GM will adopt Tesla’s charge-port hardware on future models
General Motors said its future electric vehicles will use the same charging hardware as Tesla, a move aimed at giving GM owners more access to charging and further endorsing Tesla’s charging-port technology as the industry standard.
GM said Thursday that Tesla agreed to give GM customers access to 12,000 of Tesla’s fast chargers, known as Superchargers, starting next year. Those GM customers will need an adapter to use the chargers, because the GM vehicles use a different charge port.
Starting in 2025, GM will start making EVs with the Tesla charge port instead. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said that giving the company’s customers access to Superchargers will accelerate EV adoption and that switching to the Tesla charge port on future models “could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard.”
The deal is similar to one Ford Motor and Tesla outlined last month, under which Ford’s customers will be able to use more than 12,000 Superchargers. Ford also said it would adopt the same charging hardware that Tesla uses when the Dearborn, Mich., automaker begins introducing a new line of EVs in about two years.
For Tesla, it also comes with upside, potentially generating additional revenue for its Supercharger business, which is still relatively small but growing as it is opened up to more non-Tesla drivers.
During a live chat with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter Thursday, Barra lauded the design and reliability of the charging hardware used on Tesla models. “We have a real opportunity here to really drive this to be the unified standard for North America.”
Musk said GM owners would get equal access to Superchargers. “It really will be an even playing field,” he said. “I think people should be comfortable buying a Tesla or a GM, and we will provide support equally.”
GM shares rose about 3% in after-hours trading Thursday, while Tesla’s stock price was up 3.5%. Ford shares surged in the wake of its Supercharger deal with Tesla, and analysts said the access to Tesla’s network was a win for Ford.
Tesla’s Supercharger network, which includes more than 17,700 fast chargers in the U.S. at more than 1,650 locations, is widely regarded as the most reliable in an industry where finding operable charging equipment can be difficult.
Tesla said earlier this year that it planned to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla owners, a move expected to qualify the company for a share of billions of federal dollars earmarked for the build-out of a national network of EV chargers. GM is the second automaker to make a deal to tap in to Tesla’s network, following Ford.
EVs on the market today come with a variety of charge ports—much like cellphones—which can complicate owners’ efforts to find the right charger. GM, Ford and many other automakers use a charging port called Combined Charging System, or CCS.
The decision by the two Detroit automakers to migrate to Tesla’s charging technology, known as the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, is a strong endorsement for cementing that standard more broadly across the industry.