As everyone knows, Tesla's Supercharger network is the gold standard of EV charging and has been since the earliest days of its rollout. And it's not even close. Tesla bragged about its lead when it announced the NACS name change in November of 2022:

"With more than a decade of use and 20 billion EV charging miles to its name, the Tesla charging connector is the most proven in North America… It has no moving parts, is half the size, and twice as powerful as Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors. NACS is the most common charging standard in North America: NACS vehicles outnumber CCS two-to-one, and Tesla's Supercharging network has 60% more NACS posts than all the CCS-equipped networks combined."

Tesla Model 3 charging at V3 Supercharger station 02

Tesla also claims there are currently over 12,000 superchargers in the U.S. and Canada, with more being built every day.

But it's not just the sheer number of Supercharging stations that matters, it's the user experience. Tesla chargers just work. Period. When they don't, Tesla owners know which ones to avoid well in advance, either through their car or mobile app.

All of this is why Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Thursday, May 25, for a Twitter Spaces announcement that Ford EVs will be able to use the Tesla Supercharger network starting early in 2024 (via NACS to CCS adapters) and that in 2025, Ford EVs would come equipped with the NACS hardware and software to make the charging experience completely seamless.

As Farley mentioned in a separate interview with CNBC, he has been working on this plan for "a couple of years" with Elon and team. Clearly the terrible state of US charging infrastructure in and Tesla's advantages have been on Farley's mind of years. Back in August of 2022, at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, he tipped his hand in an interview with us:

"Charging is awful. It's awful. No high speed chargers, right? No quality metric around whether they're broken or not. You can't reserve one, so if someone pulls right in front of you... They're not in locations that you want to spend time anyways," Farley said, before commenting on the competition. "Other than Tesla. Charging plugs break. Tesla's plug is excellent, by the way, doesn't break if you drop it."

There are many lies being perpetuated around electric cars, but if there is one pervasive truth, it is that all over charging networks aside from Tesla's are not ready for mass EV adoption. They are inconsistent at best, and terrible, soul sucking experiences at worst. When we asked why Ford didn't just go out and build their own Supercharger network, Farley replied, "It was too expensive…We're starting 10 years too late. So we had to use Electrify America and EVgo and they're going to have to completely rebuild their networks. It's not competitive."

What is competitive is Tesla's advantage, even as other car makers expand their EV lines, increase driving range, shorten recharge time, and deliver slick hardware and software features. Ford has not only noticed this edge, but a taken a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach that more new EV makers need to consider, especially the luxury brands.

During a recent road trip, I watched the driver of a $160,000+ Lucid Air attempt to charge his car at a broken EV chargerin the rainbehind a gas station off Interstate 5 between LA and Sacramento. I was inside a fast food restaurant across the parking lot (tending to my hungry 2-year old), as the poor guy struggled to get the charger to connect to his car. He re-positioned his car twice so that the CCS chargers on each side could reach the portunaware that the system itself was broken. There were no clear signs that the charger was offline. The screen didn't show an error message, and any hastily made signs from other travelers attempting to convey the status had been washed away by the rain. I know this because just a few minutes earlier, I was that guy.

This is the exact opposite experience you'd expect from a luxury car brand, and I say this not to call out Lucid, but all EV manufacturers entering the space. If you want the masses to switch from gas to electric, and to your brand specifically, you must make the charging experience consistently excellent. Maybe it's OK if your brand is on the economy end of the spectrum, but if you're the CEO or CMO at Audi, BMW, Bentley, Cadillac, Lexus, et al, your charging experience needs to match the badge on your business card. You require your dealerships to deliver a white glove purchase experience worthy of your brand, why abandon your customers only a few hundred miles after sale?