Ford's competitive advantage: EVs now charge with Tesla tech
Ford (F) has officially rolled out charging adaptors for its electric vehicles, allowing users to plug their cars into Tesla (TSLA) superchargers in the US and Canada. Current Ford EV customers can reserve a free charger before June 30; after that, it will cost $230.
Yahoo Finance Reporter Pras Subramanian joins the Live show to discuss his experience with the adaptor and what this could mean for Ford owners moving forward.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: Starting today, Ford EV owners will be able to access Tesla's supercharger network with the use of an adapter. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian, checked it out firsthand and joins us now for more. Pras.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah so a year ago, shocking news when this was announced when Elon Musk went on Twitter Spaces with Jim Farley, and they talked about this deal. And now here we are with-- today's the first day you can actually use an adapter. So I went to a location in New Jersey here with a Tesla supercharger location. And they provided an F-150 lightning here for me to test out the process.
So the actual adapter itself and I have some video of that it's actually made and is engineered designed and made by Tesla for use with this vehicle. And basically what happens is you plug it into the Tesla charger and now you have the ability to plug-- that plug into the F-150 or the Ford EV. And it immediately starts charging. There's no app. There's no-- I got to set up my thing. I got to type this in. I got to find the charger. No. Just like for Tesla, it works seamlessly for Ford.
And that's really a nice thing because once you account set up in the FordPass, it's all good. It seemed relatively easy to use. Nice heft there with that adapter. And look, it's going to make-- it's an advantage for Ford being the first automaker to use this, to be able to access this network. I think it's a competitive advantage that a lot of people are going to want to actually consider when they don't want to buy a Tesla. But they want to use that charging network.
- To go back to something we were discussing with our Akiko Fujita yesterday, what about the time it will take to charge a Ford? And is it different from the time it will take to charge a Tesla at the same station?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Same, depending on the car's ability to basically intake a high voltage charge. And the lightning can do that. It'll be-- it's just as fast as any other car based on their voltage of the system. So it should be fine.
- OK. Good to know. Thanks Pras, appreciate it. Love the footage of Pras doing that.
