Ford Will Have Access to Tesla's Supercharging Network, Will Add NACS Charger to Its BEVs

The surprising move will be discussed by Elon Musk and Jim Farley on Twitter. The CEOs will probably only praise each other and say they want to accelerate BEV adoption in the American market. Still, what really matters for Ford and Tesla drivers is that they will share all fast charging stations in the US and Canada starting in the spring of 2024 (one year from now). If Tesla owners thought that the Model 3 made it more difficult to find a stall, they would not be pleased about what waits for them when Ford vehicles start using Superchargers as well.

Nowadays, Tesla has 12,000 of these fast chargers in these two countries. Ford's BlueOval Charge Network – a collection of available stalls that Ford made a deal to use – has 10,000 DC fast chargers. That will give Ford BEV owners access to a more than reasonable charging network, something that used to be the main reason for anyone to buy a Tesla.

In the first analysis, it seems that Ford is the company taking the most advantage of the deal. When it starts working, Farley may change his speech and conceive that BEVs are not only for people who have "three cars in your household and one is for short distances, running around town or a hundred, two-hundred-mile range" – as long as his company is able to deal with replacing battery packs that die earlier for fast charging more often than they should, obviously.

For Tesla, the move makes sense to improve the profitability of Supercharging stations. Another opportunity could be turning Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) into a more widespread standard. However, the American BEV maker will not receive a dime for that. When it opened its charging standard to other companies, Tesla said it was doing that "in pursuit of our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." Aptera was the first one to thank Tesla for that. In Ford's case, the NACS charge port will be added to its vehicles starting in 2025.

It is not unlikely that Tesla said yes to benefit from new government incentives promoted by the Inflation Reduction Act. Fast-charging networks could receive money if they were not exclusive to one (or three) brand(s). Tesla will invite Apteras and Fords to get juice whenever they need it, but will that be enough not to consider it exclusive? Perhaps the legislators wanted the charging networks to be public, not just available to more than one brand.

Supposing that reduces Superchargers' idle time, will that extra money compensate for the dissatisfaction Tesla owners will experience by having to share their chargers with drivers of other brands' BEVs? How will the busiest Supercharging stations deal with more vehicles on holidays? Tesla may have to use the extra money to expand the network, which may be better news for Ford customers than it could be for Teslas.

When you think about the main hurdles faced by the Model 3 manufacturer, things look even worse. While Tesla has an aging lineup, Ford is expanding its BEV portfolio. Ford vehicles have a good reliability reputation, something that you cannot say about any car in the S3XY lineup. They present paint problems, uneven panel gaps, suspension concerns, failing inverters, and a long etcetera of issues Tesla has not properly addressed yet. What will happen when these folks realize they do not have to buy Teslas anymore to have access to the reliable Supercharging network – as Ford itself recognized it is?

For BEV advocates, that is excellent news. Tesla created a widespread and trustworthy charging network that allowed BEVs to make long-distance trips feasible. As long as the drivers have time to spare while they wait for their vehicles to charge, they can go from one coast to the other without many worries. On the other hand, Tesla investors and advocates must be mad like cats on hot bricks. By treating Superchargers as a separate product from the cars for the first time, the American BEV maker may hurt itself more than it would benefit from that.

Will things work smoothly for Ford customers? Will they be welcome at these Tesla Supercharging stations? Will their cars charge as seamlessly as Tesla vehicles do? We're still so far from knowing these answers that we may come up with even more doubts about how everything will unfold. The plans may also change in one year. If they don't, at least they will be coherent with what Tesla said its mission was: promoting BEVs, even if it is not the one selling them.