I want to be very clear: this is not my car. An Audi E-tron parked across multiple spots in order to access a Tesla Supercharger. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Earlier this year, I purchased my first electric vehicle, a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S — moonstone gray, moon roof, all-wheel drive. I knew that the car would start losing value as soon as I drove it off the dealer lot — just like the old saying goes. What I didn’t realize was that the whole charging system that my shiny new EV relied on was about to become obsolete.
In May, Ford and Tesla announced a surprise deal in which the Blue Oval would adopt Elon Musk’s charging connector, named the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Tesla’s Supercharger network is widely considered vastly superior to the junky, bug-riddled public charging network in the US. Ford made a strategic decision to throw its lot in with the winners.
