IN a new revealing post, Ford’s CEO teased an upcoming product, addressing a long-standing demand.
Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO, posted a picture of a new car feature that will open the brand’s cars to thousands of eager drivers.
Standing next to Ford’s electric Mustang Mach-E, the picture revealed an SAE J3400 charger – the plug used on Tesla electric vehicles.
“It’s here,” Farley wrote in a photo caption Thread – Instagram’s Twitter-like social media site.
“Doing some testing and excited to share more info very soon.”
The charger, now adopting the name North American Charging Standard (NACS), is set to open up Tesla charging stations to non-Tesla EVs by the end of 2024.
Historically, Tesla has not allowed non-Tesla electric vehicles to charge on their Supercharger public stations.
The company has built out the most advanced EV charging network in the United States.
Tesla boasts more than 500,000 chargers in its Supercharger network, according to its website.
However, the company reversed field on their exclusive positioning in 2023, saying all drivers with the NACS adapters and the Tesla app downloaded on their phone can access the stations this year.
Ford, with two current production electric vehicles – the F150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E – is set to unveil an adapter to allow its cars to use the Tesla plugs.
The company, which is launching an electric Explorer SUV this year, previously announced it would send current EV owners the charging adapter.
Drivers celebrated the upcoming availability at thousands more stations in the comments section under the photo.
“Yes!!!! Exciting to see this is getting closer,” a Mach-E driver said.
Public charging availability has been a long-term issue for EV drivers.
Americans, racked with range anxiety, have remained critical of the country’s slow build-out of charging stations.
Range anxiety, an EV driver’s fear that around their car’s limited driving range, is exacerbated by charging infrastructure that is less advanced than gas stations.
More than half of former EV drivers said they traded in their electric cars for gas-powered vehicles because public charging infrastructure wasn’t advanced enough, according to SP Global.
Charging is coming to millions of drivers.
Part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) sets aside $5 billion in investments in Level 3 charging stations across the US.
The White House has a goal of building 500,000 fast-charging stations in the US by 2030.
