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GM Authority

GM Access To Tesla Supercharger Network Delayed

Earlier this year, GM announced that its all-electric vehicle customers would gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network by the Spring. Springtime has since come and gone, and GM’s EV customers still do not have access to the Tesla Supercharger network. As such, GM Authority reached out to GM for clarification.

Tesla chargers at a Supercharger station.

General Motors provided GM Authority with the following statement:

“Thanks so much for reaching out. The Supercharger network is not yet open to GM customers,” GM Director of Strategic Technology Communications Sanaz Marbley told GM Authority. “We are working as quickly as possible to open up access to the Supercharger Network for our customers, and delivering a seamless charging experience is our priority. GM continues to expand charging infrastructure throughout North America, with GM drivers currently having access to more than 195,000 chargers. We believe that access to charging is the best way to serve our customers and grow the EV market.”

GM initially announced in June of 2023 that GM EV owners would gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network sometime early in the 2024 calendar year, later clarifying this past February that access would open up in the Spring. Now, however, it appears as though access has been delayed.

Ford has also announced plans to provide customers with access to the Tesla Supercharger network, with some Ford customers enjoying access as of February of this year.

The Tesla Supercharger network is based on the North American Charging Standard (NACS), and as such, GM EVs will require an adapter to connect. At present, GM EVs are equipped with CSS-type chargers; however, GM plans to adopt the NACS charge type for future EV models around the 2025 timeframe. The NACS charging type was originally developed by Tesla.

GM EV owners currently have access to a range of EV chargers through the Ultium Charge 360 initiative, and GM has secured a series of agreements with several third-party charging networks for comprehensive charging coverage.

GM previously announced that it would reintroduce plug-in hybrid vehicles to the North American market as a means of bridging the gap to full electrification, with The General stating that the move would allow more time for the U.S. to build out its charging infrastructure. Lack of charging stations is considered a major hurdle to widespread EV adoption in the U.S.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Before the usual “GM management can’t do anything right” comments, Elon just fired the majority of his supercharger team in the middle of a massive deal with multiple legacy automakers switching over to their standard.
    Frankly, I can see him opening himself up to breach of contract lawsuits.

    Reply
    1. I think even Elon is realizing that EV’s may be reaching their peak. If conservatives win in November they will really start to peak without the government support.

      Reply
    2. Ehditor: That’s a prime example of GM CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT. – More specifically, they seem totally MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO.

      item – “We will never electrify the Silverado”.

      (of course then FORD unveils the f150-lightning EV). And GM rushes to come out with an Electric Sliverado, – supposedly FINALLY happening now.

      item – “Ford Makes Agreement to use TESLA fast chargers”.

      so the great effort to standardize everything on CCS1/J1772 North American standard, good for Levels 1, 2 and 3 – both 400 and 800 volt architectures are dropped like a hot potato. GM then says they are also dropping this standard since they are led by the nose by FORD.

      I couldn’t stop laughing when everyone seemingly now is counting on Tesla, who since it is basically run by Musk’s pronouncements from on high, decides initially to fire everyone in the Supercharger department, and then says they will be downsizing their operations. Then they hire a few back. Of course the 800 volt extra cost stuff that the Cadillac IQ will have, the Hummer and the Silverado EV and Sierra EV on the pricier models, which works fine on the existing jacks doesn’t quite work (whatever that means) with Tesla Superchargers.

      Of course, there are apparently any number of mediocre managers at GM who probably should have been replaced by more mature heads… The few immature people at the top making ridiculous decisions and making contradictory multi-million dollars changes , and then changing their minds, spends millions more to reverse previous decisions.

      A sample of which is headquarters moving, and then moving back, discontinuance of ALL PHEV models then rushing to bring them back, etc. THESE ARE SUPER EXPENSIVE MISTAKES. GM V8’s that universally have lifter problems unless you get the after market ‘cylinder deactivation – DEACTIVATION kit’ which finally makes the GM product reliable.
      As is now, there are some GM vehicles I would ONLY buy as an EV since you currently CANNOT BUY THEM with other than the offered choice of lifter problem engines. Its handwriting on the wall when an aftermarket group has to come up with a fix that GM engineering is too immature to tackle, other than bringing out a new cylinder deactivation scheme that is as bad as the first.

