Automotive research firm JD Power surveys about 5,000 U.S. electric vehicle owners every six months about their experiences driving battery-powered vehicles. The latest version of the survey, released this week, found that long-standing problems with electric vehicles persist.In fact, it gets worse: Drivers say they’re flat more People are less satisfied with the availability of public charging stations than they were a year ago.
In North America, more charging stations are being built, thanks in part to a federally funded program to add at least 500,000 charging stations by 2030. But in the midst of this chaos, the automaker has come up with another solution: let Tesla handle it.
Tesla has the most extensive and reliable charging network in the United States. (Indeed, new surveys find that premium EV drivers, the majority of whom drive Teslas, are more likely to be satisfied with public charging.) It also has a unique charging plug, called the North American Charging Standard. Nearly every global automaker has now committed to adding the plug to its electric vehicles, allowing its drivers to use Tesla’s charging network.
Last May, Ford piloted a “let Tesla take care of it” model when it announced it would adopt the plug. By 2025, its electric vehicles will adopt the connector standard. Starting today, existing Mach-E Mustang and Lightning pickup truck owners will have access to the vast resources of Tesla’s Supercharger network, and they can now order from Ford’s just-launched website using a free adapter. The adapters will be available for free from now through July; after that, Ford says they will retail for $230. The company expects the adapter to begin shipping in late March.
Tesla keeps its best new charger just for itself
Ford regularly surveys its own drivers, and “their main pain points are related to public charging,” Ken Williams, the automaker’s director of charging and energy services, told reporters this week. The adapter will give Ford drivers access to 15,000 new chargers, bringing the total number of chargers in the U.S. and Canada to 126,000, as well as more than 28,000 fast chargers. (This doesn’t include all chargers in Tesla’s network; Ford drivers don’t have access to older Tesla charging stations, and Tesla reserves some newer stations only for its drivers.) Drivers will be able to access And pay to charge at the station through Ford’s app.