Tesla's charging deals with Ford and GM

The Supercharger network is easily the EV maker's most important asset.

Jun 16, 2023

Programming note: I subbed in as guest host on the AppleInsider Podcast this week, and we talked more about the Vision Pro, my review of the 15-inch MacBook Air, and running the beta versions of Apple’s newest software. Check it out wherever you get podcasts. (Apple Podcasts / Spotify / PocketCasts / Overcast)

If you make electric vehicles, your biggest challenge has always been overcoming the perception that they’re not great for driving more than a few miles around town. Anything more than that and you start to deal with range anxiety. Most people aren’t going to buy one vehicle for commuting to work, and another vehicle for family trips, so they just stick with the one they know can do both.

If you ask someone why they won’t buy an EV, you’ll probably hear some version of “I would but they don’t have enough battery range.” In reality, what they’re saying is that “figuring out how to charge my EV when I’m traveling seems complicated and scary.”

That’s a fair reaction. It’s true that charging your EV is different from filling up with gasoline. Mostly, that’s because it takes longer. You can fill up a gas tank in less than five minutes. Charging an EV to full takes a lot longer, but more importantly, if you’re on a road trip, you aren’t going to charge to full at all. It’s a very different way of thinking about traveling.

Solving that problem is why Tesla has been the dominant EV maker for the last decade. Look, that isn’t to say that Tesla doesn’t make good cars— it does. I personally drive a Model S every day, and it’s the best car I’ve ever owned. But, Tesla’s best asset has always been the Supercharger network.

In reality, most people do most of their vehicle charging at home. It's by far, a more convenient and the least expensive way to charge. But if you're taking a road trip, or just want to travel further than your regular commute, knowing that you can just plug in and charge when you arrive at a charging location is kind of important.

One of the biggest reasons driving an EV isn’t stressful for our family is that we know that when we travel, we don’t have to worry about charging. It’s why the majority of people who are considering an EV choose a Tesla—they know they’ll be able to find reliable charging pretty much anywhere they travel.

The problem

That’s not true for a lot of EV drivers. Almost every other automaker uses a standard called CCS. You would think that the fact that CCS is so widely used would mean there is a robust charging infrastructure for those vehicles. While it’s true there are a bunch of third-party charging networks, none of them come close to the size and availability of the Supercharger network. More importantly, none of them are nearly as reliable.

There are plenty of stories of people pulling into charging stations to find one or more units offline. Last month, while traveling in the San Francisco Bay area, I twice stopped at charging stations where only one unit (out of four or six) was working. It was, of course, in use. If I was traveling and needed to charge, I would have been stuck.

That’s obviously not a great experience, and even though those charging stations are operated by third-party companies (and not automakers), it very much diminishes the value of driving an EV—which is a problem for those automakers. Sure, some companies, like Rivian, are attempting to build their own network, but their drivers are—at this point—mostly dependent on CCS networks.

That, however, is changing.

The deals

Tesla, in the past few weeks, has announced that the two largest U.S. automakers, Ford and GM, will adopt its charging port, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS). There are a number of reasons this is a big deal, and some of them are less obvious than others. Most importantly, it’s an acknowledgment that Tesla’s Supercharger network is its secret weapon.

In the short term, Ford and GM will provide Tesla adapters to allow their vehicles to plug into Superchargers. In the future, both carmakers plan to replace CCS with NACS on their new EVs.

If you're Tesla, this is a good thing for two reasons. The first is obvious--if more people use Superchargers, you make more money selling them electricity. According to the company's first-quarter earnings report, Supercharging is a "relatively small" but growing business. Opening the network up to non-Tesla vehicles is a big part of how it will continue to grow. Especially in areas where Superchargers have excess capacity, it makes sense to monetize that by making it easier for other EVs to plug in and charge.

The other reason this is good for Tesla is that there has been a push to standardize charging for all EVs. In Europe, for example, all vehicles use CCS, including Tesla. It certainly seems like the company would prefer that not happen here, especially considering it already has the largest charging network, by far. In addition, by making the network open to non-Tesla EVs, the company is eligible for funds under the Biden administration.

Tesla has been headed in this direction for a while. Late last year, it announced that it was renaming its charging connector to the North American Charging Standard. The point was to not call it the “Tesla Charging Standard” since that doesn’t exactly sound like an open standard.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Ford Mustang Mach-E is the best-selling EV that isn't a Tesla. The fact that Ford is adopting NACS means that it's more likely other manufacturers will do the same. That will put pressure on third-party charging providers like Electrify America and ChargePoint to switch from CCS, creating more competition and a better experience for drivers.

If there's only going to be one charging standard in the U.S., NACS is a significantly better option than CCS in almost every way. Now that any company can adopt it, it's better for existing Tesla drivers if all charging stations are compatible with their vehicles.

