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Key takeaways
- General Motors is the second major EV manufacturer in the US to announce it’s partnering with Tesla for its customers to access the latter’s Supercharger EV network
- Rival EV companies tumbled on Friday after the announcement, with EVgo, ChargePoint and Blink Charging all sliding between 11% – 13%
- Wall Street analysts say the sell-off was an overreaction as the EV charging industry in the US is still relatively underdeveloped
General Motors is going all-in with Tesla’s fast-charging EV network in a new partnership announced last week. The move, which follows a similar news piece from Ford last month, will see GM’s EV range fitted with Tesla chargers and give GM customers full access to the Tesla network.
The second announcement in favor of Tesla’s charging network in less than a month sent rival companies’ shares spiraling on Friday. It’s likely an overreaction, given there’s plenty of room for growth in the sector, and a standard charger is better for consumers, even if it means short-term pain for those in the biz.
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What has GM announced with Tesla?
In a Twitter Spaces event, GM CEO Mary Barra revealed the company would be partnering with Tesla to provide its customers with access to Tesla’s Supercharger EV charging stations. Tesla has the largest US infrastructure for fast EV charging, with around 17,000 ports currently operating.
GM will also follow in Ford’s footsteps and adopt the Tesla charger shape for all of its vehicles going forward. This now marks three of the significant EV suppliers in the US using one standard charging hardware design – Tesla, Ford and GM account for around 70% of the US EV market share.
At the live Twitter Space, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Supercharger network “will be an even playing field … The most important thing is we advance the electric vehicle revolution.” Barra commented that EV charging “just got a little better”.
The news comes after Ford announced in May it would also be collaborating with Tesla to take advantage of the latter’s EV network. It’s a bold move for rivals to work together, but ultimately if these companies can standardize their infrastructure, it’s another feather in the cap of boosting EV sales.
Wall Street’s reaction
GM saw a modest 1.1% boost to its share price on Friday, while Tesla gained 4.1% and continued its 11-day winning streak. When Ford made the same announcement, it enjoyed a 6.24% bump in the share price.
But the reality was very different for rival EV charging companies, which absolutely tanked last week. EVgo slid 12% on Friday, the worst performance it’s seen in nearly a month, while ChargePoint declined 13%. Blink Charging tumbled 11%, the largest daily loss it’s seen since February, and Beam Global tanked 4.9%.
Many analysts have suggested the EV charging point sell-off was an overreaction, given how nascent the industry still is – with plenty of room for other Tesla competitors to take a slice of the pie. Not every company that suffered a share price loss competes in the same space – ChargePoint, for instance, is primarily focused on supporting an EV fleet clientele.
The only question mark is with EVgo, which was already working with GM to provide its EV charging stations. Further clarity is needed on whether that deal remains in place or if EVgo has lost a significant customer.
What’s the state of the EV charging market?
For EVs to really take off, there needs to be the infrastructure to support it – and at the moment, it’s somewhat lacking. There are just over 138,000 EV charging points in the US, but the majority of them are either in California (which boasts 44,600 of them) or privately owned.
There are two types of EV chargers: the Combined Charging Systems (CCS) chargers and the Tesla-specific North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports. Adapters are available, but Ford is said to be switching to the NACS charger in upcoming models to take advantage of the Tesla charging network. With GM confirming it’s doing the same, Tesla’s charger will become the US standard.
The US government has seen where the direction of travel is headed and has acted accordingly. The White House, which has previously endorsed the CCS charger, also said on Friday it would allow EV charging stations using the Tesla charger access to federal subsidies as long as they used the CCS design as well.
This isn’t an insurmountable task for EV charging companies to adapt to: Tesla already shared the design with the world last year. There’s the annoying short-term cost of retrofitting vehicles, but the long-term benefit of one standard charger across the US should encourage would-be EV owners to jump.
Larger, enterprise-focused EVs like trucks and vans also need infrastructure and the US network is underdeveloped compared to China, where there’s a charging station for every 12 EVs on the road. In the US, it’s 50 EVs. While investors are understandably concerned Tesla’s headstart could tank rival EV charging companies, there’s plenty of room for competitors to make their mark.
The bottom line
GM, Ford and Tesla partnering together is a big step forward for the domestic EV industry, demonstrating remarkable long-term vision from the trio. Adopting one charger design for EVs will undeniably help consumers as EV sales grow; putting a cynical hat on, the move gets ahead of litigation seen in other industries like Apple and Qualcomm.
But there’s still plenty of room for EV charging competitors to grow their business, and investors shouldn’t be put off by the short-term blip in the share prices. As the world transitions to greener energy sources and towards EVs, demand will grow for infrastructure worldwide – and that presents a major opportunity for EV charging stocks.
Tesla is one of the ‘big seven’ propping up the S&P 500 and Nasdaq this year, with the tech industry seeing incredible share price growth even in a sluggish economy. You can get in on the action while maintaining a diversified, balanced portfolio with Q.ai’s Emerging Tech Kit, which holds a basket of tech stocks and ETFs to help ride the volatile market.
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