GM Electric Car Drivers to Access 12,000 Superchargers
Hot on the heels of Ford announcing its customers would get access to Tesla’s Supercharger network, and adopt the Tesla charging port in 2024, General Motors will also adopt elements of the Tesla charging standard starting next year. In 2024, drivers of General Motors electric cars such as the Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV, and others, will be able to access 12,000 Level 3 Tesla Superchargers across North America – in addition to the 134,000 Level 2 and Level 3 chargers they can already access with their current equipment.
GM says that its agreement with Tesla complements the company’s ongoing focus on expanding charging access across home, workplace, and public spaces to accelerate mass adoption of EVs. It knows producing large quantities of electric vehicles across multiple vehicle categories and price points won’t be enough. Without easy access to charging, especially for road trips where range anxiety is still common, customers may still be reluctant to switch to EV. Giving Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick customers access to the excellent network of Tesla Superchargers should help ease that anxiety.
Expanding EV Charging Access
“Our vision of the all-electric future means producing millions of world-class EVs, while creating an ecosystem that will accelerate mass electric vehicle adoption,” said GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra. “This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in quickly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard.”
Starting in 2024, drivers of GM electric vehicles will get access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. The company will add the network to its vehicle and mobile apps, which will be required to locate, pay for, and initiate charging on the Tesla Superchargers. (The GM apps already integrate access to many other charging networks.) Use of the Superchargers will require an adapter, as current GM models use the European CCS standard connector.
Adopting Tesla Charging Plug
Starting in 2025, the first General Motors EV will be built with Tesla’s NACS (North American Charging Standard) charging port, which will allow direct access to Superchargers without the use of an adapter. It will also allow the use of a Tesla home charger. In the future, GM says it will make adapters available to drivers of NACS port-equipped vehicles so they can charge on CCS-equipped Level 3 fast chargers.
The new agreement with Tesla is just one component of GM’s strategy to accelerate the installation of home, work, and public charging. The company’s Ultium Charge 360 initiative includes collaborations with networks like Pilot Company and EVgo, which will add over 5,000 Level 3 chargers to the 13,000 or so currently available across the U.S. and Canada. It is also working with its dealers and other partners to deploy Level 2 community chargers across North America. The ultimate goal is to offer GM customers access to one of the largest networks of high-speed charging.
