The shock announcement late Thursday that Ford will provide current and future homeowners of its electrical autos entry to greater than 12,000 stations within the Tesla Supercharger community got here as a shock to a lot of the auto trade. Tesla has notoriously gone its personal manner, and the unpredictable and more and more political habits of its CEO has definitely been within the information, to say the least.
Setting all that apart, the 2 firms’ CEOs collectively introduced that future Ford EVs will incorporate the Tesla connector from 2025, and present Ford EV homeowners can have entry to Superchargers beginning in spring 2024 through a CCS-to-Tesla connector. (Tesla refers to its plug and connector design because the North American Charging Customary or NACS, though many engineers have objected to that utilization since Tesla has not adopted the method by which a technical commonplace is historically developed.)
Good Transfer for Ford
Talking personally, I feel the deal is a superb transfer on Ford’s half, for a number of causes. First, it would give Ford an enormous advertising and marketing benefit over each different maker of EVs that is not Tesla. Second, it places excessive and public stress on present fast-charging networks—Electrify America, EVgo, and others—to up their sport considerably within the space of reliability. Lastly, it stays unclear whether or not Ford will substitute the present CCS/J-1722 connector altogether in its future EVs or just add the Tesla connector alongside it.
Ford has lengthy acknowledged that public fast-charging is a multitude. Its very first Mustang Mach-E in late 2020 included the Plug and Cost protocol, permitting a person to plug in and have all of the validation and billing occur on the again finish. In October 2021, it established a fleet of “Cost Angels” who drove Ford EVs to completely different public charging stations to check whether or not they might truly cost . . . which was usually sufficient not the case to show the necessity.
Ford has additionally performed hardball with charging networks, threatening to take away websites or elements of total networks from its aggregated BlueOval Cost Community of charging websites in the event that they weren’t fastened, pronto. Now, with this one transfer, it has doubled the variety of fast-charging websites obtainable to Ford EV drivers, and given them entry to what’s unquestionably probably the most dependable EV fast-charging community in North America.
Tesla, in return, will get important income out of the deal, maybe offsetting the numerous billions of {dollars} it has spent setting it up over 11 years (prices which have by no means been damaged out on its steadiness sheets). That revenue will assist its plan to increase its community of Superchargers (and lower-speed Vacation spot Chargers) considerably by December 2024. Maybe it could additionally level to Ford’s signing up as proof that its connector must be a “commonplace.”
The Advertising and marketing Benefit
Till you drive an EV, you do not essentially admire the significance of ubiquitous, dependable, tightly built-in public fast-charging to creating it sensible for street journeys. Tesla did, and since its Mannequin S was the only real EV in 2012 with vary of greater than 200 miles, it knew it needed to have a dependable community—so it constructed one, tightly integrating the charging, the navigation, and the billing. In that respect, it is like Apple: It controls the whole ecosystem.
Now Ford will turn into the only real carmaker apart from Tesla itself in a position to inform consumers, “You possibly can cost your EV at any charging website within the U.S.” House owners of present Ford EV fashions should purchase a Tesla-designed adapter, which I belief the 2 makers have agreed to provide in adequate quantity. House owners of Ford’s subsequent era of EVs can have the Tesla port constructed proper in; they’ll presumably pull as much as a Supercharger and simply plug in.
That is an enormous benefit over Tesla’s present mannequin of enabling a restricted variety of Supercharger cables to cost CCS-equipped vehicles through its Magic Dock computerized connector. That connector is routinely enabled when the non-Tesla CCS driver makes use of the Tesla app to order a Magic Dock–geared up pedestal at one of many few Supercharger websites that has one.
The Warmth Is Now on Electrify America
A lot has been written concerning the unpredictability of non-Tesla public charging websites. Reliability, in addition to consolation at the very least on a par with a gasoline station, hardly looks as if a excessive bar, however it’s merely not there. Carmakers’ frustration by now could be “off the charts,” stated one supply—who, like the opposite 5 interviewed for this piece, insisted on anonymity to protect trade confidentiality. The Ford/Tesla deal is “a serious shot throughout the bow” for Electrify America and the opposite networks, he stated.
At this time, no present fast-charging community is earning profits. They’re in a land-grab part, attempting to get as many stations within the floor as quick as doable to lock up fascinating websites—and, within the case of Electrify America, to adjust to a 10-year consent order with the EPA ensuing from VW Group’s culpability for the Dieselgate scandal as nicely.
