Quite a lot of of us had been likely 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 type a three way partnership to construct a brand new North American quick charging community within the US and Canada with no less than 30,000 chargers. The primary stations are anticipated to open in the summertime of 2024.

It is a very huge deal. In keeping with the DOE, there are at present about 32,000 publicly accessible DC quick chargers within the US. Tesla, North America’s largest quick charging supplier, operates round 22,000 Supercharger stalls. Electrify America, the subsequent largest, has 3,592 models.

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

Properly, if this new charging initiative pans out as marketed, I believe we’ll must 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 packing containers, no less than going by what the magnificent seven have instructed us up to now (hedged with the same old weaselly “anticipated to” and “meant to” phrases).

The brand new charging stations will assist 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 geared up with a number of high-powered DC chargers (350 kW for a starter), powered by renewable power. Stations will supply 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 taking part automakers’ in-vehicle and in-app experiences.

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

“What we’d like now could be velocity—throughout political, social and company boundaries,” stated 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 robust charging community ought to be accessible for all—below the identical situations—and be constructed along with a win-win spirit,” stated Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.

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

• What is going to the brand new community be known as? In all probability one thing foolish, however who cares?
• Will it assist 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 corporations in or out of the auto {industry}. Contemplating {that a} typical quick charger can price within the neighborhood of $100,000, {industry} execs instructed Reuters that the JV’s funds will possible run into a number of billions. “The funding will probably be far much less by means of this partnership than constructing particular person charging networks,” stated Akshay Singh, a companion 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 stated the brand new enterprise “gained’t change GM’s present commitments or collaborations.”
• Is there an antitrust difficulty? Andre Barlow, an antitrust legal professional with Doyle, Barlow and Mazard, instructed Reuters that the Justice Division would possible evaluate the deal. Nonetheless, the White Home has already issued a robust assertion of assist.

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