Good news for owners of electric vehicles manufactured by General Motors and Ford. Starting in February of next year, Tesla will open up its 12,000-strong Supercharger network of DC fast chargers for drivers of EVs made by the two American carmakers, according to Tesla’s Design Manager for Charging Infrastructure, Jennifer Pretare.
Mind you, the announcement wasn’t made through X (formerly Twitter) or any other channel that’s considered easy to check and stay up to date with. That would have been too easy, I guess.
Instead, the news came via an almost two-hour-long YouTube video of a city planning meeting from Farr West City in Utah. Here, Tesla’s rep was asked to take the stand and answer some questions coming from city officials. The YouTube channel has fewer than 80 subscribers, so good luck finding that video on your own (hat tip to Electrek for unearthing it first).
During the meeting, Pretare said that owners of GM and Ford EVs–the first two companies to strike a deal with Tesla to get access to its Supercharger network–will be able to recharge their cars at Tesla stalls starting in February, including those that will be built in Far West City.
“You may have heard in the news, in the last year or so, [that] most of the other car manufacturers have agreed to adopt Tesla’s charging port,” Pretare said.
“The first company, Ford, and then GM are starting in February of 2024, once they have the charge port and software to interface with our charging stations, they will actually be open to those vehicles.
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“We’re opening up to most of the other car manufacturers in stages, just to make sure, you know, we don’t get swamped all at once,” she added during the meeting.
Another interesting bit of information is that two of the stalls at this particular station are designed with EVs that are towing in mind, with Tesla’s rep mentioning a Cybertruck with a trailer attached would be able to pull up to one of those stalls.
Ford was the first big car company to publicize that owners of its EVs will get access to Tesla’s expansive fast charging network, followed by General Motors and a slew of other makes that saw an opportunity to kick one of the biggest concerns for wannabe EV owners in its head: DC fast charger availability and reliability.
With a near-perfect self-proclaimed uptime score, the Tesla Supercharger network is arguably the best in North America, so it makes sense for other manufacturers to want to gain access to it.
When Ford announced its partnership with Tesla back in May, CEO Jim Farley hinted that future Ford EVs might come with two charging ports from the factory–both CCS and NACS–but a more feasible option would be to use an adapter, at least at the beginning. That’s how GM will roll, with EVs made starting in 2025 slated to get Tesla’s so-called North American Charging Standard.