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Aug. 15 (UPI) -- California-based electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker said Tuesday it added its name to the growing list of companies adopting Tesla's charging network. Starting in 2025, the emerging EV company said Fisker owners will be able to use the 12,000 stations operated by Tesla in the North American market.
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Fisker said customers will have to use an adapter, but the inlet for Tesla chargers will be incorporated in its later-model vehicles.
General Motors joined rival carmaker Ford in early June in partnering with Tesla for the charging of electric vehicles. The company will adopt Tesla's connector, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), in future electric vehicles beginning in 2025.
A month later, Mercedes-Benz said its operations in the North American market would tap into charging stations from Tesla to support its range of electric vehicles.
"To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers -- including fast, convenient and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them," said Ola Kallenius, the board chairman at Mercedes.
Tesla, the brainchild of Elon Musk, claims its NACS charging network is the most proven option in the North American market. The NACS "has no moving parts, is half the size, and twice as powerful as Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors," it said.
Later, major automakers, from BMW to Chrysler-Stellantis, announced plans to build a nationwide network of 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030, with the first stations expected to open next summer.
While the new network is expected to have 10 to 20 high-powered DC charging plugs for each of the 30,000 stations, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that 182,000 fast chargers will be needed by 2030 to support more than 30 million electric vehicles, as U.S. electric vehicle sales is expected to exceed 50% of all car sales in the next seven years.
