the National Charging Experience Consortium, which brings together national laboratories, EV component OEMs and automakers to improve charging infrastructure reliability.
