Deep Looks: GM to integrate Tesla's EV port standard

 

General Motors announced it would begin integrating Tesla's North American Charging Standard in new electric vehicles starting in 2025. The collaboration would also give GM vehicles access to Tesla's ~12,000 Supercharger stations beginning in early 2024. The news comes within two weeks of a similar Ford announcement of a collaboration with Tesla and a switch to NACS ports on its new EVs starting in 2025. As is the case with Ford CEO Jim Farley, GM CEO Mary Barra mentioned the reliability of the Tesla charging network as the primary reason for opting for the NACS standard in the U.S. Considering EV sales in the U.S. by GM of 39,096 units in 2022, plus 61,575 Ford EV sales and 484,351 by Tesla, the debate whether CSS or NACS would become the standard seems to be over. Within 16 hours of the announcement, ABB North America's E-mobility division, which develops charging infrastructure, announced it would begin adding the NACS standard as an option for its chargers while continuing support for CSS, MCS, CHAdeMO, and GB/T. GM confirmed it would continue to work on its plan with Pilot Company and EVgo to install over 5,000 DC fast chargers, adding to its network of 13,000 fast chargers in North America. Its current network is reliant on Chargepoint, EVGo, and Blink Charging, among others. At the end of 2022, there were approximately 50 electric vehicles per charging point in the U.S. That ratio would have likely been greater without the issues involving the battery fire risk for the Bolt EV and EUV models and subsequent production pauses and restart delays. Despite the production pause and recall of the Bolt EV, GM managed to sell 38,120 Bolt EVs in 2022. GM announced it would stop selling the Bolt EV/EUV models (likely due to battery costs) in favor of prioritizing the Silverado EV due to the possibility of obtaining larger margins from higher sticker prices and a decrease in the cost of production for its newer Ultium batteries. The Silverado EV's future competing models, the Ford F-150 Lightning and the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck, will be able to use the same charging network starting next year.  "We can focus on one standard, and it's really going to be great for consumers. They just wouldn't have to worry about which plug, which socket, which charging station, and it will just work seamlessly. I think this is going to be a fundamentally great thing for the advancement of electric vehicles in North America," said Elon Musk during the Twitter Space.