- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune
- With inflation down, ECB eyes faster tempo of rate cuts
- Is life possible on a Jupiter moon? NASA goes to investigate
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
Strange bedfellows: auto rivals embrace Tesla EV chargers
Tesla's electric charging network has long pleased electric car mavens. But Elon Musk's "superchargers" are now winning endorsements from a more unlikely group: other auto companies.
Ford was the first to announce a partnership with Musk in late May, followed by General Motors earlier this month. On Tuesday, EV truck company Rivian joined the bandwagon, saying it looks forward "to continuing to find new ways to accelerate EV adoption."
Under the partnerships, Musk has agreed to let consumers with autos from rival brands utilize its national network.
Appearing with Musk on Twitter Spaces, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said she was "really excited" to almost double the volume of chargers available to GM vehicle owners, adding that she hoped the Tesla system, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), could become a unified standard for the continent, which would "enable more mass adoption."
The ascendance of Tesla's network reflects the system's reputation for reliability, as well as the sluggish expansion of rival EV charging options amid supply chain problems and a ponderous rollout of a giant federal program.
The embrace by Detroit auto giants has been seen as Musk's latest coup, helping to fuel a roughly 40-percent surge in Tesla shares since the May 25 Ford announcement.
Still, many EV experts say it is premature to declare NACS the winner.
"We may be heading that way, but it's still too early to say Tesla and NACS has won," said industry consultant Loren McDonald, who thinks the market's short-run evolution could be akin to the smartphone split between Apple and Android, with two leading standards.
EV experts note that other automakers with ambitious US electric vehicle programs, such as Volkswagen and Hyundai, continue to favor the rival standard, known as the combined charging system (CCS).
"Ultimately we'll have one standard, but how long that takes remains to be seen," said John Eichberger, executive director of the Transportation Energy Institute.
Eichberger said a Musk-dominated charging system could raise antitrust concerns, adding that it is not yet clear how far the Tesla CEO will go in sharing a technology that had until recently been proprietary.
"If we are going to gravitate towards one default source for charging, then it needs to be an open-source technology," Eichberger said.
- Delays, supply chain woes -
Until recently, many in the industry assumed CCS was in line to become the national standard, in part because it is explicitly required as the connector to be used in a new federal program.
The initiative, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which was established in the 2021 infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden, provides $5 billion in funds for states to build EV charging networks.
In February, the White House unveiled an agreement with Musk in which Tesla agreed to make at least 7,500 chargers nationwide open to non-Tesla EVs by the end of 2024, a move that allows Tesla to potentially qualify for NEVI funds.
There has been no indication that the White House will shift its policy, but states are reconsidering their implementation in light of recent industry developments. Texas plans to require each charge port to have a CCS connector and a NACS connector, a Texas Department of Transportation spokesman told AFP on Friday.
Tesla's shift comes amid concerns there won't be enough chargers.
A January 2023 forecast by S&P Global concluded that the US charging system is "not nearly robust enough to support a maturing electric vehicle market," saying that the number of EV chargers in the country would need to quadruple between 2022 and 2025.
The number of EV chargers "has been increasing, but very slowly compared to the number of vehicles coming into the market," said Bertrand Rakoto, global automotive practice leader at Ducker Carlisle, a consultancy.
Industry experts have cited a number of reasons for the sluggish pace of the rollout, including supply chain shortages of key materials; challenges in negotiating affordable electricity contracts with utilities; and delays with NEVI because of uncertainty about federal guidelines or difficulties in states that have no experience in permitting EV chargers.
A Department of Energy spokesperson said the agency has been "working hard to stand up" the program and listed seven jurisdictions that have released requests for proposals.
But McDonald, who closely tracks state NEVI programs, said no states have awarded contracts to build EV chargers so far. He does not expect most of the chargers to be built until 2025 or later.
Much industry focus has been on the need to build fast chargers to address range anxiety: the fear of drivers being stranded without access to charging capacity.
But McDonald believes this concern is overrated, viewing the real priority as adding chargers at homes, apartment buildings and condos.
L.Peeters--CPN