Meaning any missed income from the shopper who drove an EV to a charger solely to seek out it damaged is irrelevant. And only a few incentives exist to maintain stations in working order. So Ford’s cope with Tesla instantly places big stress on Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, and smaller networks that provide public charging. In impact, Ford can say, “For those who do not deliver your community as much as Tesla requirements, we will all the time direct our clients to Tesla—which we all know works correctly. And you understand that too, do not you?”
Ford’s electrical F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E.
Will Ford Dump CCS?
Whereas Ford CEO Jim Farley talked concerning the deal as a “breakthrough settlement” that will be “nice for patrons,” the language within the official announcement mentioned “entry” to Tesla charging. It particularly didn’t say Ford will abandon the present CCS connector in its future vehicles. Nor was that straight acknowledged in a Twitter chat between the 2 firms’ CEOs. When questioned on this level, a number of Ford reps responded with variations of, “Extra particulars to return, keep tuned.”
Will CCS Go Away Altogether for Ford?
It is from sure that Ford will drop the mixed J-1772 and CCS connector. And since the Tesla connector is so compact, including it would take up much less actual property than the reverse. Some European and Asian vehicles at the moment are bought with rectangular gasoline filler doorways, to permit the identical physique stampings for use for diesel fashions bought exterior North America which have a second filler for Diesel Emission Fluid. That very same kind issue may simply permit a Tesla port to be added subsequent to the CCS port.
Dropping J-1722, the Degree 2 charging connector now utilized by each EV bought within the U.S. besides Tesla—which even offers a J-1722 adapter to its clients—would imply homeowners of future Ford EVs must use an adapter for each one of many Degree 2 public charging cables in existence in the present day. That is not customer-friendly.
And dropping the CCS connector would imply utilizing a separate, a lot bigger adapter to cost at any of the tens of hundreds of charging stations utilizing it, to be paid for by $5 billion of Nationwide Electrical Automobile Initiative funds the federal authorities is distributing via all 50 states. Would Ford actually stroll away from all these new fast-charging stations—requiring homeowners to make use of a cumbersome adapter reasonably than merely plugging in as they do now?
Lastly, Ford was shocked on the public fascination with the concept that an F-150 Lightning might energy a home for as much as three days (with a number of asterisks). That is referred to as vehicle-to-home, or V2H. It is the final step earlier than vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, during which the car can help electrical grid stability through two-way charging. The Tesla connector is resolutely one-way, and it has no present provision even for utilizing a Tesla as home-backup energy. Once more, hardly customer-friendly.
I think that at the very least initially, Ford will add the Tesla connector alongside CCS/J-1772 in its new era of EVs. That may permit it to say, “Not solely are you able to cost your EV at any charging website within the U.S., however . . . you are able to do it with out carrying a single adapter.”
That is one thing not even Tesla can declare. Whereas there are numerous explanation why Ford could select to not construct two completely different DC fast-charging connectors into their future EVs, I imagine—and sources recommend—there are a number of causes that is precisely what’ll occur.
Who Will Personal EV Charging in 2030?
Regardless of fashionable EVs being on sale for 12 years now, we’re nonetheless within the early days of determining easy methods to cowl the massive, sprawling U.S. with adequate numbers of DC fast-charging stations to allow the EV transition that’ll happen over the subsequent 30 years. However then, early gasoline drivers had their very own model of vary anxiousness too.
It stays unclear whether or not the present networks will even be round in 2030. Smaller networks will doubtless be rolled up into larger ones, however different gamers may be anticipated to equally present EV charging over the lengthy haul: electrical utilities (which purchase or produce the ability regardless), convenience-store operators, fossil-fuel firms, even perhaps carmakers themselves.
However in a single fell swoop, Ford’s motion put all the present cost networks on discover that what they’ve provided is not almost adequate. It covers all of the charging bases. Most of all, it will scale back the anxiousness of driving an EV lengthy distances. At the least, if it is a Ford or Lincoln EV.
Tesla could nicely do different comparable offers. However Ford has gotten there first, and all EV drivers are prone to profit in the long run.
Contributing Editor
John Voelcker edited Inexperienced Automotive Studies for 9 years, publishing greater than 12,000 articles on hybrids, electrical vehicles, and different low- and zero-emission autos and the vitality ecosystem round them. He now covers superior auto applied sciences and vitality coverage as a reporter and analyst. His work has appeared in print, on-line, and radio retailers that embody Wired, Widespread Science, Tech Overview, IEEE Spectrum, and NPR’s “All Issues Thought of.” He splits his time between the Catskill Mountains and New York Metropolis and nonetheless has hopes of in the future changing into a global man of thriller.