NEW YORK: Tesla’s electric charging network has long pleased electric car mavens. But Elon Musk’s “superchargers” are now winning endorsements from a more unlikely group: Other auto companies.
Ford was the first to announce a partnership with Musk in late May, followed by General Motors earlier this month. On Tuesday (Jun 20), EV truck company Rivian joined the bandwagon, saying it looks forward “to continuing to find new ways to accelerate EV adoption”.
Under the partnerships, Musk has agreed to let consumers with autos from rival brands utilise its national network.
Appearing with Musk on Twitter Spaces, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said she was “really excited” to almost double the volume of chargers available to GM vehicle owners, adding that she hoped the Tesla system, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), could become a unified standard for the continent, which would “enable more mass adoption”.
The ascendance of Tesla’s network reflects the system’s reputation for reliability, as well as the sluggish expansion of rival EV charging options amid supply chain problems and a ponderous rollout of a giant federal program.
The embrace by Detroit auto giants has been seen as Musk’s latest coup, helping to fuel a roughly 40 per cent surge in Tesla shares since the May 25 announcement by Ford.
Still, many EV experts say it is premature to declare NACS the winner.
“We may be heading that way, but it’s still too early to say Tesla and NACS has won,” said industry consultant Loren McDonald, who thinks the market’s short-run evolution could be akin to the smartphone split between Apple and Android, with two leading standards.
EV experts note that other automakers with ambitious US electric vehicle programs, such as Volkswagen and Hyundai, continue to favour the rival standard, known as the combined charging system (CCS).
“Ultimately we’ll have one standard, but how long that takes remains to be seen,” said John Eichberger, executive director of the Transportation Energy Institute.
Eichberger said a Musk-dominated charging system could raise antitrust concerns, adding that it is not yet clear how far the Tesla CEO will go in sharing a technology that had until recently been proprietary.
“If we are going to gravitate towards one default source for charging, then it needs to be an open-source technology,” Eichberger said.
For all the latest business News Click Here
