Foreign media: allowing Ford GM to use its own charging network, Tesla win thoroughly

On June 12th, Tesla began allowing other brands of electric vehicles such as General Motors and Ford to use their own super charging network. This means that Tesla is transforming its massive supercharging network into an industry competitive advantage

On June 12th, Tesla began allowing other brands of electric vehicles such as General Motors and Ford to use their own super charging network. This means that Tesla is transforming its massive supercharging network into an industry competitive advantage.

Since 2021, the automotive industry research company J.D.Power has conducted regular surveys on the experience of electric vehicle owners at public charging stations. The infrastructure of Charging station is crucial for the whole world to switch from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, and also relates to the use comfort of electric vehicles. Nowadays, many car owners can charge electric vehicles at home. However, in order for the world to transition to electric vehicles, we need to provide solutions for electric vehicles parked on the roadside or for long-distance travel. The latest data shows that public charging stations in the United States are currently in a mess.

According to J.D.Power, 21% of electric vehicle owners who wanted to charge at public charging stations in the first three months of 2023 were unable to charge, compared to 15% in 2021. The high failure rate of the super charging station stems from various problems, such as the damage of the display screen of the Charging station, software failure, power line breakage, fuel truck drivers occupying charging spaces, etc.

J. Brent Gruber, an executive in charge of the survey at D. Power, said: "For a person who is used to going to the gas station, this is unbelievable and hard to understand."

J. One highlight of D.Power's survey data is Tesla's supercharging station. In the first three months of 2023, only 4% of Tesla car owners reported charging failures. Grube said: "The smoothness of Tesla charging stations is really unparalleled."

In the past year, Tesla has begun to leverage the huge advantages provided by its supercharging stations to accelerate its competition with other electric vehicle companies in the field of charging infrastructure. Last week, General Motors announced that it would use Tesla charging ports on its vehicles. In less than two weeks, it took similar measures as Ford.

Reliability is not the only advantage of Tesla's charging network. Firstly, this is the only public charging network built, owned, and operated by a large car manufacturer, and it is also the largest to date. Tesla has sold over 4 million electric vehicles, more than any other automaker, but with traditional automakers investing billions of dollars to electrifie their product lines, Tesla is now facing fierce competition. Fortunately, the Tesla Supercharger network has become an invisible force that cannot be ignored.

Geoffrey Parker, a professor of engineering innovation at Dartmouth College, once wrote an article on the business strategy of electric vehicles. He said that Tesla realized the importance of charging networks earlier and more fully than existing electric vehicle manufacturers. They realized this early on and were willing to invest billions of dollars in it

Tesla car owners praise the convenience of super charging stations. The driver only needs to drive the car into the parking space, plug in the power, wait for 15 to 30 minutes, unplug the power, and then drive away. Each station usually has many Charging station, so queuing is rare. Previously, only Tesla car owners were able to charge at supercharging stations. In contrast, the public Charging station in the United States are manufactured and operated by a dozen different companies, many of which have their own applications or payment methods.

The charging port location of each car is different, even for electric vehicles manufactured by the same car manufacturer, which makes parking and charging more difficult. Drivers often find that their car is not compatible with a specific Charging station.

The competition surrounding the dominant position of charging stations has been ongoing for several months. Last November, Tesla announced the Design specification of the car charging interface and Charging station plug, inviting other car manufacturers to use the smooth and lightweight Tesla connector. Tesla renamed the Charging station plug as North American Charging Standard (NACS) through clever marketing, and positioned its proprietary design as the standard that all other enterprises should use. But all other car manufacturers selling cars in the United States use the "Combined Charging System" (CCS) designed by a professional engineering standards expert committee. Due to relevant regulations, Tesla uses CCS standard connectors in the European market. Tesla also sells adapters to enable its vehicles to be charged using Charging station that support the CCS standard.

At present, Tesla has about 17000 super Charging station in the United States. In February this year, Tesla and the U.S. government jointly announced that by adding CCS connectors, Tesla will allow other electric vehicle owners to use more than 7500 Tesla super Charging station in the United States. This is not only in line with CEO Elon Musk's long-term goal of promoting sustainable transportation around the world, but also has real benefits for Tesla.

