Mercedes Benz Is The Latest Automaker To Join Tesla's Charging Team

On Friday, Mercedes-Benz announced it is the latest automaker to provide its EV drivers with access to Tesla Inc TSLA superchargers as of next year, or more precisely, more than 12,000 Tesla supercharger stations across North America, committing to fully adopt the company’s charging standard in 2025. Following the footsteps of Ford Motor F, General Motors GM, Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN and Volvo Car VLVLY, Mercedes said it’s the first German manufacturer to adopt Tesla’s charging plug, the NACS ports, and install it in its future EVs. Reportedly, Mercedes’ German peer, Volkswagen VWAGY is also in talks to adopt the Tesla-developed charging technology. As for Mercedes vehicles made before 2025 with the Combined Charging System, it will be offering a plug-in adapter as of 2024.

With Mercedes-Benz on its side, Tesla is another step closer to changing the EV industry standard.

Mercedes Continues To Build Its Own Charging Network

By the end of the decade, Mercedes will be building 2,000 charging hubs that will be accessible for a “wide range” of EV owners.  North America charging network will expand by 400 of these, followed by Europe and China. With the North American High-Power Charging Network, Andrew Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz HPC North America stated that the automaker is set to redefine the EV charging experience.

Automakers Have Realized The Importance Of Making Owning EVs Easier

These arrangements are a clear acknowledgment of Tesla’s lead and know-how on the EV charging front. But, when it comes to sales, the race is still very much ongoing even though Tesla continues to ramp up production and sales growing 30% YoY during the first half of the year as its Texas facility came into life. General Motors has been criticized for not kicking its EV game into high gear but the automaker was constrained by domestic battery production taking longer than expected. Despite its disappointing EV output, General Motors is still determined to catch up to Tesla. CEO Mary Bara is aiming to do so by mid-decade with more mainstream EV launches that will kick off later this year, as well as a new electric delivery van and a bespoke Cadillac EV. GM plans to bring 150,000 EVs to life for the U.S market. But, during the first half of the year, it was run over by Hyundai in U.S. EV sales and ended third.

Ford fell even harder, from second to fifth place as it had some downtime due to retooling its Mustang Mach-E, facility to be able to boost EV production. As a result, its EV sales rose only 12% compared to last year’s period. However, these are one-time setbacks and these legacy Detroit automakers are undoubtedly gearing up and will be fighting Tesla for EV leadership sometime in the future.

Even Tesla Does Not Have A Clear Road Ahead

Despite record quarterly performance on July 2nd with its second quarter results, even Tesla is facing setbacks and this time, they are of regulatory nature. Back in March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation due to concern that steering wheels were coming off while driving 100,000 Tesla best sellers, namely the 2023 Model Y SUVs. This was certainly not the only equipment recall this year. May, Chinese regulators pressured Tesla into recalling about 1.1 million vehicles for a software update that allowed changes to braking methods as well as more warnings about accelerator pedals usage. Back in February, Tesla recalled 362,758 Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y EVs due to a safety update for its Full Self-Driving feature. Now, InsideEVs reported that the NHTSA has reopened its Tesla investigation that was previously closed in 2021, and that includes approximately 1.8 million EVs sold in the US, including Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y. The issue in question is a design flaw that reportedly results in sudden unintended acceleration problem. Despite Musk’s flamboyant nature and responses that NHTSA’s sayings are ‘flat-out-wrong’, NHTSA has the final say on the regulatory front.

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