After Ford, Tesla has just signed a new historic agreement with General Motors. Through this partnership, the American brand obtains access to the Supercharger network and undertakes to integrate Tesla’s proprietary connector into its future electric cars. One more step to make its system the dominant standard.
Remember, a few weeks ago, Tesla announced a historic partnership with Ford. Thanks to this alliance, the brand with the blue oval obtained access to the entire Supercharger network in the United States, which allows it to double the charging offer offered to its customers.
In return, Ford committed to adopting Tesla’s proprietary connectorto know the NACS socket (North American Charging Standard) on its upcoming electric cars. A real blow for the CharIN association, which has been campaigning for years now to make Combo CCS (its own format) the dominant standard in Europe and the United States.
After Ford, Tesla signs an agreement with General Motors
However, we have just learned that Tesla has just signed a major new agreement with General Motors. This Thursday, June 8, 2023, GM General Manager Mary Barra confirmed that the brand’s next vehicles will adopt the NACS connector Tesla from 2025. Initially, the manufacturer will provide users with an adapter to connect to Tesla terminals.
As with Ford, this alliance will enable General Motors EV drivers access from 2024 to the 12,000 Supercharger stations available in the United States. “This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in rapidly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could also help the industry move towards a single North American charging standard.” said the GM CEO.
Also to read : Tesla – the Superchargers network is finally opening up to other electric vehicles in France
One step closer to Tesla’s standard hegemony
Casually, the speech of Mary Barra says about the ambitions of Tesla and its new partners: make NACS the single charging standard in the United States. With these two agreements, nearly 300,000 additional motorists will be able to connect to Tesla’s fast charging stations.
This considerably strengthens the position of the NACS standard in North America… And to drastically weaken that of the CCS. And inevitably, these agreements could cause a snowball effect, encouraging other manufacturers to sign similar partnerships with Tesla. What lead to the pure and simple disappearance of the CCS combo in the United States.
Regarding Europe, Elon Musk has already begun to test the waters. Here is what he said on Twitter this Friday, June 9: “We tried to convince the EU to consider the Tesla (NACS) design because it is fundamentally better in every way for consumers, but the Minister of Transport said that a committee decided on the standard he years ago“. For now, the CCS combo will remain the dominant standard on the Old Continent, but for how long?