Ford EV Customers Will Have Access To Tesla's 12,000 Superchargers
Three months after the Biden administration announced that Tesla, Inc. would make its Supercharger network accessible to non-Tesla electric vehicles, Ford Motor Co. reached an agreement with Tesla, allowing Ford's EV customers to tap into approximately 12,000 Supercharger stations across North America.
"This is great news for our customers who will have unprecedented access to the largest network of fast chargers in the US and Canada with 12,000+ Tesla Superchargers plus 10,000+ fast-chargers already in the BlueOval Charge Network," said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO.
Farley continued, "Widespread access to fast-charging is absolutely vital to our growth as an EV brand, and this breakthrough agreement comes as we are ramping up production of our popular Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, and preparing to launch a series of next-generation EVs starting in 2025."
Beginning in 2024, Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit customers will be able to use Superchargers via an adapter and software integration and payment activation through FordPass or Ford Pro Intelligence.
The partnership also layouts that Ford is swapping Combined Charging System (CCS) charger port for Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS), indicating future Ford EV owners wouldn't have to use an adapter for Superchargers after 2025. As far as we know, Ford is the first major automaker to adopt Tesla's NACS.
"We've spent the last 10 years building an industry-leading Charging Network that enables freedom to travel and provides charging confidence for our Tesla owners. We're excited to deliver on our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy by welcoming Ford owners, and other electric vehicles who adopt NACS, to our thousands of Superchargers across North America," said Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's senior director of charging infrastructure.
Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer, Ford Model e, praised Tesla's NACS plug:
"The Tesla Supercharger network has excellent reliability and the NACS plug is smaller and lighter. Overall, this provides a superior experience for customers."
The Tesla-Ford partnership comes three months after the Biden administration said Tesla "will open a portion of its US Supercharger and Destination Charger network to non-Tesla EVs, making at least 7,500 chargers available for all EVs by the end of 2024."
Like it or not, Biden is fast-tracking EV adoption nationwide, though EVs remain out of reach for average Americans.
Also, with millions of new EVs hitting highways in the next few years, the next conversation that needs to happen is how will the fragile US power grid handle all this new power demand. As we've explained, on-demand nuclear power is the move to decarbonize the grid versus unreliable solar and wind.
