On a Twitter Space, General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra followed Ford’s CEO Jim Farley in their move to collaborate with Tesla to integrate the North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector design into its EVs beginning in 2025.
The partnership also includes the ability for GM EV drivers to charge at a growing number of Tesla Superchargers (currently 12,000), throughout North America.
Elon Musk said during the Twitter Space that this is important to progress their mission of accelerating the transition to electric vehicles.
General Motors has a number of EVs in the market like the GM Hummer and Chevy Bolt, but others are on the way like the Chevy Silverady EV, and the Cadillac Lyriq.
Many Tesla customers will be asking how Supercharger demand and supply will work as 3rd party EVs begin charging at Supercharger locations. While not directly addressed on the call, the theory is the income from charging sessions will help fund many more charging Supercharging stalls, so as long as Tesla stays ahead of this increased demand, the economics should be in Tesla’s favour.
This agreement complements GM’s ongoing investments in charging, reinforcing the company’s focus on expanding charging access across home, workplace, and public spaces and builds on the more than 134,000 chargers available to GM EV drivers today through the company’s Ultium Charge 360 initiative and mobile apps.
Our vision of the all-electric future means producing millions of world-class EVs across categories and price points, while creating an ecosystem that will accelerate mass EV adoption.
GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra.
This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in quickly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard.
The Tesla Supercharger Network will be open to GM EV drivers starting in 2024 and will initially require the use of an adapter. Beginning in 2025, the first GM EVs will be built with a NACS inlet for direct access to Tesla Superchargers without an adapter. In the future, GM will make adapters available for drivers of NACS-enabled vehicles to allow charging on CCS-capable fast charge stations.
GM will also integrate the Tesla Supercharger Network into its vehicle and mobile apps, helping drivers quickly and easily locate, pay for, and initiate charging at available Tesla Superchargers. This will complement the charging experience at the growing Ultium Charge 360 Network of charging stations, as well as additional charging stations GM makes available through existing integrations with other charging networks.
“Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Giving every EV owner access to ubiquitous and reliable charging is a cornerstone of that mission. We’re excited to work with other industry leaders like General Motors to provide access to the Tesla Supercharger Network via the North American Charging Standard.”
Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure
GM continues to work with others in the industry to accelerate the installation of home, work and public charging as part of its Ultium Charge 360 initiative.
This includes collaborations with Pilot Company and EVgo that will add more than 5,000 DC fast chargers to the nearly 13,000 existing DC fast chargers in North America, as well as the deployment of community chargers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
These initiatives, combined with this new collaboration with Tesla, will offer GM customers access to one of the largest integrated networks of high-power charging stations in North America.
The Twitter Space was short and sweet, and while Barra read some questions, she didn’t exactly leverage the power of Twitter Spaces and take live questions on the call. This is playing it safe and while pleasantries were exchanged between Musk and Barra, it’s clear from their tone, one of the pair had their tail between their legs.
