Loads of people have been probably nonetheless digesting the small print of Tesla’s near-takeover of the North American public EV charging scene—and alongside comes one other blockbuster growth on the infrastructure entrance.

Seven of the world’s main automakers—GM, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia and (oddly sufficient) Honda—have introduced plans to kind a three way partnership to construct a brand new North American quick charging community within the US and Canada with at the least 30,000 chargers. The primary stations are anticipated to open in the summertime of 2024.

This can be a very huge deal. In accordance with the DOE, there are at the moment about 32,000 publicly obtainable DC quick chargers within the US. Tesla, North America’s largest quick charging supplier, operates round 22,000 Supercharger stalls. Electrify America, the following largest, has 3,592 items.

As astute readers might have gathered, a few of us at Charged didn’t whole-heartedly be part of within the near-industry-wide jubilation at Tesla’s current triumphs. We feared it won’t be smart to present a lot management over the general public charging expertise to anyone firm—particularly one with a poor file of assembly deadlines and a grandstanding CEO.

Nicely, if this new charging initiative pans out as marketed, I feel we’ll need to mark these issues as answered. We’ll get loads of new state-of-the-art chargers, all open to all EV drivers, and nobody automaker will probably be king of the charging hill.

The brand new community seems to tick all of the containers, at the least going by what the magnificent seven have instructed us thus far (hedged with the same old weaselly “anticipated to” and “meant to” phrases).

The brand new charging stations will help each CCS and Tesla’s NACS, and are “anticipated to satisfy or exceed the spirit and necessities of the US Nationwide Electrical Automobile Infrastructure (NEVI) program.” Every web site will probably be outfitted with a number of high-powered DC chargers (350 kW for a starter), powered by renewable vitality. Stations will provide all of the anticipated facilities (canopies, restrooms, eating places and outlets). The community will use Plug & Cost expertise, and will probably be built-in with collaborating automakers’ in-vehicle and in-app experiences.

Every of the seven CEOs made the type of assertion you’d anticipate: carbon emissions are unhealthy, charging is important, they’re proud to be concerned. Two of them have been pretty eloquent:

“What we want now’s velocity—throughout political, social and company boundaries,” mentioned Mercedes-Benz Group CEO Ola Källenius. “To speed up the shift to electrical automobiles, we’re in favor of something that makes life simpler for our prospects.”

“A powerful charging community must be obtainable for all—below the identical situations—and be constructed along with a win-win spirit,” mentioned Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.

As regular, a number of questions stay unanswered. The businesses did present a number of extra particulars to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences.

• What is going to the brand new community be known as? In all probability one thing foolish, however who cares?
• Will it help Tesla’s NACS V4? 800-volt structure? In all probability—GM and Mercedes are among the many automakers that plan so as to add Tesla’s NACS port to their automobiles.
• How a lot funding are we speaking about? The automakers plan to leverage each private and non-private funds, and are open to funding from different automakers or different firms in or out of the auto {industry}. Contemplating {that a} typical quick charger can value within the neighborhood of $100,000, {industry} execs instructed Reuters that the JV’s finances will probably run into a number of billions. “The funding will probably be far much less by this partnership than constructing particular person charging networks,” mentioned Akshay Singh, a accomplice at consultancy PwC Technique.
• GM and Mercedes have each already introduced important investments in North American quick charging networks—are these plans affected? No. GM mentioned the brand new enterprise “received’t change GM’s present commitments or collaborations.”
• Is there an antitrust problem? Andre Barlow, an antitrust legal professional with Doyle, Barlow and Mazard, instructed Reuters that the Justice Division would probably evaluate the deal. Nonetheless, the White Home has already issued a robust assertion of help.

Sources: BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Stellantis; Inexperienced Automobile Experiences; Reuters