Gary Zhou 
Ford CEO Jim Farley announced that his company would adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) several weeks ago during a Twitter Spaces with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. How long did it take him to think over a deal with Tesla, a rival that has long led the EV space over everyone?
There was no hesitation, Farley said.
Ford will adopt the NACS connector on all of its EVs in 2025. But next year, Ford EV drivers will be able to connect to 12,000 Supercharger stalls across North America with a simple adapter. It all is a move that Farley says will help customers gain advantages and make the EV ownership experience easier.
“I have no problem being opportunistic when it comes to advantaging my customers,” Farley said in an interview with CNBC. “Our team didn’t really hesitate because it’s good for customers.”
Ford has its own lineup of chargers known as the Blue Oval Charge Network, which operates over 84,000 stalls nationwide. However, the expansion deal with Tesla will help alleviate long lines and make charging opportunities more plentiful moving forward.
Farley and Musk made their announcement on May 25, and he believes the deal with Tesla will benefit the growth of Ford’s Model e division, which handles all of its electric vehicle ventures.
“Widespread access to fast-charging is absolutely vital to our growth as an EV brand, and this breakthrough agreement comes as we are ramping up production of our popular Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, and preparing to launch a series of next-generation EVs starting in 2025,” he said.
The deal has catalyzed several other partnerships between Tesla and EV makers, including General Motors and, most recently, Rivian, which announced its intentions to adopt NACS yesterday.
Other automakers like Hyundai seem to be mulling the adoption of NACS, while companies like Lucid do not seem to have any interest in adopting Tesla’s connector, at least not until changes are made.
