Bromance may be a bridge too far, but President Joe Biden and Tesla honcho Elon Musk have been working on their relationship. And electric vehicle drivers stand to reap the benefits. The Biden administration announced today that Tesla will open up its deluxe charging network to other automakers’ electric models, in a move that could instantly boost the nation’s electric vehicle infrastructure, writes POLITICO’s E&E News reporter David Ferris and POLITICO’s James Bikales. Tesla’s Superchargers are prolific, powerful and more reliable than other offerings. The EV giant will also triple the size of its existing network, the White House said. That level of cooperation is a departure from the last few years, which were filled with Twitter attacks (on Musk’s part) and the silent treatment (on Biden’s end). In 2021, when Biden announced his goal that half of all new vehicle sales would be electric by decade’s end, the nation’s largest electric vehicle maker was conspicuously absent. Largely at issue was a proposed provision (that ultimately failed) in Biden’s $369 billion climate law that would have rewarded automakers whose workforce was unionized. Musk, who is famously anti-union, called the proposal discriminatory and said “it might be better” if Biden’s landmark climate law failed altogether. “I’m literally saying get rid of all subsidies,” Musk said. But the billionaire Tesla founder has historically welcomed government subsidies. Before Tesla went public in 2010, it received a $465 million loan from the Energy Department, for example. And one of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, has received millions of dollars in federal and state subsidies over the years — plus billions of dollars in government contracts. With today's announcement, it looks like Musk is ready to reacquaint Tesla with the government’s pocketbook. Opening its network to the general public puts Tesla in an excellent position to win billions of dollars in government infrastructure funding. Still, the road ahead is not exactly paved. Part of the reason Tesla’s Superchargers are so reliable is that the same company makes the cars and the ports. It’s an open question how well Tesla can accommodate other automakers’ models. Plus, a big part of Tesla’s brand is exclusivity. Some Tesla owners may bristle at sharing with the new kids on the block.
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