Companies hoping to get funding for the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion EV charging initiative will have to meet a series of new requirements that even Tesla has agreed to.
The Biden administration Wednesday released final standards for a plan to build a nationwide network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers along highways. This includes a requirement that all EV chargers funded through the Reducing Inflation Act must be built in the United States. Specifically, final assembly and all manufacturing processes for iron or steel charger enclosures or housings must occur in the United States. Also, by July 2024, at least 55% of the cost of all components must be manufactured domestically.
Also, all chargers must use a standardized payment system suitable for smartphones, and all connectors must use the “Combined Charging System” (CCS), which is dominant in the United States.
Tesla does not use CCS in North America. America’s vast supercharger network uses a proprietary connector that only Tesla vehicles can use. That will change, at least a little bit, under an agreement with the Biden administration.
Tesla opens part of its Supercharger and Destination Charger Networks to non-Tesla EVs. The company plans to provide at least 7,500 chargers for all its EVs by the end of 2024, according to the White House. At least 3,500 of them are 250 kW chargers along highway corridors. All EV drivers can access these stations using the Tesla app or website.
Notably, Tesla has agreed to more than double its Supercharger network.
Tesla’s concession, which gives access to that $7.5 billion, comes days after CEO Elon Musk met with White House officials. There has been talk for years of Tesla starting selling his EV chargers in the US. In July 2022, a memo from the White House indicated that Tesla would open up its chargers to other of his EVs by the end of the year.
That date came and went. After Tesla disclosed his EV charging connector design, questions were raised as to whether Tesla would move to get network operators and automakers to adopt the technology, making it the new standard in North America. . At the time, Tesla seemed to be trying to standardize its technology.
Tesla has opened up its Supercharger network to other non-Tesla vehicles in parts of Europe. The company’s chargers and vehicles use his CCS standard, making this transition easy. The transition here is likely to be more complicated, but there have been reports that the company has come up with a solution called Magic Dock that allows non-Tesla vehicles to access their own chargers in the US.
