Tesla’s EV charger walled garden is breaking down.
Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have announced that in early 2024, all of the latter company’s 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the United States and Canada will be compatible with Ford vehicles.
Ford says Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit customers will be able to access Tesla’s Superchargers via an adapter and software integration. It’s unclear if this adapter will also be compatible with other EV manufacturers’ vehicles (my guess is it likely will).
Farley also says that all of Ford’s future EVs, starting in 2025, will come equipped with a North American Standard NACS port, the standardized version of Tesla’s proprietary charger. This means that Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, Ford F-150 Lightning and more will feature Tesla’s NACS port built-in.
During a recent Twitter Spaces where the announcement was made, Musk said, “We don’t want Tesla superchargers to be a walled garden.”
Tesla’s NACS port is widely regarded as technologically superior to the Combined Charging System (CCS) offered by most EV chargers and vehicle manufacturers in North America due to its more durable and compact design. While it’s still unclear, the agreement with Ford could be the first of several EV manufacturer charging-related partnerships Tesla has been working on.
Back in November 2021, Tesla launched its “non-Tesla Supercharger pilot” in several countries around the world, allowing non-Tesla electric vehicle drivers to use the EV maker’s charging stations with their vehicles through a CCS charger. Musk also agreed to open portions of its charging network up to other EVs back in February 2023.
The pilot has yet to make its way to Canada.
Image credit: Ford
Source: Ford
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