While attending an automotive conference in Las Vegas in 2019, I recall Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) describing the two electric vehicles he owned at the time: a Tesla Model S and a Chevrolet Bolt by General Motors. I was surprised to learn that Wozniak absolutely loved his Chevy Bolt. In fact, he called the Bolt his “daily driver.”
Yet, there was one problem Wozniak described about his Bolt that still exists today for every electric vehicle (EV) owner not driving a Tesla. Wozniak lamented that he could not take his Bolt on a road trip because of the challenges of charging. On stage at the conference, he stated that using his Tesla was “the only way to go” for a long road trip because of the company’s charging infrastructure, which eliminates range anxiety.
It seems that Ford and General Motors have come to the same conclusion as Wozniak. Beginning next year, EV customers of both automakers will be able to use the Tesla Supercharger network in partnership with Tesla. With these announcements, both legacy automakers are striving to eliminate the challenges of charging that Tesla owners rarely experience.
The charging is more important than the cars - Steve Wozniak, 2019
Wired recently described the problems of charging an EV at public stations as a situation “that could hardly get worse.” A J.D. Power study covering Q1 of 2023 found that 21% of EV owners who attempted to charge at a public station were unable to do so. This is a problem that essentially does not exist for Tesla owners. The same study found that only 4% of Tesla owners reported a charging failure during this period.
Wozniak did not actually predict that legacy automakers would be forced to utilize the Tesla charging network as the title of this post suggests. However, he did recognize the competitive advantage the Tesla Supercharging network represents when he stated, “the charging [infrastructure ] is more important than the [EV] cars.”
I have often written about the disruption that Tesla is driving in the automotive industry. While recognizing that disruptors often lose in business long term, the decision by Ford and GM to utilize the Tesla Supercharger network is just one more example of what NYU finance professor Aswath Damadoran described as Tesla moving “the sector closer to its vision than the other way around.”