In these new charging deals, it looks to me like the real power isn't in the electrons. That would not only give it a market advantage in the auto industry but would also supply the company with a lucrative stream of data it can commoditize and sell to others. Now, by letting Ford and GM plug into its chargers, I think Tesla may be able to siphon off data from its rivals' cars, too.

And the ports on its chargers pull down even more information. Tesla famously uses cellular and WiFi to collect what one investigation called a 'hoard' of data about its cars and users, tracking everything from the efficiency of the braking system to how often drivers use the AC.

The charger's trio of bigger holes are for electricity. Look into the business end of a sleek NACS charger, and the answer will be staring you in the face. So why would the most valuable car company in the world basically give away, for free, one of the things that differentiates it from the automotive hoi polloi? 'Tesla is happy to support other EVs via our Supercharger network,' Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted, replying to President Joe Biden's announcement. And the federal government is already including Tesla's standard in its new $7.5 billion program to encourage charger-network build-out. It doesn't seem to be for money - GM and Ford aren't paying for access, according to early reporting. Compared with most public charging networks, which use slower 'Level 2' chargers, Tesla's NACS system is lickety-split fast and offers some 20,000 plugs at nearly 1,800 stations in the United States alone.īut that doesn't answer the question of why Tesla has decided to open the gates to its formerly walled garden of Supercharger stations. Last week, Ford and GM announced they had cut deals granting them access to Tesla's North American Charging System, which is being incorporated into a new industry-wide standard for electric-vehicle charging. It often indicates a user profile.Īny Mustang Mach-E or Chevy Bolt owner who's ever driven past a Tesla Supercharger station and turned British Racing Green with envy must be feeling pretty good right now.

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