Owners of Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 Lightning pickups and Mustang Mach-E SUVs are getting access to thousands of new electric vehicle charging stations.
As of Thursday, Ford EV owners can now order a free charging adaptor compatible with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). With those adaptors, Ford customers can access more than 15,000 Tesla Superchargers across North America, or more than twice as many chargers as before, the Detroit automaker said.
The Tesla-designed-and-built adaptors are available for free from Ford’s website through the end of June. Once that period has ended, they’ll cost $230. Ford customers will also need a vehicle software update to access Tesla’s chargers.
“This move will improve the public charging experience by giving our customers even more choice and is a vital part of our growth as an EV brand,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. He also thanked Tesla for helping to “change the lives of so many EV customers through improved access to charging.”
The benefits of Ford’s adoption of the NACS are expected to go a long way — for both companies. The additional chargers may soothe fears of running out of power without access to a nearby station, which has been a significant concern for people looking to buy an EV, according to Cox Automotive.
Farley has said defeating that fear — nicknamed “range anxiety” or “charging anxiety” — is the crucial next step needed for Ford to boost EV sales.
For Tesla, this puts it on track to become the industry standard for charging, giving the Austin, Texas-based company more influence in the EV industry. Tesla has been working toward that goal for years. In November 2022, the company opened its port design to charging stations and vehicle manufacturers worldwide.
Last May, Ford was the first automaker to adopt NACS, closely followed by General Motors.
Since then, every major Western automaker — including industry stalwarts like Toyota Motor and startups like Rivian and Polestar — has made deals with Tesla. Stellantis, the company created by the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA Group, was the last major automaker to adopt the NACS plug, doing so on Feb. 12.
Seven automakers — including Stellantis, GM, and Mercedes-Benz — have also formed a joint venture to launch the IONNA charging network, which aims to have at least 30,000 charging stations across North America by 2030. Those stations will be compatible with Tesla’s NACS and the Combined Charging System (CCS).
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