Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) has quickly become the electric vehicle (EV) charging connector of choice, with several major automakers agreeing to adopt the charging technology in their future electric vehicles (EVs) in recent weeks. As part of the deals signed with Tesla, those automakers have also gained access to over 12,000 Superchargers in Canada and the United States starting in early 2024.
Not many details around these deals are publicly known, but General Motors CEO Mary Barra has revealed one important piece of information regarding how much their EV owners will be paying to plug in to the Supercharger network.
During an on-stage interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Monday, Barra revealed one of the key elements in her decision to sign with Tesla was that GM EV owners will be billed at the same rates as Tesla owners when using a Supercharger. Barra made the comment while talking about integrating Tesla’s APIs into their mobile app, another point that she said was key to the deal.
“I think one of the breakthroughs was they agreed they would provide the information that would go through your [mobile app], and also that we get the same cost for our customers that Tesla customers do.”
This is an important change from Tesla’s existing practices. Since the company launched the non-Tesla Supercharger pilot program in Europe in 2021, and more recently last year in North America with the installation of the Magic Dock, non-Tesla EV owners have been charged a premium over and above the rates Tesla owners are billed. In addition Tesla has also been offering a Supercharger membership option for non-Tesla EV owners where they can access a lower rate by paying a monthly subscription fee.
While Barra’s comments are obviously specific to General Motors’ deal, we can assume that the same will apply to the other deals with Ford, Rivian, and Volvo as all other publicly released details have been the same, namely that existing EV owners will get an adapter in 2024 and new EVs built starting in 2025 will have the NACS port integrated.
You can watch Barra’s full interview below. The comments about Supercharging pricing are at around 17:45.
