The electric charging network of Tesla has remained a favorite among electric car mavens for a long time. But Elon Musk'sMusk's superchargers are now winning endorsements from a more unlikely group: other auto companies.
Ford was the first to announce a partnership with Musk in late May, and General Motors earlier this month. On Tuesday, EV truck company Rivian joined the bandwagon, saying it looks forward to continuing to find new ways to accelerate EV adoption.
In Twitter Spaces, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said she was really excited to almost double the volume of chargers available to GM vehicle owners, adding that she hoped the Tesla system, known as the North American Charging Standard NACS, would become a unified standard for the continent.
Musk's embrace by the Detroit auto giants has been seen as Musk's latest coup, fueling a roughly 40 percent surge in Tesla shares since Ford's announcement on May 25.
But many EV experts say it's premature to declare NACS the winner.
We may be heading that way, but it's still too early to say Tesla and NACS has won, McDonald said, describing the market's short-run evolution as akin to the smartphone split between Apple and Android.
EV experts note that other automakers with ambitious US electric vehicle programs, such as Volkswagen and Hyundai, continue to favour the rival standard, known as the combined charging system CCS.
Eichberger said a Tesla CEO's charging system could raise antitrust concerns, adding that it is not yet clear how far Tesla's CEO will go in sharing a technology that had until recently been proprietary.
If we gravitate towards one default charging source, then it needs to be an open-source technology, he said.