      People I’m sure can add their own example problems that have been poorly addressed by management.

      Reply
    3. No rush. That 2035 date is going to be pushed back by 10 or 15 years. By that time there will be plenty of chargers and the 1st adopter lab mice will have worked out the cold weather performance and range issues .

      Reply
  2. The biggest issue is no standardization of the current public charging infrastructure. Needing adapters, phone apps and in vehicle apps depending on the charger you’re at is a real PIA we have discovered.

    Why couldn’t public ev charging be out built to run like gas pumps? Swipe your CC and charge up. We always worry if the charger we pull up to is going to be compatible with our EV. Thankfully our charging is 95% at home.

    Reply
    1. Best way to beat this B.S. is DONT BUY ONE OF THESE HEADACHES

      Reply
      1. You mean Tesla’s or EVs in general? If tesla: duh, if EVs: You’re going to be so mad in 10 years Tony.

        Reply
    2. All CCS chargers are compatible with CCS vehicles… Soon With adaptors you will be able to use V3 or V4 stations from Tesla.

      Most CCS stations have credit card readers, but it’s not hard to get the apps if required.

      Also GM and others provide ways with networks to do plug and charge. (plug in and it immediately pays and charges )

      Reply
      1. meh: All CCS chargers are compatible with CCS vehicles. UNLESS they are GM ENERGY facilities (hosted by EVGO) that are trying to charge older GM CCS vehicles. See Below…

        Reply
    3. Standardization was supposedly done by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) with the CCS1/J1772.

      Whatever is thought of that Standard – at least it was basically universally agreed upon, and so the current long time situation was this and then the Japanese standard Chademo which a few Nissans still use.

      To dump this, which handled 110 and 220 and DC fast charging, both 400 and 800 volts and switch to the Tesla jack which seems to me to be the height of idiocy, along with the huge installed base of these standardized connectors, when Musk has apparently lost interest in charging stations is laughable.

      This is probably why ICE drivers sense constantly changing ideas brought to the forefront by frankly childish designers that can’t keep to agreed standards on many issues is just another reason why they stay away from EVs in general.
      ..

      Reply
      1. “The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”

        – Attributed to several people

        Reply
  3. No point paying Tesla an access deal if you don’t have enough EVs on the road to make it worth while. They were supposed to be selling 400,000 EV units annually by now and aren’t even remotely close

    Reply
    1. What makes you think GM is paying an access fee. nACS is open source. Tesla gets paid everytime someone charges at a SC.
      Plus, no matter what bs you see in the news the 1st quarter of 24 was a record breaking quarter for ev sales. Everyone was up significantly except Tesla. GM and Ford may have pulled a knee jerk reaction in scaling back ev production so much. They will be playing catch up again as sales increase even faster

      Reply
      1. It’s not hard to break a sales record when sales are trash and you’re building on trash. The scale is no where near any forecast and no where near ROI

        Just because the connector is open source does not mean access to the massively expensive charging network is free for the manufacturers to access.

        Teslas open patents also don’t come without strings attached

        Reply
  4. Ehdit0r:

    You have a point. It would be interesting to know who exactly is at fault for the delay, GM, Tesla or both. Neither has a great track record in meeting announced delivery dates.

    The latest word out of GM in an email to their dealership parts departments (according to the parts guys in my two local dealerships), other than the male bovine excrement from PR hack Sanaz Marbley, is the adapters will not be open to order until Q3. Since GM is unlikely to allow charging until their adapters are at least available, we will probably not be putting Tesla electrons into our GM vehicles until Q4.

    Reply
  5. Well at least I still have access to the Exxon station.

    Reply
    1. No rush. That 2035 date is going to be pushed back by 10 or 15 years. By that time there will be plenty of chargers and the 1st adopter lab mice will have worked out the cold weather performance and range issues .

