Hello and welcome to the Strawman. The daily newsletter that’s like your friend that let’s you borrow their charger even when they’re on 10%. We got your back.

Today we’re diving in to Tesla’s latest move to open up their charging network to other EV companies - let’s get in to it.

Supercharging Together

This week Tesla announced that they’ll be opening up their Supercharger network to rival EV brands. Until recently, the network was only available to Tesla users and these consumers rave about the network’s reliability. Like seriously, how good could a charger be?

When it comes to EV charging you get two types. First, DCFC ports, or so called fast chargers that can get a battery to fill in under 30 minutes. Second, Level 2 ports which are much slower but cheaper and more readily available.

In the US, Tesla dominates this market operating 19,000 of the 32,000 fast chargers in the market. Imagine if Ford owned half the petrol stations in the US and refused to serve any other make of car. It’s a pretty crappy proposition for everyone else.

Key to making EVs a viable long-term transport solution for most Americans is confidence that they won’t ever be stranded due to a lack of access to charging. In fact, a recent Deloitte report found that 43% of potential customers cited lack of charging infrastructure as the biggest reason why they weren’t making the shift to electric.

Starting with Ford, Tesla’s move will effectively double the number of fast chargers available to those with EVs from other brands. The majority of chargers are set to become available to all other EV brands in the next couple of years. Tesla is notorious for missing deadlines so let’s hope this helps build confidence for customers sooner rather than later.

Show me the incentive, I’ll show you the charger

Musk previously referred to the charging network as a ‘walled garden’. He specifically emphasised the strategic defensibility it provided to Tesla as an organisation. So what changed?

Investors have already put in $13B in to US EV charging networks but a 2021 government bill has budgeted an additional $7.5B to build these out. To receive access to the funding, the government has made it clear that interoperability is key. In other words, if you want uncle Sam’s money, you better be willing to share your toys with the rest of the kids.

Despite the change, the existing chargers are still designed for Teslas - maintaining the value they provide to customers. Everything from the length of the chargers to the payment methods are optimised for Tesla. It’s like connecting random bluetooth earphones to your iPhone. Sure, they work but they ain’t as smooth as airpods.

With the Biden administration targeting 500,000 public EV charging stations by 2030, It’s clear that, today, the US is very far behind on EV charging. While the plan is a step in the right direction, only a drastic push will allow infrastructure to keep up with demand. We’ll be keeping tabs at the Strawman.

Until next time,

The Strawman