How Tesla’s superchargers are increasingly asserting themselves against the competition

USA
Ford, GM, Rivian: How Tesla’s superchargers are increasingly asserting themselves against the competition

Tesla’s superchargers are highly sought after by the competition in the USA. Companies such as Ford, General Motors and Rivian now want to benefit from the fast charging stations and have each agreed to cooperate with the electric pioneer.

Tesla has advanced electric mobility faster than other manufacturers. The US electric car manufacturer expanded its own charging network years ago. Now the competition is increasingly relying on the superchargers from Elon Musk’s company.

The US electric car manufacturer Rivian wants to give its customers in the US and Canada access to over 12,000 Supercharger charging stations from Tesla by 2024. The company announced the corresponding agreement in a statement on Tuesday. From next spring, an adapter for the R1T pick-up and the R1S SUV will be available so that electricity can be charged using Tesla superchargers. From 2025, future R1 and R2 vehicles will be equipped with the NACS charging connectors as standard.

Rivian hopes that the cooperation with Tesla will accelerate business with its electric vehicles. Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of infrastructure at Tesla, said in a statement from Rivian: “It’s great to see the industry coming together to adopt the North American charging standard.”

Ford and GM also agree on cooperation for the use of the Tesla Supercharger

Tesla’s supercharger network has grown steadily in recent years. The US electric car manufacturer now operates around 4,950 supercharger stations with a good 45,000 connections worldwide. According to the company, this is the “world’s largest fast charging station network”. With a maximum charging rate of 250 kW, electricity for a range of up to 275 kilometers can be charged in 15 minutes.

More and more manufacturers of electric vehicles now want to benefit from this. For Tesla, the latest agreement with Rivian is a continuation of recent collaborations with other rival companies. At the beginning of the month, the largest US carmaker General Motors (GM) announced a cooperation with Tesla. According to this, Ford customers in the USA should have access to around 12,000 Tesla superchargers from the beginning of next year – initially with an adapter, then from 2025 with direct access to Tesla charging stations. A few days earlier, Tesla and Ford also agreed on a similar cooperation with the same information. Tinucci explained: “We have spent the last ten years building an industry-leading network of stores.”

Meanwhile, US charging station manufacturer BTC Power plans to equip its electric vehicle chargers with the Tesla standard next year Reuters reported on Tuesday. BTC Power’s customers include Ford and Amazon, among others. This shows that Tesla has a certain position of power among the charging points in the USA, which is apparently causing the US electric car manufacturer to assert itself more and more against the competition.

After the superchargers were intended exclusively for Tesla customers for a long time, the company has increasingly opened up its charging stations to vehicles from competing brands since last year. Direct cooperation with other car manufacturers is currently limited to the USA and Canada, but according to a report from April, more than 300 charging points at almost 20 locations should initially be available in Germany. The situation is similar in other European countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Switzerland.