      Reply
  6. Imagine that….GM has never met a deadline.

    Reply
  7. Was just trying out a Brand NEW (less than 4 weeks old) PILOT-FLYING J-GM ENERGY Ultium fast-charger just off the THRUWAY here in Western NY State. Seems to work fine with recent cars. However a Chevy Spark EV pulled up and got “Unable to Charge” on all 4 corded ports.

    He says he called GM and then GM ENERGY and (of course) talked to people who knew Nothing about Nothing.

    (Try calling the Cadillac Concierge sometime – I’ve felt his pain, haha). I told him just because he has a GM vehicle plugging into a GM facility means nothing – he says it works fine at ChargePoint and ElectrifyAmerica stations.

    I told him that since the Spark EV is out of sight, out of mind by GM now, I suggested he go to those other places because GM can’t seem to fix recent problems let alone older EVs that fewer and fewer own.

    Reply
  8. This is all fine and dandy. But it would be really nice to find out what fell apart. Will it come together? WHEN? What needs to happen for this to come together? What is the delay?

    Reply
  9. As a recent purchaser of the Bolt, and planning some travel, was expecting the adapter for NACS, as promised sometime this spring. Obviously no luck here, and no decent explanation of why and, more importantly, when to expect it. Maybe GMAuthority can keep up pressure on GM to come clean about this.
    As an aside we took our long planned trip and ran into the ‘standard’ troubles, including many non working fast chargers, poor info on availability, unreadable instructions, some long waits, one day long delay because of inability to find fast charger that worked., despite using various apps. This never happened when we took our Tesla.

    Reply
  10. What a surprise ! 😯

    Was hoping to have the Tesla network available soon to provide an option on charging locations for the upcoming 2000+ km.trip.

    Can live with the CCS combo networks and keep our fingers crossed as the Plug Share and ABRP apps are great planning tools that will require around 8 charging stops.

    Tired of waiting for Tesla/GM to resolve their issues

    Reply
  11. Not sure why FORD and GM need Tesla adapters since all the recent Tesla chargers include adapters to handle exisiting CCS1/J1772 cars, which supposedly until now was the universal standard.

    When next year they convert to NACS Tesla, of course, THEN you won’t be able to charge anywhere EXCEPT Tesla locations since no one has adapters to go the other way.

    No one from GM or FORD is even TALKING about that…. Obviously they won’t even see the issue until the first person complains that they can’t charge up their new car.

    Must be nice to Garage the vehicle for the next 3 years until they do something about it…. Probably an emergency $1,000 conversion back to the old jack, haha.

    Reply
  12. Bill Howland:

    Only the about 50 Tesla Magic Dock locations in the US have a NACS (Tesla) plug to a CCS1 socket on the charging pedestal. This is similar to the Tesla Universal Wall Charger that has a way to pull out the charging cord with either plug (I have that charger that I a using to charge my Lyriq).

    All other Tesla V3 and V4 charging pedestals at Supercharger locations will require an adapter. Tesla is having the adapters for all of the CCS1 cars for the manufacturers vehicles they have announced that they have made agreement with for access to their network made by their supplier(s), to assure compatibility and protection for their equipment.

    GM said they would “start” the shift from CCS1 to NACS “in 2025”. That means it will be some models will have it in 2026, probably limited at first to new models. How long it will take cars like existing models like the Lyriq to get the NACS, is anyone’s guess.

    I’m not familiar with what Ford’s announced timeline is for the conversion, but I imagine it is about the same.

    The same adapter that Tesla currently sells ($50) that Tesla owners can use to charge from existing CCS1 pedestals will do the same for any non-Tesla which has a NACS socket.

    Reply
    1. No way Steve V.

      If you are talking about fast charging (which means Superchargers), which was the only point about the NACS nonsense anyway, the $50 Tesla Adapter has no place for the high voltage pins. It is a J1772 adapter only.

      Tesla sells no 510 amp adapters for $50. Which is what your Lyriq requires to do 180 kw.

      Reply

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