Following Ford, Now GM Gets Tesla Fast Charging Access

On June 8, Tesla also inaugurated the construction of the Tesla lithium refinery located in the wider area of Corpus Christi in Texas, USA. (Doc. Tesla)

JAKARTA - General Motors (GM) will join Ford as one of the two automakers to gain access to Tesla's electric vehicle fast charging network.

This is an important step as it greatly simplifies the charging process by eliminating the need to use some kind of third-party access to carry out charging and payment processes.

Reported by Reuters on June 8, GM CEO Mary Barra announced the news with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a Twitter Spaces session, Thursday afternoon, June 8, similar to how Ford announced the switch to Tesla standards, at the end of May.

Barra further said that the partnership would "doubling access" to the chargers GM has provided for their vehicles.

Starting early next year, GM electric vehicle drivers will have access to 12,000 Tesla Supercharger ports without the need to use an adapter.

In addition, automakers will also integrate North American Charging Standards developed by Tesla into their new electric vehicles by 2025.

GM's decision to strike an agreement with Tesla in terms of charging is driven by customer concerns related to infrastructure. Especially for customers who are concerned about owning electric vehicles as their only vehicle without enough supporting charging stations.

With GM's previous announcement and Ford, a total of about 300,000 electric vehicles both in America can carry out fast charging. The amount covers more than 170,000 BEVs sold by General Motors (not all of them are capable of charging quickly) and more than 108,000 Ford BEV (the latest ones such as Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit).

The partnership is also a new source of revenue for Tesla, as Tesla's service division, including their charging cost revenue, generated $1.8 billion in the first three months of last year.