Last week, I reported on a blockbuster EV deal that saw Ford team up with Tesla, its chief competitor in the space.
Now, GM is doing the same, effectively cementing Tesla's EV charging system as the new standard.
Just to recap, most EV manufacturers use a charging plug called the Combined Charging System (CCS). This system is public domain, so anybody can adopt it.
But since its inception, Tesla has used a different charging system what it calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS).
Unsurprisingly, Tesla's system is more efficient. It's smaller, lighter, and supposedly twice as fast.
Tesla also built out a robust network of charging stations that traverses the country.
There are 17,000 Tesla Supercharger connectors in the U.S. and Canada, compared with 11,000 CCS combo ports.
And in addition to being faster and more accessible, they're also better maintained.
One study, conducted last year by researchers at Berkeley, found that roughly 25% of the CCS fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area simply didn't work.
Those findings were corroborated and expanded on by a separate J.D. Power study that found similar results nationwide.
Tesla's charging network, on the other hand, proved far more reliable.
And that's why it's become the new standard.
GM and Ford switching to Tesla's charger means 70% of the EVs sold in the United States will be NACS-compliant.
That's huge for Tesla, which will draw revenue from more motorists using its chargers.
It can also tap into the $7.5 billion in government subsidies the Biden administration is now funneling into a massive EV charging station network expansion.
Indeed, since President Biden took office, the number of electric vehicle sales has tripled and the number of publicly available charging ports has grown by over 40%
The president also set a goal of having half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.