The Ford deal was a boost to Tesla's more widespread, reliable North American Charging Standard and dented the value of smaller players offering the rival Combined Charging System . Tesla CEO Elon Musk hopes the deal with Ford, the No. 2 seller of EVs in the U.S., will help make Tesla's technology the North American standard.
The Biden administration did not respond to requests for comment, but Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC after the Ford-Tesla deal that the administration was "not going to pick winners and losers in terms of what standard prevails." He added the industry will eventually converge on one system but that adapters would allow cross usage.
The U.S. government previously set aside $7.5 billion in federal funds to push companies to adopt CCS as part of Biden's plan to tackle climate change by converting 50% of all new U.S. vehicle sales to EVs by 2030.