Tesla may have already won the charging wars

Mary Barra and Elon Musk may be intense business rivals, but they sounded like old friends during the conversation Twitter this month about a deal that could help remove one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle ownership: not enough chargers.

Ms. Barra, the general manager of General Motors, had just agreed to follow Ford Motor in adopting the charging technology developed by Tesla, the automaker led by Mr. Musk. The deals will allow GM and Ford customers to use some of Tesla’s fast chargers. Fear of not finding a charger is a major reason why some people are hesitant to buy electric cars, surveys show.

Ms. Barra gushed about the “fantastic” team at Tesla. Mr. Musk said it was an “honor” to work with her.

Beneath the surface of those pleasantries were probably some hard business calculations. GM, Ford and numerous charging companies and equipment suppliers have agreed to work with Tesla because they desperately need the company’s help. In addition to selling more electric cars in the United States than all other automakers combined, Tesla operates the country’s largest fast-charging network.

But the decision to partner with Tesla carries great risks for the rest of the auto industry, which will rely on Mr. Musk, a mercurial leader, for an essential technology. Tesla’s proprietary charging system, recently dubbed the North American Charging Standard, is not overseen by an independent organization like other technical standards. The company has said it plans to hand over control to such a body, though some competitors are skeptical about how much control Tesla will surrender.

The deal also carries risks for Tesla. Exclusive access to the company’s charging stations, some of which already had long queues during busy commute times, has helped the company sell cars to customers who might be annoyed by waiting behind Fords and Chevrolets.

Battles over technical standards are common with any new technology. The outcomes can be painful for companies or consumers who bet on the wrong horse. Just ask anyone who has bought or invested in a VCR, mobile phone or digital music player that later became obsolete.

With cars, the stakes are much higher: they cost tens of thousands of dollars, and replacing gasoline cars with electric models is key to tackling climate change.

Some industry officials fear the messy business battle over charging technology could discourage people from buying electric cars.

“It creates confusion,” said Oleg Logvinov, North America chair of the Charging Interface Initiative. The organization is a forum for manufacturers, equipment suppliers and charging companies using Tesla’s main rival to the standard, known as the Combined Charging System.

Buyers, added Mr. Logvinov admitted, “will probably wait until you know which one wins.”

Ford, GM and most manufacturers other than Tesla have built cars with CCS plugs, which is the standard in Europe. Charging networks from companies such as Electrify America and EVgo mainly offer CCS plugs.

Tesla’s plug is lighter and easier to handle, but it only fits in the company’s cars. Under the agreements with Ford and GM, Tesla will offer an adapter early next year that will allow cars from those manufacturers to connect to about 12,000 of its fast chargers in the United States. By 2025, Ford and GM plan to make models designed to use the Tesla plug without an adapter.

The combined influence of Tesla, GM, and Ford is effectively forcing charging network operators to install Tesla plugs and may effectively make the CCS plug obsolete in years to come – at least in North America. Rivian, a smaller electric vehicle company, said last week it would also switch to the Tesla plug, and other manufacturers are considering doing the same.

“For us it is important to make sure that charging is really accessible and easy for customers,” RJ Scaringe, the CEO of Rivian, said in an interview.

As the Tesla plug becomes dominant, people with cars designed to use the CCS plug will increasingly rely on adapters that, for safety, are limited in how much voltage they can handle and charge more slowly.

Tesla’s system is known for being easy to use and reliable, while CCS chargers can be finicky. Frustration with the existing charging network is clearly one of the reasons Ford and GM decided to join Tesla.

“I definitely don’t think this would happen if the other networks were more reliable,” said Ben Rose, president of Battle Road Research, which monitors the electric vehicle industry.

But one of the reasons Tesla’s system performs well is that the company designs and manufactures the entire system: the car, the software and the charging hardware. Tesla will lose absolute control once other automakers join its network.

Operating loaders that can fuel dozens of vehicles from many different manufacturers is extremely difficult.

“We charge 50 different models,” Cathy Zoi, the CEO of charging company EVgo, told an audience in New York this month. Manufacturers sometimes fail to inform EVgo of vehicle software changes, she said, leading to connectivity issues. “And the charger is to blame,” she said.

Tesla built a charging network because there were few places to charge in 2012 when it started selling the Model S, its first full-size passenger car. Tesla doesn’t disclose financial information about the network, but analysts say the company is likely losing money on charging to get people to buy its cars. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla has 19,700 charging ports in the United States at about 1,800 stations, while there are 10,500 CCS ports at 5,300 stations, according to the Energy Department. Only 12,000 Tesla chargers will be available for Ford, GM and Rivian vehicles.

The decision by other automakers to join Tesla and generate revenue for a competitor is recognition that Mr. Musk’s company has the most experience operating a charging network.

Mr. Musk promised not to penalize GM and Ford customers, and the other car companies say they believe him. “A GM customer is being treated like a Tesla customer, and that’s part of the deal,” Alan Wexler, a General Motors executive who led Tesla’s negotiations, told reporters in New York this month.

But it’s not clear who will make sure the charging equipment is safe and works as well with Tesla rivals as it does with Tesla itself, and will settle any disputes between the company and other automakers.

Tesla is in talks with the Charging Interface Initiative about designating it to play the same role for the company’s technology as it already does for CCS. But Mr. Musk has previously discredited CCS as the flawed product of a commission, suggesting he may prefer a different location.

Competitors bet that government regulators would step in if Tesla tried to create a charging monopoly. Some are glad someone is taking the lead in removing a major barrier to electric vehicle sales.

“We’re really in this accelerated growth curve,” said Brendan Jones, the CEO of Blink Charging, which plans to install Tesla plugs in its network. “This is really going to move the industry forward.”