The 15-inch MacBook Air

I've been using the 15-inch MacBook Air now for a week, and there isn't a lot to say about the new laptop, other than it's a larger version of the existing 13-inch M2 MacBook Air.

That's a good thing, by the way--the only differences are its size and it has two more speakers. Technically, it does have a slightly larger battery, but it's just enough to make up for the larger screen, giving it the same 18 hours of battery life as the 13-inch version as a result.

It is, for all intents and purposes, exactly what you think it is, and honestly, that's brilliant. Look, the 13-inch MacBook Air has--for years--been the best laptop for most people. I don't mean it's the best Mac laptop for most people--I mean it's the best laptop. Period. It's the best combination of battery life, performance, and portability that you can buy and it meets the needs of the widest range of people. I use a 13-inch M2 MacBook Air every single day.

One of the main reasons I've chosen that as my primary Mac is that I take it with me everywhere. I travel a lot, and the extra pounds of a MacBook Pro add up. In fact, I used a 14-inch MacBook Pro for a short time, and while it was the best computer I've ever used, I ended up back with the Air because I just didn't want to carry around the extra weight.

My biggest concern with the 15-inch was that it would be heavy. Sure, it's about a half pound heavier than the 13-inch version (3.3 pounds, instead of 2.7 pounds), but for its size, it still feels like an "Air." It's lighter and feels less dense than the 14-inch Pro.

The very first thing I did with the 15-inch MacBook Air is pick it up. In fact, after the keynote, when journalists were able to get a look at the new laptop, that's the first thing I saw everyone do. Ever since Steve Jobs pulled the very first MacBook Air out of a manilla envelope 16 years ago, the defining feature has been that it's a device that is thin and lightweight. It hasn't always been as capable as it is now, but it has always been an "Air."

I still have a special place in my heart for the design of the M1 MacBook Air, since its tapered edge meant you could literally lift it off a table with just one hand. The 15-inch MacBook Air requires both hands to pick up, but it is definitely light enough to carry with just one hand. That's mostly a function of the current design.

Apple didn't overthink this product, and I think that's incredibly smart. There was no reason to change the form factor or create a feature gap with the 13-inch model. There's a reason the smaller model is the most popular laptop in the world, and this simply extends that to a larger form factor.

Really, the smartest thing is that Apple introduced a new version and actually made the decision-making process easier for consumers. If you want the most portable and efficient laptop, you get a MacBook Air, and it now comes in regular or large size. There is no parsing through which feature set you might need--they are functionally the same.

The one thing I think Apple should have done, but didn't, is add 5G cellular, though I understand that would have killed battery life. I'm sure that's a hard problem to solve, but it's the only thing missing from what is otherwise the perfect laptop to take anywhere. Oh, and the webcam. It's still pretty lousy--just like the 13-inch model--though it's marginally better than what was on the older M1 MacBook Air.

The 13-inch version will probably remain the best option for most people, but the 15-inch is going to easily be the biggest hit from the WWDC keynote. It might be Vision Pro that is getting all the attention, but Apple is going to sell a ton of these 15-inch laptops.

The Reddit Debacle

Last month, Reddit announced that, after 18 years, it would start charging for API access to its content. That doesn't seem like a particularly big deal--Twitter implemented the same policy change earlier this year. In both cases, one of the arguments is that companies like OpenAI, Google, and others are scooping up data on the internet in order to train large language models (LLMs) but aren't compensating the platforms where the content is created.

Companies like Twitter and Reddit want to share in the money being made by those services, and charging for API access is one way to do that. Of course, if the best argument someone can come up with for doing something is, "Well, Elon did it first," I'm not sure that's the defense you think it is.

The change also comes as Reddit is trying to cut costs and generate profits as it reportedly prepares to file for an initial public offering (IPO). According to CEO Steve Huffman, who hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) this afternoon, the company has never been profitable.

As a result of the decision to charge for API access, the developer of one of the most beloved Reddit apps, Apollo, announced it would be shutting down. In a post on Reddit, developer Christian Selig said he would sunset the app on June 30th since the fee Reddit says it will charge would cost him $20 million per year. For context, Apollo has about 2 million free users, and 50,000 paid users who each pay $10 a year. Disclosure: I am one of them.

Earlier this week, more than 8,000 Subreddits went dark for 48 hours (some of them remain locked in a continued protest). The objective was to convince Reddit to change its position on the API access fees.

In an interview with The Verge, Huffman says it didn’t work.

“We’ve had blackouts in previous times where there’s a little more room for movement,” Huffman told The Verge’s Jay Peters. “But the core of this one is the API pricing change. That’s our business decision. And we’re not undoing that business decision.”

It’s not clear how this mess ends, but what seems obvious to anyone paying attention is that Huffman might be missing the point. Third-party apps provide a lot of value to Reddit, if for no other reason than those apps are used by many of its most engaged users. Making them angry doesn’t seem like a great business decision, especially if you’re trying to go public.

Undigital

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