Ford was the first to announce a partnership with Musk in late May, followed by General Motors earlier this month. On Tuesday, electric vehicle (EV) company Rivian said it wants a similar alliance.
With these partnerships, Musk has agreed to allow consumers of cars from rival brands to use his national network.
GM chief executive Mary Barra said she was “really excited” about nearly doubling the volume of chargers available to her company vehicle owners.
He added that he hopes the system of Teslaknown as the North American Cargo Standard (NACS), is unified for the continent which “would allow for more mass adoption.”
Tesla’s grid dominance reflects the system’s reputation for reliability as well as the slow expansion of rival EV charging options amid supply chain woes and the heavy deployment of a giant federal program.
Winning the favor of Detroit auto giants is Musk’s latest coup and has helped drive Tesla shares up 40% since Ford’s May 25 announcement.
Still, many experts say it is premature to declare the NACS the winner.
“Maybe we are going in that direction, but it is still premature to say that Tesla and NACS have won,” says Loren McDonald, an industry consultant, who predicts that the evolution of the market could be similar to that of mobile telephony, in which there are two dominant standards (Apple and Android).
Electric vehicle experts point out that other automakers such as Volkswagen and Hyundai continue to bet on the rival standard, known as the combined charging system (CCS).
“Eventually we will have a single standard, but it remains to be seen how long it will take,” said John Eichberger, executive director of the Transportation Energy Institute.
Eichberger said a Musk-dominated charging system could raise monopoly concerns, adding that it’s not yet clear how far Tesla’s patronage will go to share technology it until recently owned.
“If we go to a default charging source, then it would have to be an open source technology,” says Eichberger.
delays and problems
Until recently, many in the industry assumed that CCS was in the queue to become the national standard, in part because it is explicitly required as a connector for use in a new federal program.
The initiative, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, which was established in the 2021 infrastructure law signed into law by President Joe Biden, provides $5 billion in funding for states to build electric vehicle charging networks.
In February, the White House unveiled an agreement with Musk in which Tesla committed to opening up at least 7,500 chargers nationwide to non-Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2024, a move that allows Tesla to opt out. potentially to NEVI funds.
There has been no indication that the White House will change its policy, but states are reconsidering its application in light of recent industry developments.
Texas plans to require each charging port to have a CCS connector and a NACS connector, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation told AFP on Friday.
Tesla’s turnaround comes amid concerns that there won’t be enough chargers.
A January 2023 forecast by S&P Global concluded that the US charging system “is not robust enough to support a maturing electric vehicle market,” stating that the number of chargers in the country would need to quadruple between 2022 and 2025.
Industry experts cite a number of reasons for slow deployment, including shortages of key materials in the supply chain and difficulties in negotiating affordable electricity contracts with power companies.
An Energy Department spokesperson said the agency has been “working hard to get the program up and running” and listed seven jurisdictions that have published requests for proposals.
However, McDonald’s, which closely monitors state NEVI programs, says no state has so far awarded contracts to build EV chargers.
He also doesn’t expect most chargers to be built until 2025 or later.
