Tesla set for $3 billion boost from chargers at rivals’ expense

Tesla Inc. stands to earn as much as $3 billion by 2030 thanks to deals with Ford Motor Co. and General Motors for their electric vehicles to use its charging network, according to Piper Sandler & Co.

The Elon Musk-led EV company announced the latest deal Thursday in a Twitter Spaces audio chat alongside GM CEO Mary Barra. It was Barra’s first appearance on the social media site since Musk completed his purchase of Twitter late last year. Ford CEO Jim Farley announced its deal with Tesla in a similar arrangement in May.

The deals, which now make Tesla’s charging model the standard in the U.S. among the largest American automakers, will pressure competitors to ditch the primary competing standard, known as CCS.

“Other brands will be forced to join this consortium, effectively establishing Tesla’s ‘North American Charging Standard’ as the preferred approach for EV charging — at least in the United States,” Piper Sandler analyst Alex Potter said in a research note Friday.

Details on revenue were not released by the companies, but Piper Sandler estimates that Tesla could add upwards of $3 billion in charging revenue from non-Tesla owners alone by 2030 and $5.4 billion by 2032. 

Shares of Tesla were up 5.4 percent at 11:25 a.m. in New York on Friday. GM also traded up 1.8 percent. 

That charging windfall may not seem huge for Tesla, which already boasts revenue in excess of $80 billion a year, but Tesla’s U.S. competitors are all racing to catch up in the EV race, and it could affect their margins while Tesla brings in income from their customers. GM and Ford both say their EV programs aren’t profitable and won’t be for at least another year.

Adding charging revenue will only help Tesla in the same way that it brought in billions selling zero-emission regulatory credits to legacy automakers over the past decade. Those credit sales helped fund the company’s surge in recent years.

Competing charging companies fell on the news of Tesla’s deal with GM. EVgo Inc., which had recently joined a partnership with GM to build charging stations, fell 16.8 percent at 11:28 a.m. in New York. ChargePoint Holdings Inc. also declined 12.3 percent.