⚡Tesla opens US network - Adaptercalypse or EV Equality at last?

Happy Wednesday. This is Electric Avenue. We’re the e-Mobility newsletter that serves e-mobility insights like a pizza delivery guy on game day – hot, fresh, and extra cheesy.🍕🔥

Here’s what we have for you today:

• 1 Pic - Pricing Display at Tesla Supercharger 🎇

• Tesla opens US network - Adaptercalypse or EV Equality at last? 🔌

• 3 Links 🔗

• Opportunity 🗝️

• Meme of the week 🤡

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Let's dive in!

1 Pic 🎇

Tesla launched its first supercharger site with a dynamic price display (gas-station style) in Peine 🇩🇪.

While the concept of a screen to display charging prices is not new (we reported from Electra in 🇫🇷), it’s the first time that a CPO showcases both, ad-hoc and subscription charging prices, in a very transparent way to EV drivers arriving at the station.

Tesla opens US network - Adaptercalypse or EV Equality at last? 🔌

Imagine a large US automotive company. One of the "Detroit Big 3".

Imagine a company with over 100 years of automotive history.

A company that prides itself in being the only one of the Big 3 that did not need a government bailout during the Great Financial Crisis.

A company that massively contributed to the rise of Detroit as a city and US car culture overall.

And now imagine that the company's CEO excitedly posting images of their vehicles using a charging network with their core competitor's logo and brand identity all over it.

Well - this just happened.

As of February 29th 2024, Ford is the first automaker whose cars will be permitted to charge on >15,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America via a dedicated adapter.

Of course, we are talking about the famous deal that Ford made in May of last year, when it was the first automaker to commit to using Tesla's proposed connector format NACS - the "North American Charging Standard".

This landmark deal (we reported) started a landslide adoption of NACS that moved faster than most industry observers could have imagined (we reported).

Since then, here's what happened:

• Over a dozen automakers signed deals with Tesla that committed them to natively integrating a NACS port on their upcoming electric vehicles (MY2025 and onwards), in exchange for access to Tesla's network - even for their legacy vehicles with CCS charging ports.

• Standards body SAE rushed a formal standardization process (we reported) of Tesla's NACS spec which led to the publishing of the “Technical Information Report” for SAEJ3400 back in December 2023.

• Several US states added requirements to their NEVI funding tenders that mandate a NACS/SAEJ3400 connector in addition to the federal minimum requirement for a CCS1 connector.

All of that brings us to this week when folks at both Tesla and Ford spread the news that the day of opening was finally here. Here's what we know about what is actually happening:

• Ford EVs (mainly F150 Lightning EV and Mach-E EV) can now charge on >15,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America via a CCS-NACS adapter.

• The vehicle’s firmware needs to be updated to the latest version.

• The adapter with built-in temperature sensors is rated at up to 1000V DC and up to 300A @ 35C with a temporary 500A Boost Current for 10 minutes at a time.

• Ford is offering free adapters to Ford customers through June 30th 2024, afterwards, adapters will be priced at $230/pc.

• Ford customers have two ways of authenticating and paying: 1) Via the FordPass mobile app (via remote start request) and 2) via ISO15118-2 Plug&Charge authentication (no 3rd party certificate platform e.g. Hubject involved) - there is no need for Ford customers to download a Tesla-branded mobile app like there is for Supercharger-access via Magic Dock adapters (ca. 500 sites across North America at the moment - we reported).

• Among the 15,000 Superchargers available to Ford customers you will only find v3 and v4(/v3.5) Superchargers.- The adapter will not work at Tesla v2 Generation of Superchargers.

• Ford also says that "some" V3 Superchargers will not be available to Ford owners, as Tesla is keeping certain locations exclusive to Tesla drivers.

• Ford customers pay on average about 30% more per kWh than Tesla drivers on the Supercharger network.

• Tesla has launched a dedicated website www.tesla.com/NACS where it announced that the next few automakers to receive access in "Spring 2024" are GM, Rivian, and Volvo/Polestar.

So far so good. The details missing from all these press releases are some of the quirks, kinks, and challenges that go along with this step:

• What charger for which car?: Tesla is only opening 15,000 out of a total of 27,000 North American Supercharger stalls to 3rd party vehicles. There is little information as to why v2 Superchargers are excluded and how the company determines which v3 Superchargers are excluded and for how long. For Ford drivers simply driving by vision, this can easily lead to a frustrating experience at a non-opened Supercharger station that gets spotted on a drive through town.

