DETROIT – General Motors CEO Mary Barra said a charging deal with Tesla announced Thursday will save the automaker up to $400 million of a planned investment in building out EV charging in the U.S. and Canada.
GM said in October 2021 it planned to spend $750 million on electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the two countries. That includes home, workplace and public charging throughout the U.S. and Canada, GM said at the time.
“We think we can save up to $400 million in the original three-quarter of a billion dollars that we allocated to this, because we’ve been able to do it faster and more effectively,” Barra said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on “Fast Money.” “We’re really looking for ways that we can be more capital efficient, as we go forward.”
Barra, in response to a question about licensing other Tesla technologies, said the Detroit automaker is “going to always look for ways to be more capital efficient” and “if there’s other opportunities to partner, you know, we’re going to be very open to them.”
The deal between GM and Tesla will grant GM EV owners access to more than 12,000 of Tesla’s fast chargers, starting next year, using an adapter. It will also include GM adopting Tesla’s charging port instead of a current industry standard.
GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra addresses investors Oct. 6, 2021 at the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.
Photo by Steve Fecht for General Motors
The GM deal follows crosstown rival Ford Motor announcing a similar deal with Tesla. The CEOs of both Detroit automakers announced the deals alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.
Wall Street analysts hailed the Tesla-Ford deal as a “win-win” when that deal was announced last month.
Both GM and Tesla stocks were up more than 3% during afterhours trading Thursday.
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