It works like that, and America is always good at executing that playbook: may the best win, whether it is coming from a government or a private company. In the age of Rockefeller, his Standard Oil’s standards became most of the national standards in the US oil and gas sector. Carnegie executed a similar playbook in the steel sector. Simply, where the idea comes from does not matter, what matters is the quality and adoption by markets.
We’re seeing that right in the electric vehicle industry as the sector converges on Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for charging EV vehicles. Rivian, a small rival EV car company, just joined the network. Other traditional companies like GM and Ford are already on board. And just like that, the world’s finest car company, Tesla, has a new revenue source: charging network and making it available to competitors.
Tesla’s charging network continues to gain ground. Rivian has become the latest electric vehicle maker to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard. The move — which follows similar announcements from Ford and General Motors earlier this year — will allow Rivian owners to access the Tesla Supercharger network starting in 2024. NACS “is rapidly becoming the industry standard,” Bloomberg notes, and not only boosts Rivian’s appeal, but helps Tesla cement a revenue stream selling power to EV drivers other than Tesla owners.
Tesla opened up its formerly proprietary charging network in November, in part to qualify for federal funding earmarked for EV charging infrastructure. Hyundai is also weighing NACS adoption, Reuters reports.
Tesla is taxing the world of automakers by selling some carbon credits (that enable most to keep making hydrocarbon-powered cars) and now charging networks. Of course, those car brands will happily come along since where to charge an EV is one of the core factors people consider when buying one. Many do not have many charging locations and customers avoid those brands. If Tesla can help fix that friction, they will be happy to tell their customers to check the next Tesla charging location.
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May the best Win! Every nation needs to learn this.
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Comment 1: True capitalists want to make money but they really also want to make a difference. They want to solve problems and make things better. Most of the men who built America like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford etc are typical examples. They have faults but they seem to have done way more good than evil. They build quality products, lower prices and cumulatively give way more to society than they take. Africa needs people like these and not people who just look for ways to reap off the public through false capitalism and pretentious entrepreneurship.
And talking about Elon and Telsa, at the core, he is more focused on doing good even as he does well financially. Have followed him since circa 2011 and while he may not be a saint on many levels, I think he is overall more of a blessing to humanity
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It’s a reward for innovation, on Tesla’s side. Then from economic and customer experience standpoint, it makes sense to have a convergence on charging standard, since it’s a common denominator for all EVs.
In a way, Tesla has managed to fuse together what the trio of Samsung (chips), Google (Android) and Apple collectively do in the smartphone marketplace, Tesla is replicating same in the automobile sector.
The key lesson here should focus on big picture visioning and understanding of how to launch a concerted assault on complex problems, without getting distracted with who makes more money. If you think about products and markets in the wrong way, you end up not being able to solve any fundamental problems, and transformation will remain elusive.
Never take a rest when you should be working…