• How to park?: The cables at Tesla's v3 Superchargers are too short for most vehicles that do not have the chargeport in the exact same location as Teslas (driver-side rear). Vehicles like Ford's F150 Lighting will have to (and are permitted according to Tesla) block multiple spots to charge. This will affect Tesla's data accuracy on both stall availability and wait times (as we pointed out in our trip planner article).

3 Thoughts 💭

1️⃣ One connector to rule them all: Hallelujah. After 12+ years of fighting over standards and duplicated efforts (ever think about how expensive it is to put both a CCS cable and a Chademo cable on a single-output charger?), the North American EV industry has finally settled on a common AC/DC charging connector.

2️⃣ No more moats: Tesla is genuinely doing the industry and the public a favor by opening its charging network to everyone. How much of that is motivated by the possibility of accessing up to $7.5B in NEVI funding? How much is a calculated way to get competitors to their charging stations where they can be potential "conquest" targets? And how much is influenced by behind-the-scenes pressure from the Biden administration to open the network (Source)? We'll probably never know, but the bottom line is that this is a boon for overall EV adoption in North America.

3️⃣ Tesla vs Tesla Charging: The Supercharger network is quickly evolving from a vehicle sales enabler and loss leader to a potential stand-alone profit center. With its dominant market position (75% of fast charger stalls in North America), its industry-leading reliability (99.5% uptime), and costs (Tesla is winning a lot of NEVI funds with industry-leading bids), its projected increase in utilization and thereby revenues + the soon-to-be-unlocked hardware sales potential (See: Tesla/BP deal) - the Tesla Supercharger division is a potential spin-off from the mothership. Think of Bank of America spinning off VISA or eBay spinning off Paypal.

Exciting times for the E-Mobility industry. Stay tuned. ⚡️

Note: Adaptercalypse (CCS1 - NACS) is only relevant for North America. CCS2 was adapted by Tesla for the EU in 2018.

3 Links 🔗

• Apple stops EV plans 🍎 : According to Bloomberg Apple canceled the development of the project “Titan”, an electric vehicle. Engineers on the team will shift their focus to generative AI projects.

• Sixt integrates EV charging 📱: Based on MSP service provider Elli (VW subsidiary), Sixt offers App-based EV charging for its (rental) customers. Most interestingly, the charging customer closes a contract with Elli (Sixt acting as Agent) which is controlling the network and pricing for charging. Speaking of pricing, this is currently far from being attractive at most CPOs (App screenshot with an Aral Pulse station priced at 1,07 €/kWh 😳).

• EV Charging Price Indexes💡: Ever wondered about EV charging price developments? Two companies shared their new pricing indexes to shed some light on the current state of pricing:

  • Stable → US Price Index 🇺🇸 showing DC fast charging stations prices across the US states ranging from 0.17 $/kWh to 0.54 $/kWh. Nebraska is the cheapest!

  • Zapmap → UK Price Index 🇬🇧 revealing that the weighted average price to charge an electric car on the public charging network in January 2024 was 0.56 £/kWh on chargers <50 kW and 0.80 £/kWh (1.01 $ / kWh) for chargers >= 50kW. It’s expensive to charge in the UK! 🥵 

Most-clicked link last week: was the IONITY job listing for a Product Manager leading its loyalty program initiative (Link).

Opportunity🗝️:

Recently we’ve been thinking about sharing emobility startup investing opportunities with y’all by building a mailing list.

So if you:

• are a keen believer in e-mobility and share our passion for EVs and charging ⚡️

• love the idea of having exposure to promising EV startups in both Silicon Valley and across Europe 🚀

• are comfortable making private company investments and have at least $25,000 / 25.000€ in patient capital to invest over the next few years 💰

Then complete this 1-minute survey and get in touch with us:

We’ll reach out to those interested over the coming weeks.

Have a good week friends,

Janek & Julius

Meme of the Week 🤡

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That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel and leave some feedback (We read every single one of these 🙂 ):

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin´ awesome on⚡How your Volkswagen can power your home 🔋🏠 and wrote:

“I have started working on V2H since 2011 and deployed my first V2H charger at my home in 2013, created the V2H/G battery SOH warranty scheme and I have brought the technology to EUR, NA, SEA since. I am not too sure 15118 based V2H has solved the interoperability and compatibility issue yet. In addition, so many unexpected (especially by car company) issues occur during installation, and customer usage. Good Luck VW!! ”

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in or may otherwise be affiliated with the companies discussed.