Seven automakers vow to improve the US’ lousy public EV charging network

The current state of public EV charging in the United States is, if we’re being nice, less than ideal. According to the US Department of Energy, there is currently one public DC fast charger for every 72 EVs on the road, which is a pretty crummy statistic. Now take into account the fact that a lot of these chargers are often offline or inoperable and… yeah. Not great.

But now, seven major car companies are pledging to help fix this problem. This week, a joint venture was announced between BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz Group, and Stellantis (you know, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, etc.), with the goal of installing at least 30,000 new public charging stations across North America. That means the US and Canada will benefit from this program.

“The joint venture aims to become the leading network of reliable high-powered charging stations in North America,” the companies said in a combined statement. Them’s fightin’ words for Tesla and its network of Superchargers.

These public stations will be open to all EV drivers, with plugs designed for both Combined Charging System (CCS) and North American Charging Standard (NACS) connectors. NACS plugs are the ones Tesla installs on its vehicles, and something many global automakers are quickly working to adopt, as this opens up access to the Big T's huge network of Supercharger stations.

The first public charging stations are expected to open in the summer of 2024, with the United States getting them first (sorry, Canada; you’ll get yours soon). Assuming these chargers prove to be more reliable than the shoddy Electrify America network, this’ll be a mega improvement for EV drivers across the country.