In February of last year, the Biden administration announced a $5 billion plan to enhance the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure throughout the United States. As part of this initiative, the Department of Transportation committed to assisting states in building 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. Furthermore, the White House successfully negotiated an agreement with Tesla to share a portion of its existing Supercharger network with non-Tesla EVs. Recently, Ford became the first automaker to formalize this agreement, announcing via a Twitter Spaces event that Ford electric vehicle customers will gain access to over 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the United States and Canada starting in Spring 2024, according to a company press release.
As Tesla employs a proprietary charger port design for its vehicles, owners of Ford electric vehicles will initially require a Tesla-developed adapter to connect their vehicles to the public charging cable in order to recharge their Ford F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and E-Transit models. Additionally, Ford revealed that, beginning with the 2025 model year, it will transition from the current Combined Charging System (CCS) port to Tesla’s recently open-sourced NACS charge port. These 12,000 additional chargers will join Ford’s existing Blue Oval charging station network, which already consists of 84,000 charging stations.
Marin Gjaja, the Chief Customer Officer of Ford Model e, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration, stating in the press release, “Tesla has led the industry in creating a large, reliable, and efficient charging system, and we are pleased to be able to join forces in a way that benefits customers and overall EV adoption. The Tesla Supercharger network has excellent reliability, and the NACS plug is smaller and lighter. Overall, this provides a superior experience for customers.”
The partnership between Ford and Tesla signifies a significant step toward facilitating the expansion of EV charging infrastructure and promoting broader EV adoption. By leveraging Tesla’s well-established Supercharger network, Ford electric vehicle owners will gain increased convenience and accessibility to charging stations. The collaboration exemplifies the collective efforts being made to address the critical need for a robust charging infrastructure in order to support the growing number of electric vehicles on the road.
