Tesla has been making news recently thanks to the announcements that GM, Ford, and Rivian will all be adopting the EV giant’s charging standard by 2024.
Up until now the United States’ EV charging grid has been divided between Tesla’s NACS network (which includes their Superchargers), and the Combined Charging System better known as CCS. Tesla has been investing heavily to cover as much of the US highway system as they can to make it possible for their customers to get valuable fast charging, reliably even when road-tripping across country. By comparison CCS providers like Electrify America and ChargePoint have been falling behind both in volume and reliability of fast-charging options. This has given EV buyers just another reason to buy Tesla.
Also, If you compare the Tesla’s charging hardware to CCS options Tesla’s is a clear winner. Tesla points out that NACS plugs are half the size of CCS plugs with twice the power.
Now EV manufacturers GM, Ford, and Rivian have announced they will make their vehicles compatible with the highly desirable Supercharger network going forward – a move that’s sure further entice would-be customers.
So why is Tesla now offering their Supercharger Network to competitors?
The answer is actually pretty simple. Elon Musk is playing the long game. He knows it’s just a matter of time before the road is crowded with EVs from a wide range of manufacturers, and while it will be difficult to keep a stranglehold on the vehicle market, there is a major opportunity to corner the EV charging market.
Charging has the added benefit of repeat customers and recurring revenue as users must pay for each charging session. On top of that, the assets of Tesla’s charging network alone have been valued at over $100B by some analysts.
While the news is just now hitting, Tesla originally announced they would keep their charging tech open-source back in 2014 – meaning this has been part of their plan all along – further explaining why Tesla has invested so much in the network to begin with.