Ford Motor Co’s electric vehicle owners will be able to access around 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations in the US and Canada starting next spring.
The development was Thursday by Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a “Twitter Spaces” audio chat.
“We think this is a huge move for our industry and for all electric customers,” Farley said.
Musk expressed his intention to utilise Tesla’s network to “support sustainable transportation” instead of only keeping it accessible to Tesla users.
“It is our intent to do everything possible to support Ford and have Ford be on an equal footing at Tesla Superchargers,” Musk said.
Although he did not specify the amount, Farley said that Ford owners will have to pay perhaps a monthly subscription.
Farley said: “At first, Ford’s current electric vehicles will need an adapter to hook into the Tesla stations, which have their own connector. But Ford will switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard connector with its second-generation EVs starting in 2025.”
According to Ford, Tesla’s connector is “smaller and lighter” than those used by other automakers.
The 60-year-old CEO of Ford praised the locations of Tesla’s Superchargers saying: “We love the locations. We love the reliability.”
He added: “They will join Ford’s own Blue Oval charging network which has about 10,000 fast-charging stations.”
The tech billionaire, Musk, also informed that Ford EV owners will be able to access the Tesla chargers “seamlessly” through Ford’s app.
According to the US Department of Energy Tesla, Tesla has around 17,000 Supercharger stations across the country.
Although there are around 54,000 public charging stations across the country, many do not charge as efficiently as the Tesla stations.
The announcement follows another announcement that the White House made in February saying that at least 7,500 chargers from Tesla’s Supercharger and Destination Charger network would be available to non-Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2024.