By building its super charging station into a public charging station, Tesla is eligible to obtain about US $5 billion in federal investment for public Charging station infrastructure construction, which is also part of the plan to build 500000 electric vehicle Charging station in the United States. So far, only 11 Tesla Supercharger stations in the United States are open to other vehicles, most of which are in New York. It is reported that there are still compatibility problems between Tesla Supercharger Post and other electric vehicles.

At the end of May this year, Musk and Ford CEO Jim Farley jointly announced in a blog program that Ford would accept Tesla's invitation. Farley said that by next spring, the new Ford electric vehicle will be equipped with an adapter so that it can be charged at the Tesla Supercharger Station. By 2025, these Ford cars will be equipped with an interface compatible with Tesla charging plugs.

Ford said that this would make the public super Charging station available for Ford's electric vehicles more than double the current number.

Last week, General Motors CEO Mary Barra appeared on the live streaming platform Twitter Spaces and announced that the company had reached a similar agreement with Tesla. GM's electric vehicles will be connected to the Tesla Supercharger station with adapters from 2024, and will launch electric vehicles that can use Tesla charging plugs in 2025. Subsequently, Musk tweeted that "Tesla provides adapters and other hardware to car companies at zero profit." So far, other car manufacturers selling electric vehicles in the United States have insisted on using non Tesla standard charging equipment, but this statement has put pressure on the entire industry, forcing them to integrate around Tesla's technology.

Tesla's new super Charging station strategy also allows the company to make money by charging customers of competitors. The price varies according to different regions, times, and models, and the single charging cost of a car typically ranges from $10 to $30.

Tom Narayan, automotive research analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said: "In the short term, Tesla's closed ecosystem seems very good, but in the long run, it will be a failed strategy."

Daniel Schlagwein, a business professor at the University of Sydney, once wrote an article on Tesla's strategy. He said that in this way, Tesla and Apple are building app stores and treating themselves as intermediaries between app developers and users, which is a bit similar. More electric vehicle owners may have to rely on Tesla to maintain their vehicle's range. He said, "Conceptually speaking, the automotive industry has always been about competition in car sales, and seeing it as competition in the automotive charging field is a new perspective

A potential issue with Tesla's new charging strategy is that Tesla's own customers will have to share the right to use super charging stations with other electric vehicle owners. Some early Tesla users have already felt pressure from the company to reduce their use of super charging networks.

Previously, Tesla had been providing unlimited free super charging services to customers who purchased Model S sedans and Model X, and it was not until 2018 that the promotion officially ended. Now Tesla seems to be trying to reclaim customer rights.

In the email sent to the corresponding customers, Tesla first proposed a $3000 car price discount and a three-year super charging service in exchange for free unlimited super charging service, and then increased the car price discount to $5000. By the end of this month, Tesla will also provide six years of unlimited super charging service to any customer who is willing to trade their old ModelS or ModelX for a new car.

Kagai Kinyua, the owner of ModelS, who lives between Maryland and Georgia, said, "I can't talk about it." He didn't charge at home because the local government didn't allow him to install a personal Charging station in the parking lot of high-rise apartment buildings. Therefore, Kiyoya spends most of her time charging at the local Tesla fast charging station. He estimates that this benefit can save him nearly $3000 per year.

Tesla's attempt to guide customers to abandon lifetime free charging has left car owners confused about the company's motives or strategies. I guess they realize that old car owners are still insisting on using their old cars, "Jin Yuya said

Other technology companies have also provided additional benefits to attract early users, such as unlimited talk time or unlimited Cloud storage, but finally realized that these benefits are too good to provide for free. Perhaps Tesla has also fallen into such a trap. Musk said the same thing in a speech in 2018, declaring that unrestricted free super charging "is not sustainable in mass production and will not motivate optimal behavior". He concluded, "Perhaps we should end all this earlier

Tesla's latest move in the super charging network indicates that the company's motivation to end customers' unrestricted free charging is to empty charging stations and make room for a large number of paying customers.

Vicente Perez is the owner of Model S in 2014. He said that he only uses the Tesla Supercharger Station when he is on a long journey or when the car is far from home and the power is low, but he will not easily give up the unlimited free supercharge service, nor will he easily abandon the electric car bundled with this benefit. Perez said, "We still plan to keep this car until it completely stops driving