As electric vehicles continue to become more popular and mainstream across the U.S., a few recurring issues remain in the back of many potential buyers’ minds, such as range and charging infrastructure. Now, in an effort to help alleviate concerns regarding the latter issue, GM’s crosstown rival Ford has announced that Blue Oval EVs will soon have access to more than 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations.
Currently scheduled to go into effect early next year in the U.S. and Canada, Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit owners will be able to use an adapter and software integration to access Tesla Superchargers. Additionally, owners must use FordPass or Ford Pro Intelligence for activation and payment.
“This is great news for our customers who will have unprecedented access to the largest network of fast-chargers in the U.S. and Canada with 12,000 Tesla Superchargers plus 10,000 fast-chargers already in the BlueOval Charge Network,” Ford president and CEO Jim Farley was quoted as saying. “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.”
“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,” Tesla senior director of charging infrastructure Rebecca Tinucci was quoted as saying. “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.”
Of course, General Motors has a wide array of agreements with multiple third-party charging networks, including Blink Charging, ChargePoint, EV Connect, EVgo, FLO and Greenlots. However, given the scale of Tesla’s supercharger network, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if The General eventually entered an agreement to access the Supercharger infrastructure.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM-related business news, GM EV news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
This is a massive win for Ford and keep in mind its only about half of the Tesla Super Charger network, prime locations will remain reserved for Teslas – licensing FSD from Tesla will be next . I respect Jim Farley’s transparent attempt to save Ford – the Twitter Space reveal is worth listening to. I don’t see GM joining the NACS bandwagon anytime soon.
GM does not need Tesla. The CCS network will soon outnumber Supercharger, especially with federal spending.
GM may not need Tesla, but it needs a reliable network. Non-Tesla chargers are down more than they are up, they all work differently, they all require a separate app to connect. it’ a nightmare. I work for GM and if were forced to buy and EV I would get a Tesla. T
GM has a partnership with the major networks, so they all work with the GM app. Being down more than up is Tesla fanboi FUD. I call bullsh!t on you working for GM.
As far as i know GM has a partnership with EVgo stations only. The GM apps do allow you to pay for those stations directly from the GM apps. Maybe that partnership has expanded, i don’t really keep up on it, as EV ownership is not really something I’m interested in. If i am not mistaken, access to the app(s) requires an active OnStar account, which I believe they are currently asking $24.99 a month for. When my gas powered vehicle gets low on fuel i just open my eyes, look around. There are gas stations everywhere. No OnStar account required. GM doesn’t get to collect and sell my data. I pull in, fuel up and am on my way in 5-10 min.
Steve: Point of clarification please. You say you work for GM and if were forced (let’s say GM is all 100% EV sooner or later) you would purchase a Tesla? Forgive my critique, that sounds like UAW members whom buy non union made vehicles and/or elected or appointed Union officials from other unions purchasing non-union made vehicles.
Arnie – I work in software. I do not currently own a GM vehicle. I buy what makes sense for me. I guess i should have worded my statement differently. If I had to purchase a vehicle today and the only choice i had was an EV, i would buy a Tesla. It offers the least amount of hassle of all the EV’s (including those coming out in the next few years). I am not a Tesla fanboy as others have said, although i do acknowledge what Musk has done for the industry. People can like it or not, but Tesla has defined and continues to define the EV segment.
Steve: Thank you for letting me know about that. Your opinion about the next few years maybe speculation. We will cross that opinion in ‘next few years’. May I query you on your opinion of e-Hummer please? Grateful
Arnie – What specifically do you want to know about the Hummer? It’s not a vehicle I would consider buying, so I guess I need some context. My initial thought was it pack quite a few party tricks and some compromises. I guess that’s still my opinion today.
Steve: Thank you for your response. Kind of you. What are some of the compromises please? I only guess it’s a pretty pricey vehicle and is a bit too much HP and not as good at reducing ‘personal carbon footprint’ being a non-commercial BEV vehicle.
Arnie, I would put the horsepower in the party trick category. Once you’ve done WOW a few times, it get’s old. Crab walk is another party trick. The compromises are pretty much the same with any EV. It can tow, but when you tow anything substantial, you are going to see range degradation. I’ve driven one, but never off-road. I’m told it’s capable to a point. The vehicle is massive, so taking it down any sort of narrow trail or one with heavy brush is pretty much out of the question, unless you don’t care about your paint. As with any EV, it has to be charged and with a pack that massive you’re going to be sitting a while or stopping often. I’d be willing to bet the majority of these are mall crawlers purchased as status symbols, and at that i think it excels. The vehicle itself is huge and definitely has a presence. It’s still a head turner, even around Milford where I work and you see them fairly frequently.
Steve: Thank you for letting me know about that. I guess it has plenty of room for ‘dogs’ and shopping! LOL ALL LOVE!
No. CCS is not down more than it is up. There’s been a lot of FUD spread about CCS from the Teslarati.
It does have its growing pains, and Tesla has higher up time, but mostly because they way over build the stations with 10-15 stalls each so even if a few are down the station as a whole is still “up”.
Well this was a must for Ford. They are cash poor and they just can’t afford a charging program on their own.
Ford has laid off people just to pay for their coming EV platform that they still never had. The Mach E and Lighting are just gap fillers as they share nothing with the coming EV models.
I had a HOT WHEELS SUPERCHARGER as a kid 50 years ago.
Someone help me understand something. Irregardless of the manufacture is there not an industry standard for the charge plugs and how to pay? This harkens back to when cell service first came out your phone would only work on the network that sold you the phone. Would it not benefit the entire EV industry as a whole if there were not some consensus standard? Don’t flame me, I’m just an curious in trying to understand the issue.
It’s an issue of history and hubris…
Tesla rightly realized a public charging network was an essential enabler for their EV business to succeed, so they made a clever plug design and invested heavily in the supercharger network whilst others were trying to downplay the success of EVs.
Eventually the others came round to EVs, but created a committee designed frankenplug and refused to fund a charging network because they couldn’t agree on anything. Other third parties stepped in to develop CCS networks, but they were woefully underfunded and the result is a big unreliable mess that is discouraging EV adoption.
Meanwhile the Tesla funded supercharger network continued to grow to become the only network with sufficient locations and reliability to make long distance EV travel practical. Farley, unlike Barra, was smart enough to see and understand the problem, therefore decided to make a deal with the only practical network.
This is a hugely significant development and could be the tipping point for converging on a North American plug standard and practical charging networks, based on Tesla standards. If one more company joins in, it will be the final nail in the CCS coffin (except maybe for commercial applications).
But GM will be the last to come aboard because of their “my way or the highway” attitude. Their decision to block CarPlay/AA is another example of going their own way. Problem is GM is no longer big enough to dominate anything. They are going to suffer from these decisions. Badly.
As of 5/29 there are 1,969 Tesla SC station locations and 6,524 CCS station locations.
There is an industry standard. It’s called CCS.
The largest number of EV’s on the road are not CCS, so you are wrong.
The largest number of stations are CCS.
Amd the largest number of L2 charge points are j1772.
I have a 2018 Tesla that has a salvage title. I bought it in 2019 and rebuilt it which was not very difficult. The only real problem was not being able to use Tesla super chargers. Mine is not CCS enabled. I can fix that for $900 including the connector. I was going to do that thinking that CCS was going to be available on most non-Tesla charging stations. I live in CA and would have many places to charge. So, what is the real deal on this issue?