Ford CEO Jim Farley has been skeptical about Tesla and CEO Elon Musk’s approach to selling vehicles, but there’s no doubt the company has been on The Blue Oval’s mind throughout its major pivot toward battery electric vehicles. But the Tesla Supercharger network is one area where Ford would have an extremely difficult time catching up. As Ford Authority previously reported, the automaker is requiring its dealer network to build chargers at their own locations, although the company also has EV charging partners like Electrify America and others. But things changed this afternoon when Ford announced that it has entered into an agreement with Tesla for future access to the Supercharger network for its first and second generation EVs.
The first part of the agreement involves the current crop of Ford EVs: the Ford F-150 Lightning, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Ford E-Transit. Tesla will develop an adapter that will allow these vehicles, which utilize the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard to interface with Tesla’s V3 Superchargers. The newer V3 Superchargers support up to 250kW of peak charging rates and do not have to “split” power when more than one vehicle is charging from a single charger. Additionally, this is a more advantageous system than the Magic Dock system, where SuperChargers simply have CCS adapters attached to a Tesla connector. Those are operational right now in a handful of U.S. states. This new agreement will allow Ford EVs to utilize more Tesla Superchargers than that setup. The adapter is expected to debut in spring of 2024.
Perhaps the most significant part of the announcement involves Ford’s second generation electric vehicles. The company also revealed today that the upcoming slate of EVs will be equipped with NACS (North American Charging Standard) ports. It is unclear if this means future vehicles will not have CCS, but that could very well be the case. In any event, the adoption of what is essentially Tesla’s charging standard will allow future EVs to directly access any Supercharger without any adapter whatsoever. The next generation Ford EVs are expected to debut in 2025.
“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,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “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.”
“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,” said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer, Ford Model e. “The Tesla Supercharger network has excellent reliability and the NACS plug is smaller and lighter. Overall, this provides a superior experience for customers.”
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Comments
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that they don’t split power AS MUCH.
Every 4 stations get one ‘charger’ so that is why you see cars going to every 4th station initially so that they can get an individual charger’s “Full Attention”.
EVs are a disaster